Thursday, December 15, 2011

Wikipedia soon closing down?

Once again wikipedia (and also youtube etc) are at risk for closing down due to some silly law... It is the SOPA-law that might harm a free internet.

Right now the different wikipedia-languages are discussing to close down for a while to show the US what might be the aftermatch for implementing this law. (But it seems like it will only be the English closing and maybe the rest showing there support by writing on a banner or something like that. What will happen in the different wiki's are something they decide and I can not check on everyone)

Some people might think it is right... "Just close every web-page that contains illegal things, (copywright)". Well is it so easy? In Sweden we have a law saying that if an author died for more than 70 years ago his/hers books are public domain and free to publish! Great, we have project Runeberg working hard to publish old litterature and newspapers from the nordic countries. Here is the problem: According to a law in the US are material like that protected for 95 years... making a lot of wikipedia articles and very much of project Runebergs material illegal in the US (country of freedom?)!!! For example the Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf.
Sweden are then illegal and they will have to close webpages linking to these free online-sorces...

That was just an example to show how harmfull this new law might be for the world. The government in the US are the multinational companies little pet doing everything they say to get a small piece of the money-cookie. We in the rest of the world can't stop it, but I hope the thinking people in the US will do something and not just let the brainwash proceed (why am I not surprised THAT link to an article on wikipedia is dealing with matters in the United States?).

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy


This is the last assignment for me while studying English.

Once upon a time long long ago I read a book after listening to my older brother who said it was a great book. He said it was a trilogy in four parts. Impossible, I thought, but it was true! And that's the way this book works.

When I had to read a book now I thought: “Why not read that book again, but in English, it is always better to read in the original language”. (Of course I have read a lot of other English books lately, mostly by Tom Clancy and Robert Ludlum, but now I had to read for the class)

First short about his language, before I proceeds with the subject I have chosen: Critics of the society.

Language

The author Douglas Adams had got magic fingers when he tapped on his computer, unfortunately he died before he wrote the last book “and another thing...”, which is the sixth part (Eion Colfer wrote it as a 30 years celebration of the first part).
He uses the laws of physics and the words different meanings so that you sometimes feel lost in a jungle of misunderstandings. One of my favorite quote is “the (space)ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't”.
Even the babelfish is an invention of Mr Adams which has been used in a lot of places, for example yahoo's translation tool Babel Fish.

Critics of the society

God
Religion is alway a nice subject to talk about, because everyone have something to say about it.
First of all, in the begining of the book he wrote about "a man nailed to a tree just because he wanted everyone to be polite to each other" (not a quote). It says a lot about how we humans are. Cruel and without logic.
Talking about logic we'll se how he kills God! "I refuse to prove that I exist,' says God, 'for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing." (chapter six) Just a logical proof and God ceases to exist.

Capitalism
Much of the critisism is hidden in peculiar was, like the money transactions "Many solutions were suggested for this problem (depressed people), but most of these were largely concerned with the movement of small green pieces of paper, which was odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy." He's got a very good point there, in the introduction to the book. The moving of green papers have killed many and made even more suffer a lot. 

Bureaucrazy
In the third chapter of the first book the Vogons (space creatures) tells the humans that their planet are going to be destroyed, and that the plans have been out in the public for 50 years (in the center of the galaxy), so no use to complain. It is so obvious that the ordinary people have no chance against the bureaucrats when it comes to complain. There are even more places in the book about this, but I will let you read those passages by your self.

Why read this book?
That's a good question! The book is very strange and I know that a lot of people, especially non-nature science-people, have a hard time with it. If you are going to be an engineer you must have read it. It is a classics!

Monday, December 12, 2011

Demonstration i Israel

I wrote about Christians and Muslims. Well lets say something about the jews too, to make it fare.

In August 2011 someone published a video on youtube showing a demonstration. There a brave teenager from the US talks. He says he is a Jew, and he is aganist the treatment of the Palestinians. He speaks a lot, but he forgot one thing:
He was in Israel saying it!
Smart move? Depends on what he wanted. No matter what, the police did not like what he said and started to provoke him. It looked a lot like the picture from Chile in my article "take photos get gas" where the chilean police did outrages things, or "Memoria Viva! May we never forget!" where an officer shoots a woman with a tear gas gun.

The Israelian police beats him up, so that he tries to get away, which means harder grips-The police got what they wanted, a chance to hit him. It did not help to be a jew in Israel, if you are what they would call a "Self-hating jew". That kind of jew is not looked well upon in Israel.

But back to the topic. It is not about Palestine, I think, but about police brutality. Where is the thin line between the good police protecting us against crimes and when the police comittes crimes? As long as they get protection from the government it doesn't matter. We will always see this. Does that mean we shall let it pass? No, we have to talk about it, show our opinions about it and help those who are treated bad by the cops. Give them support in all countries (but not by threatening the police by saying "kill the cop"... that "justifies" their actions.)


Why write on Wikipedia


This article was first just intended to be used private as a help for me when I had an oral test in English. My subject was "Why write on Wikipedia". My teacher liked the subject, and after the test I promised him that I would publish it on my blog. I do not get any mark on this article, but I publish it with a purpose: To get more people into the wikipedia-writing.

Why write on Wikipedia

Link to a "Wiki-love"-picture (to not violate the copywright)

Wikipedia is a great encyclopedia containing a lot more than an ordinary encyclopedia. It has over 400 000 articles in the Swedish part (3.800.000 in English speaking wikipedia).

Some people complain and says they sometimes may see things not correct. That might be so, and the answer to them is often from the people writing on wiki: “Well, why do you not correct it? But do not forget to add valid sources-unless it is something misspelled”

By working like that the English speaking Wikipedia has got a rate of mistakes in the articles just slightly more than British encyclopedia, but with the difference that Wikipedia is more up to date and has a whole more of small subject articles.

How do I know this?

I am an administrator on the Swedish Wikipedia. That is an honor title, but gives me also some extra tools to help Wikipedia become better. You may get it by your way of contribute and if you gain the community's respect.


I started by testing how it worked. I thought it was easy to contribute, but it was first when I started to study medicine I noticed it's potentials. By reading on the Swedish Wikipedia about the different issues I had to learn I got a pretty good knowledge, after that I read the English article. I could have stopped there, but knowing my way of learning I translated the English article, by looking at it's sources and use them to make the Swedish article better. This improved my English, I learned the subject, and my colleges know they could trust the articles I had contributed to.

My purpose by telling you this is to try to make more people to start writing about their favorite subjects so that Wikipedia will get even better.
Another purpose is to make more people be aware who makes the job. It is not a company or a government whom you dislike and wants to destroy. It is ordinary people, like you and me, writing with love for education, freedom of speech. They know that a lot of the subjects would be banned in a dictatorship. On Wikipedia the dictators can't erase. It is a project for democracy.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

"Pedophilia accepted" according to el papa

Yesterday I happened to read this (spanish) in a Chilean paper. I couldn't believe it. "Outrageous! The pope says child rape was not so bad, it was normal at the time". First I thought it was about hundreds of years ago, like when Muhammad married his favorite wife Aisha when she was six and had sex with her when she was nine! 

Well, at the time of Muhammed life was different. Her life would probably have been terrible if she was not married with him, and some muslims says that "Muhammed having sex with Aisha at that young age  only shows he was not devine, but human. It is not good to do like that, but everyone has his/her faults" (while other muslims says "he was so big a profet that he might do as he wanted, and you are not allowed to speak bad about our profet, Allah akbar!").

The pope was not talking about the ancient times, according to this paper (english), or I am born during the ancient times, that means during the 1970th. That was in his "Christmas Greeting to the Roman curia" (his speech from the vatican)
In these two articles it is written that the pope think it was quite normal with child rape and child abuse 30 years ago, and that child pornography "seems in some way to be concidered more and more normal by the society". 

First about child pornography: Hasn't the pope read the papers? Every normal person in the world are against that crime. These normal people is even more outrageous about priest who likes child pornography.

About child rape. The pope is trying to protect his own, all the priests and bishops that have used their position to abuse children and women. For example Francisco José Cox, a bishop from Chile who abused children in his congregation.

Why protect people like that? Is he crazy, Benedic XVI? No, he must say like that to protect character indelibilis, the Godly mark a pope said exists in all catholic priests. It says that a priest can do whatever he wants. He has got the mark and will therefor come to heaven no matter what... He can put his hmhm in the body of a child and anyway come to God. Howcome that "mark" ever exists?
Well, it is because the Church father Augustine of Hippo. He said that "God choose whom will come to heaven from the begining (according to a book used in the priest education in Sweden: Kristendomen by Tarald Rasmussen, pagina 126), and therefor it doesn't matter what you do... it is called predestination. We have "fallen so far from God that we with the free will will only choose evil..." Well that is just what Cox and his fellows have done...

The pope could choose to leave old things that is wrong and say new things, but instead he tries to defend what is wrong  no matter what it costs. The old popes could not be wrong, according to his doctrine... they are "devine" (or was it "they are devil"?).

As long as the pope is not leaving the middle ages and starts to live in the present he will never get any respect from sane people. If he talked to SNAP, and listened to the survivors of sex abuse by priests he maybe would understand what he does to children by protecting priests like that. (or maybe HE wants to try to get something thick up his behind to understand better... or, like I wrote in the article about Richie Martin, the pope maybe is homosexual and likes it that way and wants others to like it too!) (To the catholics reading this: I know many nice catholics. I feel sorry for them having a chuch leader whom is so ignorante, but I have nothing against them- Just the leaders!!!)

This article I wrote for the children. I love children and wants them to be pure children loving life and playing. They should not be forced inte perverted sexual games by people with devine power scaring them to obey dirty things that you only should do voluntary because you want it and love your partner(s).

Save the children from the pope!

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Hypatia- Christian censorship victime

Old news
Hypatia was murdered by christian monks in a riot in Alexandria year 415. She was working in the Library of Alexandria until the pope Theophilus ordered it's destruction, he is now a saint in the coptic church. When the pope died Cyril became pope after his uncle. He ordered massacres of jews and pagans, and where in a conflict with the roman prefect, how had Hypatia as his advisor and philosophy teacher. That made Cyril trying to get her out of the way by all means, until he started a small riot so that monks attacked Hypatia on her way home, stripped her naked and dragged her through the city to a Christian tempel were they skinned her with tiles and then cut her body in parts. Finally they burnt her body. Cyril is a saint in most of the Christian churches, and one of the church fathers according to the Catholics.

That's history and fact, but how does that affect us?
2009 a great epic Spanish movie, Agora, went in the cinemas in most European countries telling this story, and it became the most visited spanish movie in Spain that year.. It was broadcasted in Swedish television this week. When the end of the movie came with the death of Hypatia (not showing all the cruellity made by the monks), my beloved one cried out load in the sofa next to me. She could not understand why and how, and she is a student of theology and christian history- knowing her subjects.

Censorship
In Spain the catholic defens group Observatorio Antidifamación Religiosa wrote an open letter how the movie where raising hatred against Christianity and reinforcing false clichés about the Catholic church. When the director Amenábar responded that he wanted to say the movie was against those who kill in the name of their god the group responded "Why didn't you make a movie about the Middle East (the muslims they ment)?". Hey are we supposed to hide the truth here? That is facts, written by christian bishops during the time it happened.


In the US they did not want to buy the movie claiming it "was to intellectual and heavy". A silly claim. making US citizens look stupid by their own leaders (I know that is not true, not my friends there anyway...) The real reason seems to be the religious causes too. The companies where affraid to buy it, making the right fanatics of christianity in the US angry, and then loosing a lot of money. Maximum of theatres showing the movie duing a weekend in 2010 (the year they showed it there after a year of censorship) was 17. Only 17 in all of the US of A! What a terrible shame.


The coptic church, what did they do? Well, they stopped the movie from being shown in Egypt and poor Hypatias hometown Alexandria by claiming it "is an insult of the religion". Of course they say so, their saints real faces would be shown for the masses, scary to show that even christians have killed lika that?


School
I lika Hypatia. I use to show her as a good example, while teaching, of a woman scientist struggling because her sex, but being one of the best. She and Marie Curie will help the girls to find good examples that they are as good, or better, than the boys. That girls are ment to study math and science too!!!


May Hypatia not be a brick in a religios fight about a religion she did not even believe in. She believed in philosophy!