#i want to abolish java

[gh-woah-st-v1]

girl why does coding have to make absolutely no fucking sense

[richmeganews]

Indonesian Kids Keep Getting 'Possessed by Spirits' During High School Exams

This article originally appeared on VICE Indonesia.

By the time Fachruzio Alfarisi graduated high school last year, he'd seen a lot. There's nothing more memorable, however, than seeing six of his classmates collapse on the ground, sob uncontrollably, and shout at the top of their lungs. Fachruzio knew immediately what was going on: His friends were possessed by an evil spirit.

Students being possessed is strangely a common occurrence in Indonesia. It happens everywhere from bigger cities like Jakarta, Bandung, and Yogyakarta, to small towns like Lingga, Payakumbuh, and Malili. These incidents get in the way of school activities, sometimes to the point where students are told to stay home instead. At-school possessions usually happen to only one to a handful of students at a time, but there have been instances where hundreds of students were allegedly overcome by evil spirits at once. Often, school officials respond by inviting a cleric to conduct exorcisms.

That day, Fachruzio helped carry his possessed friends to the school’s mosque. After they regained consciousness, Fachruzio returned to class but began to feel a strange sensation all over his body. At this point, he was convinced he should do nothing but read verses from the Holy Qur’an.

“I told my friends that I was being possessed too, but no one believed me, probably because I looked really calm," he told VICE. "After that, I called my mom and had her read me the Kursi verse, because it was really hard for me to read it myself at the time.”

Soon after, he said that he lost consciousness. According to his friends, Fachruzio was shrieking and writhing for a half hour, until he finally calmed down and opened his eyes.

Fachruzio said many believed that the incident that day was caused by a ghost from a nearby university who had also possessed female students from the high school at a dance competition a few days earlier. But psychologists think there's another force at play here: stress-inducing standardized tests.

When psychologists from the University of Indonesia conducted a study in 2007 on a high school in Bandar Lampung where four students had been possessed, they found that each of the students had experienced varying degrees of anxiety and depression at the time of the incident. To the experts, the students' mental health condition was probably a more likely explanation to why the students fell into a hysteria.

Siswanto, a psychology professor at Soegijapranata Catholic University in Central Java, came to the same conclusion after years studying mass hysteria cases in Indonesian schools. He said that what Indonesians call a demonic possession is really a symptom of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), as outlined in the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases 11.

“In areas with a strong religious influence and a strong belief in the supernatural, possessions are understood to be caused by external factors like spirits,” he told VICE.

So why does this happen so often in schools? Siswanto said the timing and the victims of these incidents offer a clue. So-called possessions usually happen to final year students in high schools between September and February—the six-month period before the exams that take place in March.

The exam season is a highly stressful time for students because failing the tests means having to stay in school another year to retake them. Each year, the pressure from these tests are so high that last year some students even wrote, on the comment section of the Ministry of Education and Culture's Instagram account, that the tests made them want to die. Though incidents of possessions can happen anywhere and to anyone, Siswanto said that middle and high school students face an enormous pressure during their senior year because the country's education system relies heavily on students' test scores.

“With students, becoming possessed can be a reaction to the harsh environment,” Siswanto told VICE. “Remember the time when the national exams was the sole determining factor of graduation? Each district put pressure on teachers, who put pressure on students. They were forced to study every day. They were all stressed out. They faced more pressure at home, too, so they didn't have anywhere to channel their stress."

The terror of national exams nearly ended in 2015, when former Minister of Education and Culture Anies Baswedan, who is now Jakarta's governor, ruled that passing the exams were no longer the only graduation requirement. When Muhadjir Effendy replaced Baswedan as minister in 2016, the exams were almost cut entirely. But the plan was canceled because the government was afraid that students wouldn't be motivated to study if the national exams were abolished.

Judging from how rampant these incidents of possessions are in Indonesian schools, it seems like what the students need are not mass prayers before an exam, or exorcists on stand by. But unless the government comes up with new, less-stressful ways to test students, there will always be stories just like Fachruzio's.

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[valiantchildstudentme-blog]

Indonesian President Jokowi's running mate: A Muslim cleric once seen as a hardliner

New Post has been published on http://gampangqq.link/indonesian-president-jokowis-running-mate-a-muslim-cleric-once-seen-as-a-hardliner/

Indonesian President Jokowi's running mate: A Muslim cleric once seen as a hardliner

KUALA LUMPUR: Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s choice of a conservative Muslim cleric as his running mate took many by surprise, but it underscored his determination to counter accusations of him being anti-Islam in the world’s most populous Muslim nation.

By picking influential Islamic scholar Ma’ruf Amin, Widodo, also known as Jokowi, blunted the campaign against him, boosting his chances of being re-elected.

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“Ma’ruf biggest contribution is to ease the attacks of identity politics against Jokowi, make things safer for him,” said Burhanuddin Muhtadi, executive director of pollster Indonesian Political Indicator.

Jokowi and the 75-year-old Ma’ruf will face former special forces commander Prabowo Subianto of Gerindra party and his running mate, entrepreneur Sandiaga Uno, in the April 2019 presidential election.

“It is a smart move by Jokowi. Ma’ruf is too old to be ambitious. Non-interference is valuable. No big business (background) is priceless,” said former Environment Minister Sarwono Kusumaatmadja.

WHO IS MA’RUF AMIN?

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Ma’ruf is one of Indonesia’s most influential and highly-recognisable Muslim clerics today.

He is the spiritual leader of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), which claims to have 80 million followers and is the largest Muslim organisation in Indonesia and in the world.

NU is known as Indonesia’s face of moderate Islam.

Ma’ruf also heads the influential Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), a semi-official government body which issues fatwas for the Muslim community.

His Islamic credentials are impeccable – he is a descendant of Abu Abdul Mu’ti Muhammad Nawawi, a prominent West Java Islamic cleric who was imam at the Al-Haram Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

Within NU, Ma’ruf is seen as a conservative figure compared to many of the organisation’s senior clerics who are known for their inclusiveness, defence of minority rights and promotion of interfaith dialogue.

MA’RUF HAS A HISTORY OF DISCRIMINATING MINORITIES: HRW

He has issued fatwas against minorities, including banning the Ahmadiyahs, a Muslim minority sect.

In the past 13 years, Ahmadiyahs have been attacked, killed by mobs and had their homes razed to the ground by extremists, including the radical Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) .

Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Ma’ruf as having played a pivotal role in “fuelling worsening discrimination against the country’s religious and gender minorities”, in a statement posted on its website on Friday night (Aug 10).

“Over the past two decades at the MUI, Amin has helped draft and been a vocal supporter of fatwas, or religious edicts, against the rights of religious minorities, including the country’s Ahmadiyah and Shia communities, as well as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people,” said HRW.

“Amin has been central to some of the most intolerant elements of Indonesian contemporary religious and political culture, so fear of the negative impact he could have on the rights and safety of religious and gender minorities is well founded,” said Phelim Kine, HRW’s deputy director of Asia division.

MA’RUF MORE MODERATE IN PAST TWO-AND-A-HALF YEARS: MUSLIM SCHOLAR

Ahmad Suaedy, a senior researcher at the Wahid Foundation, an organisation founded by the late former president Abdurrahman Wahid that advocates moderate Islam, traces Ma’ruf’s conservatism to the period prior to 2010, when MUI was filled with many hardliners.

“Ma’ruf has been with NU since he was a child. But his career was largely spent in MUI where he interacted with Muslim organisations (whose members) were radicals and hardliners,” Suaedy, who is also an NU member, told Channel NewsAsia.

MUI’s members included the hardline Hizbut Tahrir which advocates abolishing Indonesia’s democratic system of government and replacing it with an Islamic State, Suaedy said.

Hizbut Tahrir was banned by the government last year.

“Since 2010, such hardline groups are not in MUI anymore ,” said Suaedy.

In 2015, Ma’ruf became the spiritual leader of NU and he has been spending more time in the organisation, which moderated his outlook, according to Suaedy.

“Yes, he has a history of being a hardliner but in the past two-and-a-half years, he has not issued fatwas against groups like Ahmadiyahs and others,” said Suaedy.

In 2016, Jokowi was shaken when hardline Muslim groups took to the streets in large numbers to protest against and ultimately defeat his ally Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, also known as “Ahok”, when he stood for re-elections as Jakarta governor.

Following Ahok’s defeat, Jokowi sought to forge closer ties with Ma’ruf and steered his attention towards working to redistribute wealth to close the gap between the rich and the poor, according to Suaedy.

Suaedy said Jokowi has given out concessions on thousands of hectares of land to farmers and people from low-income families. He also extended cheap credit to the needy.

“As such, Ma’ruf in the past two years is far more interested in redistributing wealth and eradicating poverty. I believe this is what he will sought to do as a vice president,” said Suaedy.

“Having said that, it may be more difficult for Jokowi to protect minorities because of Ma’ruf’s history,” he added.

ATTACKS ON JOKOWI’S MUSLIM CREDENTIALS PRESSURED HIM TO PICK MA’RUF

To understand Jokowi’s choice of Ma’ruf as running mate, one only needs to tune in to cyberspace to see the relentless onslaught against the president’s religiosity.

Videos accusing Jokowi of being anti-Muslim or a closet Christian are widely circulated on Twitter, WhatsApp and Facebook.

The most recent one features prominent Indonesian Chinese Muslim preacher Felix Siauw driving a car and telling a passenger that Jokowi’s government “is not a friend” of Islam.

“… all of us need to understand the current regime is not a friend to Islam, does not side with Islam. What we want in 2019 is to replace all of it – replace the regime and also replace the entire system,” says Siauw, who has 2.3 million Instagram followers, in the video.

Muslim activist Alissa Wahid, daughter of the late former president Abdurrahman, told Channel NewsAsia that such a narrative creates fear among Muslims in Indonesian society.

“Society is afraid of the narrative that ‘this regime is anti-Islam’,” said Alissa, who is the director of Gusdurian Network Indonesia (GNI), a group that promotes interfaith dialogue, democracy and human rights.

“The mainstreaming of religious exclusivism that has been taking place for the last 40 years has turned (Indonesia) into a fertile ground to use religious sentiment as a hate spinner.”

“People will be swayed as to ‘who is more Islamic’, or to avoid ‘who is anti-Islam’,” added Alissa.

While Jokowi may have staved off the anti-Islam narrative for now, he still faces a battle on the economic front.

“One of the biggest challenges facing Jokowi is the high oil prices, weak rupiah versus the US dollar – all these can disrupt Jokowi’s development efforts,” said pollster Saiful Mujani of Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting (SMRC).

Jokowi’s rivals are now expected to attack him on economic issues.

“The issue of foreign debt, social inequality, infrastructure projects which are seen as only benefiting the middle class and above – these are the main issues which will be used (to attack Jokowi),” said Indonesian Political Indicator’s Burhanuddin.

JOKOWI-MA’RUF PAIRING ALIENATES SOME OF HIS SUPPORTERS

Some Indonesians took to Twitter to express their shock at a Jokowi-Ma’ruf pairing, saying they will abstain from voting in 2019.

“Today I declare I #Golput. #2019Golput is halal,” tweeted @SpionaseNKRI.

Golput means to abstain from voting.

“Come on friends #Golput2019 as a form of protest to punish those who use identity politics in the presidential polls,” tweeted @bangsawarior55.

One analyst warned that Jokowi’s pairing with a conservative figure carries the risk of having his reform agenda compromised.

“This is a bold move by Jokowi. It effectively closes off the risk of him being wedged by an Islamist populist campaign against him,” said Greg Barton, Professor and Chair of Global Islamic Politics, Deakin University.

“It is not, however, without risk. Nevertheless, if they choose to continue to take a populist Islamist line, they might succeed in driving Jokowi so far to the right that he struggles to maintain his reformist credentials.”

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[icrookedjellyfishcollection-blog]

Indonesia - Journey Suggestions for a Problem Value-free of charge Trip - 534989

Indonesia, with no a question, is 1 of the most intriguing nations around the world in SE Asia. From the jungles and lakes of Sumatra, to the cultural coronary heart of the country, Java, onward to Bali, Flores, Sulawesi, West Papua, Ambon, the Banda Islands, and West Papua - every single action is a single of discovery. Allow me supply you with a few guidelines which ought to make navigating this amazingly varied nation, Indonesia. Cultural Sensitivity Indonesia is the greatest Moslem region in the entire world. Even though Islam is the state faith, there are parts of the region the place other religions are prevalent. Northern Sulawesi is ninety% Christian, the Balinese are predominantly Hindu, and in the Malukus and Flores Moslems and Christians stay side by aspect - typically peacefully. When going to areas of worship, no matter whether it truly is a mosque, a temple or a church, you should make sure that you are conservatively dressed. You are able to invest short while studying our site to obtain more data associated with go here. And details about go could be read in our website. Read recent specifics regarding go in our own site.Remember to take of your shoes before moving into a mosque or a temple. Girls must wear tops with longish sleeves, skirts which go under the knee, or loose fitting, lengthy pants. As much as apparel in general is anxious, please do not just take Kuta as getting normal for the rest of the nation. If you go out to a cafe (other than in Kuta) or if you are invited to go to an Indonesian home, intelligent - relaxed clothing is fantastic. Local individuals truly appreciate it if you can use a few words of Bahasa Indonesia, the language which binds Indonesia, and crosses geographical and cultural variety in this huge archipelago. Visa Regulation To enter Indonesia your passport demands to be valid for at minimum yet another six months from your day of entry. Immigration officials are on the appear out for passports which have considerably less validity and are within their legal rights to deny you entry into Indonesia. 7 working day Visa on Arrival was abolished in January 2010 thirty day Visa on Arrival At the time of composing the value for a thirty working day Visa on Arrival for Indonesia is US$twenty five, which you ought to shell out in US$ cash, with unmarked, cleanse lender notes which had been issued soon after 2001. Considering that January 2010 this visa can be prolonged as soon as, by thirty times, although here in Indonesia. To be totally frank, the procedure is a hassle, and if you believe you may possibly be shelling out a lot more than thirty days in Indonesia, get a 60 working day Vacationer visa just before getting into Indonesia. 60 working day Vacationer Visa You need to have to obtain the sixty day Tourist visa prior to entering Indonesia. The very good news is that since January 2010 this visa can be extended in Indonesia. If you intend to travel to West Papua Province, or you are arranging on extending your sixty working day visa, you should have four-6 spare passport photos with you. For more info about visa rules check out out the web site of your nearest Indonesian Embassy or Consulate. Funds The neighborhood forex is the Indonesian Rupiah (IDR). It is usually a excellent notion to carry some small banknotes (Rp a thousand, 2000, 5000) with you when purchasing in nearby retailers (toko) or arranging to eat at a warung (little regional cafe or food stall). The simplest way of handling money is by utilizing a credit or debit card to withdraw money from ATMs, which are just about every single where, other than in some genuinely out of the way spots. If you intend to journey to, or continue to be for any size of time off the crushed observe, you are heading to need to have to carry sufficient Indonesian money with you to pay for accommodation, food and transport. You should never rely on getting ready to exchange foreign currency. With the introduction of ATMs, Tourists cheques have fairly considerably gone out of vogue. Wellness By considerably the most significant risk to tourist's wellness are dehydration and sunburn. Please try out to drink at minimum two litres of water for each working day. Espresso, tea, beer, juice and other fluids genuinely never rely. Indonesia is in the tropics, and you'll most likely be investing really a great deal of time out of doorways, so protect oneself and use a good high quality sunlight block, as properly as putting on a hat. In Bali there is at the moment a problem with rabies spread by ill puppies. If you are scratched or bitten by a puppy, you need to have to get medical treatment as speedily as achievable. Water - even neighborhood people consume bottled drinking water! It truly is low-cost, so will not just take any dangers. Alcoholic beverages - there is some questionable Arak currently being bought in Bali, and there have been additional fatalities this yr due to the fact of it. Sexual intercourse is entertaining, but you should make confident that condoms are utilised ought to you have a near encounter of a (very) private kind during your remain in Indonesia. All types of STDs, which includes HIV/AIDS are widespread, so remember to get safeguards. Drugs Medication should be an absolute no-no. Never even think about bringing any drugs into Indonesia, due to the fact chances are that you'll end up in jail. Never be tempted to get any medication whilst you are in Indonesia. If you invest any duration of time about Kuta, Legian, or Seminyak, you will probably be offered some - you should say no. You could very nicely be dealing with a law enforcement informant - which means that you wont be employing your return ticket home! Personal Security Remember to will not enable sensationalist media reporting set you off from going to Indonesia. For travelers Indonesia is as safe as other international locations. As things are right now, sadly, any public place in the world could be - the mistaken location at the improper time. To stay away from becoming the target of petty crime, just never demonstrate off expensive customer electronics, cameras or jewelry in general public. I have been checking out Indonesia, and other areas of South East Asia because the mid seventies, and I have in no way had a dilemma with theft or bag snatching. Indeed it can occur, so be mindful, but do not get paranoid about it. Will not turn out to be a digital traveler in your own lounge area, obtaining second hand encounters by seeing vacation shows on tv - get out there and encounter the magic 1st hand. Packing Checklist Get a packet of zip-lock luggage at the nearest supermarket. They are important if you like snacking, and you want to preserve ants and cockroaches out of your room/mattress/backpack. I always have heaps of them with me Consider rest room paper, and cleaning soap, as these are NOT offered in funds accommodation. Rather of carrying soap and hair shampoo, I are likely to use shower gel which is also Okay to clean your hair with. With electronic cameras often getting extremely specific batteries, don't fail to remember the charger which arrived with your digital camera Consider a torch (flash light), as energy interruptions are not abnormal. Also footpath, if they exist, are infamous for getting uneven, and typically obtaining huge holes in them. So if you wander around after dim, and you don't want to end up breaking some bones, get a single with you. Just take a few of sarongs, as very usually beds only have a base sheet, and you may well like to protect up during the night. Mosquito coils, or spray, and/or individual insect repellent is anything you should certainly not neglect. Keep in mind to have bottled water in your space, you can NOT consume the tap water. I use tap h2o to brush my tooth, but if you have a sensitive belly, I would advise that you use bottled h2o for that as effectively. before Ideally the earlier mentioned suggestions assist you in obtaining a wonderful time in Indonesia. Just 1 other thing - if at all attainable bring rechargeable batteries and an acceptable charger, or a spare battery and charger for your specific digital camera. There is no protected means of disposing of used batteries in this place, which produces environmental and health hazards. Come on more than and have a look around, but be warned going to Indonesia is a well being hazard - it really is addictive!

[shaquanm]

Paper 1:

The part in the white devil that I am finding most interesting was the fact that the economy was declining, and people were dying of illnesses. Killers were murdering people without consequences, yet higher authority wanted to commemorate the landing of Columbus in America. This puzzled me because Columbus is being celebrated for leading a civilization in America, in which is full of crime, violence and poverty. At this time, the English, who have settled and capitalized in America is nothing more than blood sucking vampires, feeding on the land and the people (including their own). The exhibits that catch my attention are The Eskimo Village,  Penobscot Indians, The Chinese Theater, The South Sea Islanders, Java’s Quaint, The Aztecs. I would love to add the Slave Trade, and when it was abolished. The connection that I can make between other books and topics is that: where there is physical power, there is greed and darkness, and where there is poverty and suffering, there is creativity and strength.

THE ESKIMO VILLAGE - In the fall of 1892, there arrived at Chicago a colony of Esquimaux, taken from a point as far south in Labrador as Esquimaux could be found, and labeled as denizens of a land as far north as could be reached. But southerners as they might be, in Labrador, it was feared they would do ill in Chicago, where great heats prevail in July; hence a whole winter was allowed to them for acclimatization. In order to give them a supposed advantage, the colonists were admitted to Jackson Park proper, where they were allowed to build a stockage and charge an admission fee. No sooner did summer appear than dissensions arose; the fur coats were thrown aside, whereas the public desired to see the customary habiliments of the North, and at last ten of the twelve tribes set up a kingdom elsewhere, claiming that they had been deceived by the contractor who had taken them from home. Our picture shows the nearly deserted settlement as it appeared after the revolt, and the northmen at the game they constantly played with "black snake" whips. One of the semi-spherical huts may be seen at the left of the native on our left, and the meager attendance of visitors is representative of the small patronage that rewarded their exhibition. Had the Esquimaux settled on Midway Plaisance and held together, their remarkable ethnological character would have received earnest public attention. 

PENOBSCOT INDIANS - The engraving represents the exhibit of four familes of Penobscot Indians, living in their birch-bark wigwams, near the Ethnological Building, under the care of Mr. H. E. Hunt, Indian agent at Oldtown, Maine. These Indians had birch-bark canoes which they paddled in the waters of the Exposition, particularly on the South Pond, near by. The birch-bark hut, on the left, was one of several belonging to the living representatives of the Iroquois who lived in Jackson Park all summer as part of New York State's exhibit. They also had bark canoes and dug-outs on the South Pond. The presence of these red men, with many others, gave to the directors of amusements an opportunity to secure impersonations of aborigines on the floats at night, and red men multiplied prodigiously after dark on festive occasions. The good behavior of these first families of North America during their residence in Chicago was the subject of universal remark, and it was learned by the whites that they have not yet secured the self-control and sense of equity which the Indians displayed on all great days. The ticket-takers averred that the Indians were best fitted to be in an assemblage like that of Chicago day, when seven hundred and fifty-one thousand people were present. To classify the American Indians, and understand them ethnologically seems a hopeless task to the layman, but those who may be interested in the Penobscots will find an article by L. Sabine, in the Christian Examiner, volume 62, pages 27 and 210. An article entitled "Ancient Penobscot, or Panawanskek," is in the Historical Magazine, volume 21, page 85.

THE CHINESE THEATRE - Although a considerable distance from the western gate, this structure was the most noticeable object on the north side of Midway Plaisance, going in. Its color was blue, its trimmings were reddish, and its architecture was too open and too evidently ornamental to please the Western taste. The Wah Mee Exposition Company was organized by a Chinaman named Sling, who came from Ogden, Utah. The fact that Chicago carpenters built this temple may account for the somewhat angular appearance of the principal towers, and the early bankruptcy of the Wah Mee Company suggested either the prejudice of Americans against the Chinese, or their lack of the qualities of entertainment. As the Receiver continued in business, it is probable that the patronage of the last months of the Fair was more satisfactory. A large troupe of actors played a drama called "A God in Heaven," with Joss and other idols on the stage. Men impersonated female parts, as in the early days of our own drama. A perfectly hideous noise made on a great brazen gong rendered the stay of a Caucasian terrible in these precincts, and probably ruined the commercial prospects of the enterprise. In the bazaar, entrance to which was free, a very wise Chinaman, with huge and mirth-provoking spectacles, told fortunes to an admiring circle of men, women and children. The wise man had an interpreter, who read and explained the prophetic writings.

THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDERS - Opposite the Javanese Settlement, at Madison avenue, on Midway Plaisance, was the rude theatre and village of the Samoan and Wallis Islanders, and these were the best physical specimens of manhood offered by the World's Fair. The engraving shows five of the men seated for a song. Their Kava-house is in the background. The Samoans were the most industrious entertainers on the Plaisance. On a high platform overlooking the street were two hollow logs. Two men usually belabored these logs in the name of music, and as there was much rhythm and some variation of sound, this music, like that of the Turks, would soon take possession of the mind. Forming in single procession, the villagers would march out of their front gate and by semi-circle into their theatre, enticing a dozen, a score, or a hundred of followers at a fee of twenty-five cents. This march would be repeated while the audience waited, and when a sufficient "house" was obtained the four dances and songs which comprised the programme would be given with ardor and realistic effect. The engraving shows their costume. Their skins were of a bright yellow, well oiled. They were not Kanaks, and were superior in all ways to that great but unhappy tribe of men. There were four women and a little girl, who were dressed in the latest American fashion. The dances were quite remarkable, showing unity, skill, and ingenuity. 

  JAVA'S QUAINT EXHIBIT - The exhibit which is portrayed in the engraving was placed in the east gallery of the Agricultural Building, and it was by covering a window and creating this artistic typanum that the picturesque effect was produced. While it might be thought that this was an out-of-the-way nook, and that few would care to note the quaint and modest display of the humble Javanese, still enough millions came that way to entirely destroy the matting, which, as may be seen in the picture, was beginning to give away when this scene was perpetuated by the camera. On the central show case was the model of a Javanese bridge, made after the fashion of Javanese engineering without nails, screws or mortises, but by merely lashing the timbers together. Here the principles of the truss and arch are demonstrated. The Japanese operate in a similar way. The show case contained bunches of grass and tea, for the Javanese, like the people of Ceylon, while famous as coffee makers, are most desirous to secure some of the tea trade which China and Japan enjoy. The glass jars contained samples of tea or coffee in the leaf or berry. The scene in the center of the tympanum is an English painting of a Javanese landscape, while the low estate of native art may be noted in the rude carvings and paintings which are seen at the sides. THE AZTECS - Between the Scenic Theatre and the Illinois Central Railroad viaduct, on the north side of Midway Plaisance, during the last sixty days of the Fair, a band of Mexican Indians was settled behind the structure which is here portrayed, and for the sum of ten cents the visitor might enter. The sign reads: "The Aztec's Village. Alive and on exhibition here. Original home-life and industries. Weavers and metal workers; sports, pastimes and ceremonies; singing and dancing." The people in the photograph are going westward, and the entertainment is not open. It was never a successful enterprise, following, in this respect, the history of other far Southwestern exhibitors that have come to Chicago. Lieutenant Schwatka's Cliff-Dwellers, the original Moquis, utterly failed to arouse either scientific or lay attention, when shown in the Owings Building, several years ago, and the poor creatures endured extraordinary privations before they reached their own country again. There was some doubt, too, in the public mind as to the genuineness of the Midway Aztecs. Their serapes were said to have been made in Germany. Their booths were filled with trinkets, however, and if general knowledge of Mexican aborigines had been greater, a good trade might have gone on, for the Midway was crowded. There are so many different tribes of Indians in Mexico that only such scholars as Prof. Powell can even name them.

[skwyd]

Things That I Believe

A blogger that I read from time to time posted a blog a while ago wherein he posted a list of "surprising things" that he believed. He posted an update recently indicating two things that have changed for him. This inspired me to do something similar.

So, to that end, here's a list of things that I believe, that I didn't always.

But before I post it, keep in mind that these are ideals I hold right now. And they are subject to discussion and change. And, as always, I hope to invite discussion, not arguments about anything I post. I'm not a professional writer, just some person with a lot of thoughts. Also keep in mind that I don’t believe that any person’s views or ideals can be summed up in a short sentence that would fit on a bumper sticker. All of these things necessarily include a “but also...” on the end. The point of this is to scrape the surface of these things and inspire deeper consideration on all of them

Things That I Believe

1. The concept of equality is poorly defined and even more poorly understood.

2. Capitalism is a poor economic system for a diverse society.

3. Technology will not solve all of the world’s problems.

4. Public schools deserve more attention and funding.

5. Society does not uphold personal accountability enough.

6. There is way too much gratuitous nudity on TV and in movies.

7. Most people don’t understand the concept of a probability distribution.

8. Religions hold outdated modes of thinking.

9. Most movies and TV shows in the past 2 decades are garbage.

10. The idea that the US government is “out to get you” is silly.

11. I can’t stand the sense of forced cheerfulness that happens every year at Christmas.

12. Any individual or organization that uses public facilities (roads, municipal utilities, etc) should be taxed.

13. The current tax system in the US is garbage.

14. Dogs are better pets than cats, but cats are easier to have as pets.

15. There is no such thing as luck.

16. Most people don’t understand what a logical fallacy actually is.

17. The movie Every Which Way But Loose correctly made the distinction between monkeys and chimpanzees.

18. The concept of intellectual property makes no sense.

19. Society puts too much value on things like movies, sports, and personal property and not enough value on things like education, social systems, and promoting artistic expression.

20. I can’t stand it when someone insists that “I knew what they meant”.

21. I don’t understand the alleged value of nationalism.

22. Compartmentalization and over-generalization are the worst ways to try to understand someone or something.

23. The internet in general, and social media in particular, have changed human interaction radically and permanently; and much of it is for the better.

24. It is impossible to know the actual value of something until you actually try it.

25. It is okay to dislike something without having watched/read/experienced it.

I could probably go on and on and on. But I think that’s enough for now. If you chuckled at some of these things, thanks. If you read them and thought, “Hmmmm, that’s interesting.” then I have achieved one of my goals. If you disagreed and wanted to discuss it with me, then by all means, let’s talk about it. And if you became infuriated by my posts, that was absolutely not my intention and perhaps you missed the point.

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Is Android really free software?

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Is Android really free software?

To what extent does Android admire the liberty of its users? For a PC user that values freedom, this is the maximum essential question to ask approximately any software program system.

Android Software

Within the free/libre software movement, we expand software program that respects users’ freedom, so you and we can escape from software that does not. By way of evaluation, the idea of “open supply” specialises in the way to broaden code; it’s miles an extraordinary modern of an idea whose essential fee is code exceptional in preference to freedom.Consequently, the concern right here isn’t always whether Android is “open”, however, whether it lets in customers to be loose. So the question is Linux based software Android Free?

Android is a running gadget typically for cellular telephones, which consists of Linux (Torvalds’s kernel), some libraries, a Java platform and a few packages. Linux aside, the software of Android versions 1 and a pair of turned into broadly speaking evolved Via Google; Google released it beneath the Apache 2.zero license, that’s a tax-free software license without copyleft.

The version of Linux covered in Android isn’t always entirely free software program since it includes non-free “binary blobs” (similar to Torvalds’ model of Linux), some of which can be utilised in some Android devices. Android structures use other non-unfastened firmware, too, and non-unfastened libraries. Apart from the ones, the supply code of Android variations 1 and a couple of, as launched With the aid of Google, is unfastened software – but this code is insufficient to run the tool. Some of the packages that usually come with Android are non-unfastened, too.

Android is very exclusive from the GNU/Linux working device because it carries little or no of GNU. Indeed, pretty much the only component in not unusual between Android and GNU/Linux is Linux, the kernel. People who erroneously assume “Linux” refers to the entire GNU/Linux aggregate get tied in knots using these statistics, and make paradoxical statements along with “Android incorporates Linux, however it is not Linux”. If we avoid beginning from the confusion, the situation is straightforward: Android includes Linux, but now not GNU; Accordingly, Android and GNU/Linux are often exceptional.

(Within Android, Linux the kernel stays a separate program, with its supply code below GNU GPL version 2. To combine Linux with the code below the Apache 2.zero license would be copyright infringement, on account that GPL version 2 and Apache 2.zero are incompatible. Rumours that Google has come what may transform Linux to the Apache license are faulty; Google had no power to change the licence at the code of Linux and did not try. If the authors of Linux allowed its use under GPL model three, then that system could be combined with Apache-licensed code, and the mixture could be released underneath GPL version 3. However, Linux has no longer been released that manner.)

Google has complied with the necessities of the GNU Fashionable Public License for Linux. However, the Apache license on the rest of Android does no longer require supply release. Google has said it would in no way submit the source code of Android 3.0 (Apart from Linux), despite the fact that executables had been launched to the general public. Android three.1 supply code is likewise being withheld. Therefore, Android 3, apart from Linux, is non-free software, pure and straightforward.

android

Google said it withheld the three.Zero source code as it become buggy, and that humans should anticipate the next release. That can be an appropriate recommendation for Those who sincerely want to run the Android system, but the customers ought to be the ones to determine this. Besides, developers and tinkerers who want to consist of some the adjustments of their very own versions ought to use that code simply excellent.

The non-release of versions’ supply code raises concern that Google might intend to turn Android proprietary entirely; that the release of some Android variations as unfastened software program may additionally be a brief ploy to get community help in improving a proprietary software program product. Let us hope does now not happen.

In any case, maximum of the supply code of a few versions of Android has been released as a free software program. Does that suggest that products the use of the ones Android variations admire users’ freedom? No, for numerous reasons. InitiallyWireless, most of them incorporate non-unfastened Google applications for talking to offerings which include YouTube and Google Maps. Those are officially now not a part of Android. However, that doesn’t make the product Good enough. There are also non-free libraries; whether or not they’re part of Android is a moot point. What topics is that various functionalities need them.

Even the executables that are officially part of Android may not correspond to the source code Google releases. Producers may additionally change this code, and often they don’t launch the supply system for his or her variations. The GNU GPL requires them to distribute the code for their versions of Linux if they comply. The rest of the code, under the lax Apache license, does not oblige them to launch the supply version that they virtually use. Replicant, a unfastened version of Android that supports only some phone fashions, has changed lots of those libraries, and you could do without the non-loose apps. However, there are other problems.

Linux

Some device styles are designed to prevent users from installing and the usage of changed software. In that state of affairs, the executables are not loose despite the fact that they had been crafted from sources which might be unfastened and to be had to you. However, a few Android gadgets can be “rooted” so users can set up distinct software program.

Critical firmware or drivers are proprietary also. These manage the phone network radio, Bluetooth, GPS, 3-d pics, the digicam, the speaker, and in some instances the microphone too. On a few models, a few of these drivers are loose, and there are a few that you could do without – but you can not do without the microphone or the smartphone network radio.

The phone network firmware comes pre-installed. If all it did was sit down there and run, we ought to regard it as equal to a circuit. When we insist that the software in a computing tool should be loose, we can neglect pre-established firmware so one can by no means be upgraded, as it makes no distinction between the person that it is an application instead of a circuit.

Lamentably, in this example, it would be a malicious course. Malicious features are unacceptable irrespective of how they may be carried out.

On most Android phones, this firmware has so much manipulated that it may flip the product right into a listening device. On some, it controls the microphone. On some, it can take complete manager of the principle laptop, thru shared reminiscence, and may Thus override or update something free software program you’ve got mounted. With a few models it’s far possible to workout remote manage of this firmware, and As a consequence of the telephone’s laptop, through the phone radio community.

The factor of the free software program is that we’ve control of our computing, and this doesn’t qualify. While any computing system might have bugs; those devices might be bugs. (Craig Murray, in Murder in Samarkand, relates his involvement in an intelligence operation that remotely converted an unsuspecting goal’s non-Android transportable telephone right into a listening device.)

Anyways, the smartphone community firmware in an Android tool is not equivalent to a circuit, because the hardware permits installation of modern variations and that is indeed completed. On account that it is proprietary firmware, in practice simplest the manufacturer could make new changes – customers cannot.

Setting these factors together, we will tolerate non-loose telephone community firmware provided new versions of it may not be loaded, it cannot take manage of the principle computer, and it can best communicate While and because the unfastened running device chooses to allow it talk. In other words, it needs to be equivalent to circuitry, and that wiring needs not to be malicious. There’s no obstacle to constructing an Android telephone which has those traits. However, we do not know of any.

Current press insurance of Android has centred at the patent wars. Throughout 20 years of campaigning for the abolition of software patents, we’ve got warned such conflicts should occur. Software patents should force the removal of capabilities from Android, or maybe make it unavailable. (See endsoftpatents.Org for more statistics about why software patents need to be abolished.)

However, the patent attacks and Google’s responses are not at once relevant to the topic of this text: how Android products approach an ethical device of distribution and how they fall quickly. This issue merits the attention of the click too.

Android is the main step toward an ethical, user-controlled, free-software transportable phone. However, There is an extended manner to go. Hackers are operating on Replicant. However, it is a big job to support a brand new cell phone model, and there remains the trouble of the firmware. Even though the Android phones of these days are significantly less terrible than Apple or Windows smartphones, they can’t be said to appreciate your freedom.

The beyond few weeks haven’t been incredible for Apple. Wireless’s they have been implicated Within the stolen superstar nude photograph catastrophe, which reminded all people how quickly clouds leak. Accurate me if I’m incorrect, but I don’t think the iPhone is marketed as a diabolical time wasting device with the capability to wreak an ugly and devastating invasion of your non-public privateness. They have a tendency to attention greater on all of the green colorations it comes in.