Talking tough, Netanyahu walks cautiously in Gaza conflict

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Just hours after a bomb exploded on a Tel Aviv bus, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to a truce with the very people his government blamed for the blast -- the Islamist Hamas rulers of Gaza.

Wednesday's decision to pull back from the brink of a full-scale invasion of the Gaza Strip despite the attack, which wounded 15 people, belies Netanyahu's international image as an uncompromising, bellicose hardliner.

Indeed, the eight-day campaign against Hamas militants in Gaza was the first major military operation he had ordered after seven years in power -- a remarkable record in a country that has repeatedly gone to war in its 64 year history.

"People don't realize that Netanyahu is trigger unhappy," said Ehud Yaari, an Israel-based fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

"He is very cautious and very restrained. You could see that this past week. He set very well-defined boundaries and was very careful not to go wild," he added.

Opposition politicians were swift to portray this discretion as a failing, hoping that it will cost Netanyahu votes at a January 22 general election, which all opinion polls prior to the Gaza conflict had said he would win.

"The government displayed weakness and hesitancy in implementing its goals and the promise of achieving complete calm for the residents of Israel," said Yair Lapid, a television personality-turned-politician running in the January ballot.

Israeli daily Maariv also stuck the knife in, printing a cartoon showing a glum-looking Netanyahu carrying an object under his arm marked "backbone for rent".

A group of 16 soldiers marked their disdain by writing out "Bibi (is a) Loser", with their bodies and posting the photograph on Facebook. The image went viral and the army is investigating.

Despite the derision, it is unlikely the decision to avoid a potentially bloody land invasion of the densely populated Gaza Strip will cost Netanyahu the forthcoming election.

No opposition leader in the race comes close to Netanyahu in terms of experience or international stature, and Israel's biggest perceived security threat is still far from resolved -- Iran and its contested nuclear program.

IRAN IN FOCUS

Israel and its Western allies believe Iran is seeking to build nuclear weapons. Iran denies this, but Netanyahu says it is an existential issue for Israel and has promised to resolve the matter if he is elected to a third turn in office.

Known universally in Israel by his childhood nickname 'Bibi', Netanyahu has been so focused on Iran that critics at home said he had lost sight of the more immediate problem -- rising rocket fire out of Gaza and into southern Israel.

The Israeli military said Islamist militants had launched more than 700 missiles from Gaza in the first 10 months of the year. With elections looming, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak could not ignore the problem any longer.

The warplanes were sent in, killing Hamas's top military commander in an initial strike and targeting the group's large weapons arsenal thereafter. Some 162 Palestinians, including 37 children, and five Israelis died in the clashes.

"Both Netanyahu and Barak would have preferred not to go on this operation and only did so when the public made clear that enough was enough," said Einat Wilf, who sits on the Israeli parliament's foreign affairs and Defense committee and is a member of Barak's Atzmaut party.

While Barak donned his black bomber jacket and toured the Gaza border lands to see the huge army mobilization being readied for eventual invasion, Netanyahu stayed in his business suit and avoided eye-catching photo calls near the front line.

"This was deliberate. Netanyahu knew this would not end in the crushing defeat of Hamas because that wasn't ever the goal. He wanted to pose as the responsible adult at the top of the pyramid," said Washington Institute analyst Yaari.

INTERNATIONAL TIES

This stance is likely to have helped ease relations with the leaders of both the United States and Egypt.

The Arab Spring that brought an Islamist government to power in Cairo has raised concerns in Israel, which signed a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979.

Netanyahu has had famously testy ties with U.S. President Barack Obama and he was accused by some Democrats of trying to undermine Obama's re-election bid.

Dire predictions in the media that Netanyahu would suffer payback did not materialize during the conflict, with Obama fully endorsing what he called Israel's right to self-Defense.

When Obama later said it was "preferable" to avoid an escalation, Netanyahu swiftly adopted the same language to show there was no daylight between the two leaders.

Likewise, his decision to rule out an invasion prevented a potentially disastrous diplomatic showdown with Cairo. Instead, he has got Egyptian backing as a guarantor of Hamas's ceasefire.

"There was no decisive victory here, said Giora Eiland, a former National Security Adviser. "But the situation was managed in the right way and it was clear that Israel enjoyed certain international support."

His low-key handling of the conflict, peppered by regular meetings with key ministers, showed how Netanyahu has developed into a more consensual leader than in his first term in office from 1996 to 1999, when he lurched from one crisis to another.

"He is a policy wonk. He isn't a natural politician," said one of his close advisers, who declined to be named. "But he has come to realize that you need to listen to people and not just pretend. He has become a much more inclusive leader."

If, as expected, he secures a third term in January at the head of another rightist coalition, Netanyahu will once more push Iran to the top of the international agenda, with Gaza returning to its old position as an annoying irritant.

"If the Iranian threat is not neutralized in some way, then that will determine his legacy more than anything else," said the senior adviser.

(Created by Crispian Balmer)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/talking-tough-netanyahu-walks-cautiously-gaza-conflict-141913625.html

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Is there a rising tide of irrationality?

Link Information - Click to View

Is there a rising tide of irrationality?
Despite claims that pseudoscientific views are on the rise, history shows that belief in things like astrology or the paranormal have always been with us and are likely to remain

Source: TheGuardian
Posted on: Wednesday, Nov 21, 2012, 10:36am
Views: 15

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/125401/Is_there_a_rising_tide_of_irrationality_

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Not Another Brick in the Wall: Capitalism and Student Protests in ...

A few days ago, I visited a high school in a poor urban area in Western Santiago and met with the junior and senior classes to discuss the student movement of 2011 in Chile. ?What were the mobilized youth demanding?? I asked the students in the San Alberto Hurtado School. ?Did they succeed?? The questions were relevant enough to keep the students engaged. They voiced their opinions and argued for a while, beating the somnolence induced by the heat and the preceding lunch. As I left, my thoughts went to Pink Floyd: these kids, many of whom had joined the protest the previous year, did not want to become just another brick in the edifice of a market economy. They wouldn?t have any trouble joining the labour market upon graduation?this was a trade school, after all, where kids were trained in culinary arts and in telecommunications?or after college, for those who would continue into higher education. But they were no longer content to be just a manual or intellectual labourer in the machinery of a capitalist economy.

Why were high school and higher education students protesting in the streets for so long and in such great numbers? After all, the street rallies often involved 100,000 people, week after week, and the strikes went on for so long that thousands of high school students failed to advance and had to repeat grades, and universities had to extend the term well into the summer to prevent their students from losing a whole semester. What could possibly have caused such an indignant reaction? The juniors and seniors of the San Alberto Hurtado School said the students had demanded an educational system of quality for all, not just the affluent, and wanted higher education to be free of tuition fees. They said that the students didn?t like the municipal control of public schools installed during the years of the Pinochet regime, and proposed instead to restore the role of the central government (the national Ministry of Education) in the governance and administration of public schools. The kids also brought up the issue of ?democratization,? or the demand for student participation in school governance, especially critical at the higher education level. They also demanded that public universities had to be appropriately funded so that they could carry out their social mission. But was all this enough to fuel a social movement of such scale?

When it was my turn to weigh in, attempting an explanation of the forces propelling the demonstrations, I reminded the assembly that behind these complaints were two glaring wounds in the Chilean social compact: extreme inequality across social strata, and an educational system that couldn?t be counted upon to provide opportunities for a better life to those disadvantaged by inequality. While economists are in disagreement about the degree of intergenerational social mobility in Chile, the feeling of the people, especially among the youth marching in the streets last year, is that inequality in Chile is not only great, but has been persistent over time, and that our poor-quality, unregulated, underfunded, market-driven educational system is to blame.

Another very important battle cry of the movement evoked during my session at San Alberto Hurtado School was, ?No more profit!? In Chile, private K-12 schools, as well as non-university tertiary institutions, can organize themselves as business corporations. In the case of universities, although the law requires that they be non-profit charities, most, in fact, shirk the law and generate economic surpluses that find their way to the founders of the university and their successors through shell companies. Protesters strongly denounced such arrangements?both the legal and the illegal profiteering?as profoundly misguided, and were clear in their belief that ?education can never be a business.?

In the media, representatives of the striking university students had also articulated their concerns about the subjugation of education to the demands of the economy. The need for universities to seek most of their funding through tuition fees as well as consulting, training, research and development services provided to paying customers was decried as a distortion of the mission of the university, from serving the good of the whole to serving the requirements of those who could pay. The design of curricula based on the demands of labour markets and the transformation of education into job training were similarly offered as examples of what was wrong with higher education in Chile.

While not apparent among the kids I was visiting this time, analysts pointed out that the protests signaled a malaise that extended across the nation and went beyond education to a deep frustration with the characteristics our society has adopted since the neoliberal reforms of the early 1980s. The outcomes are clear: individualistic pursuit of wealth; trust displaced by contracts; blatant materialism and consumerism (even among those who can hardly afford it, leading to stifling debt); spatial segregation of the poor into ghetto-like districts in all major cities while the rich and the upper-middle-class enclose themselves in gated communities; privatized education, pensions, health care. All of this points to an every-man-for-himself society where solidarity, the quest for the common good, and shared responsibility for the well-being of everyone are completely absent.

This discontent explains the protests? singular strength of numbers; the determination of purpose among the students in the face of police repression and the looming prospect of losing the academic year; ample social support of the cause across age groups and social conditions; and wide scope of the demands of the student movement (extending to items such as a constitutional convention and the nationalization of mining resources).

This dimension of the phenomenon was, by the way, what turned the student movement into international news. Chile, its educational woes, and the marching students would not have been of interest were it not for the fact that Chile is the marquee country for successful neoliberal reforms, a full member of the OECD touted by the World Bank and other development agencies as an exemplar of a well-managed economy and sound social policy. It is also a stable democracy with one of the most reliable rule of law environments in the region. For all whose political hearts are located to the left of the current political economy orthodoxy, a stumble in Chile?s seemingly unstoppable trajectory to development by way of neoliberalism is exciting news. In the context of similar mass expressions of rejection of the tenets and outcomes of this orthodoxy, like the indignados in Madrid, or Occupy Wall Street in New York, Chileans could be seen as joining in a world-wide denunciation of global capitalism.

But the expansion of the movement to embrace the different manifestations of this diffuse discontent became its undoing. As the movement gained social support and became a political and communications juggernaut various items in the left?s wish list?at best, only marginally related to education?were added to the agenda. This ultimately eroded the legitimacy of the overall movement to the detriment of its education-related goals. As the movement became a catalyst for all grievances, from education to the environment, the gain in size came at the expense of a loss in focus and in the ability to present a coherent message to society and an actionable set of demands to the government.

The blurring of the education-focused purpose of the movement, joined with other factors to undermine the movement. A collective mode of decision-making bogged down leadership with intractable and opaque internal disputes and made it look radical and unreasonable. The government adopted a clever delaying strategy, betting on natural attrition and the dissolving effect of the end of the academic year, and the change of leadership of most student unions at year?s end(which displaced Camila Vallejo, the enormously charismatic president of the student federation at the University of Chile) to erode momentum. And they were right; all of these factors conspired to wind down the movement and bring it to an end, although scattered, weaker manifestations of it have emerged during 2012 as well.

Now, back to the assembly room in the San Alberto Hurtado School. I had asked them what their opinion was with respect to the degree of success of the student movement. Did it achieve anything? Was it worth the tremendous effort? The students in the assembly room were divided. Some pointed to the increase in student aid, and the easing of the financial conditions for repayment of college loans. I brought up the government?s bill to create a higher education agency responsible for protection of students? rights and the enforcement of the non-profit status of private universities. There was also the initiative to revamp and strengthen accreditation as a means to quality assurance in schools and in higher education, and a new program by the government to invest in the improvement of schools of education in universities.

There was much beyond policy measures that was gained by the installation of education and its problems center stage in the political and policy agendas, in the agenda of the media, and in the consciousness of educators, school administrators, faculty, the teachers? union, and society at large. Typically, the health of an educational system is a matter of great importance to all, but of little urgency for most. Last year?s protests over education highlighted its importance and at the same time turned it into an urgent problem.

Unlike the students in Roger Waters? song, Chilean students need an education. They need good quality universities and colleges, whether they were born amidst privilege or in abject poverty. Perhaps the single-most important outcome of last year?s protests is that now they are aware of this need, they understand why this is a need, and they are prepared to demand it as a right.

Andr?s Bernasconi is a professor of higher education at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. Previously he was Provost at Universidad Andr?s Bello, also in Chile.

Source: http://www.academicmatters.ca/2012/11/not-another-brick-in-the-wall-capitalism-and-student-protests-in-chile/

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New look at Einstein's brain pictures show his genius

Joanna Carver, reporter

The images of Einstein's brain are published in Falk, Lepore & Noe (2012, The cerebral cortex of Albert Einstein: a description and preliminary analysis of unpublished photographs, Brain (DOI: 10.1093/brain/aws295) and are reproduced here with permission from the National Museum of Health and Medicine, Silver Spring, MD.

The mystique surrounding Albert Einstein's brain as the source of his intellectual power seems to only have intensified since his death in 1955 at age 76. You can even poke at his grey matter in an iPad app. When the Nobel Prize-winning physicist, whose special theory of relativity changed the way we look at physics, died of an aneurysm, his son gave permission for his father's brain to be removed and studied.

It was dissected and photographed by pathologist Thomas Harvey, and in 2010 14 of his photos were rediscovered when they were donated to the National Museum of Health and Medicine. According to a study published last week in the neurology journal Brain, Einstein's remarkable intelligence could be attributed to his prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for speech as well as imagining events and simulating their consequences. His is dramatically expanded from a normal brain.

The researchers also noticed that there is a large knob on his motor cortex, representing Einstein's early extensive practice playing the violin.

After it was photographed, Einstein's brain was divided into 240 sections and mapped so that observers of the blocks could understand which sections of the brain they were looking at. One hundred and eighty of the brain blocks are at the University Medical Centre of Princeton, but many more are unaccounted for, raising the possibility that there's a piece of Einstein's brain in your grandparent's attic.

Journal reference: Brain DOI: 10.1093/brain/aws295

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BlackBerry maker wins vote of confidence ahead of BB10

TORONTO (Reuters) - Research In Motion Ltd, for months enveloped by a wave of negative sentiment, got a boost on Tuesday when one of its most influential critics raised his rating on the stock ahead of the launch of RIM's make-or-break new line of BlackBerry 10 devices.

The upgrade by Jefferies & Co analyst Peter Misek pushed RIM's share price into double digits for the first time in five months, with the stock up more than 3 percent at $10.04 in early trading on the Nasdaq.

Misek based his more optimistic view of the BB10 launch, set for January 30, on a favorable reaction by telecom carriers to the devices and the new operating system that powers them.

"Preliminary results from our quarterly handset survey indicate developed market carriers have a much more positive view of BB10 than we expected," Misek said in a note to clients.

Shares of Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM, a one-time leader in the smartphone industry, have plummeted in recent years as its aging line-up of devices lost ground to faster and snazzier devices from rivals. The company has bet its future on the new BB10.

RIM hopes BB10 smartphones will help claw back market share it has lost in recent years to Apple Inc's iPhone and devices that run on Google Inc's Android operating system.

Misek, who doubled his price target on shares of RIM to $10 from $5, also raised his rating on the stock to "hold" from "underperform".

"With greater carrier shelf space and marketing support, we now believe BB10 has a 20 percent to 30 percent probability of success," said Misek, who has long been skeptical of RIM's odds of engineering a turnaround.

Misek cautioned that there is still downside if RIM's gamble on BB10 fails, but he noted that the stock could be worth as much as $43 within the next 12 months if RIM's bet pays off and its new operating system gets licensed by other handset makers.

RIM says its new devices will be faster and smoother and have a large catalog of applications, which are now critical to the success of any new line of smartphones. While feedback from both developers and carriers on the new devices has been largely upbeat, financial analysts have been much more circumspect about the company's prospects.

Misek's view is not shared by at least one of his counterparts.

In a note to clients on Monday, Pacific Crest analyst James Faucette reiterated his "underperform" rating on RIM's shares. He said regardless of its quality, there is almost no chance that BB10 will meaningfully change RIM's trajectory.

RIM shares were up 3.7 percent at $9.95 at midmorning on the Nasdaq, while its Toronto-listed shares rose 3.1 percent to C$9.89.

(Reporting by Euan Rocha; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe; and Peter Galloway)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blackberry-maker-wins-vote-confidence-ahead-bb10-154906452.html

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Obama Makes Historic Visit to Myanmar (WSJ)

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PFT: Jerry Jones downplays chat with Holmgren

AP

Patriots All-Pro tight end Rob Gronkowski suffered a broken arm on the extra point that gave New England its 59th point in Sunday?s 59-24 win over Indianapolis. That has some people asking: Why did Bill Belichick have Gronkowski in the game?

Longtime Boston sports columnist Ron Borges made the point on Comcast SportsNet New England that Belichick?s use of such an important player as Gronkowski on such an unimportant play as an extra point late in the fourth quarter of a game in which the Patriots are leading by 34 points is a mistake.

?I?ve never understood some of these decisions that get made, to use some of these guys on special teams,? Borges said. ?Why are you doing this? I don?t get it. . . . I?ve never understood it. It?s very head-scratching. If it were me I wouldn?t have him on extra points, period.?

If whoever the Patriots put on the extra point team in Gronkowski?s absence over the next few weeks misses a block, and the Patriots have an extra point blocked because of it, then perhaps Belichick would be vindicated. But it seems awfully unlikely that Gronkowski?s absence would hurt the Patriots on special teams. What will hurt the Patriots is that they?re now going to be without one of their best players, probably for a month or two.

In fairness to Belichick, however, Gronkowski is a good blocker, and it makes sense to have him on the field goal unit for that reason, and teams use the same players on extra points as they do on field goals. You could argue that Gronkowski should be pulled from field goals and extra points when the game is no longer in doubt, but Belichick is far from the only coach who would simply leave in the same extra-point personnel that he?d been using all game, no matter the score.

Belichick might, however, be the only coach in the NFL who would have his starting quarterback throwing passes well into the fourth quarter with a four-touchdown lead. Tom Brady stayed in the game even after the Patriots went up 45-17 in the fourth quarter and put it out of reach, and Brady completed a 13-yard pass to Wes Welker with five minutes remaining in the game, with the Patriots leading 52-24. In my own opinion, having Brady risking an injury by throwing a pass late in the fourth quarter with the Patriots up by 28 is more egregious than leaving Gronkowski on the field for an extra point.

But Belichick doesn?t care about my opinion, Borges? opinion or any other opinion. He has always had an unusual approach to blowouts, in that he?d rather step on the opponent?s throat than pull his starters and give his second-stringers some live game action. That?s his right, and even Gronkowski?s injury probably isn?t going to change his mind.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/11/19/jerry-jones-downplays-sunday-chat-with-holmgren/related/

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