Saturday, January 7, 2012
Friday, January 6, 2012
Seven indonesian volcanoes in level III
JAKARTA, Jan. 5 -- Out of 127 volcanoes in Indonesia, seven are in danger status of level III (alert) declared by the Center of Vulcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation (PVMBG).
The volcanoes are Mount Papandayan in West Java province, Mount Lokon and Mount Karangetan of North Sulawesi province, Mount Kawah Ijen in East Java province, Mount Anak Krakatau in the border of Banten and Lampung provinces, Mount Gamalama at North Maluku province and Mount Lewotolo in East Nusa Tenggara province.
The National Agency of Disaster Mitigation (BNPB) and regional agencies of disaster mitigation (BDPB) are enhancing preparation and planning to anticipate the impact of the volcanoes' activities.
Out of the seven volcanoes, authorities are focusing on Mount Kawah Ijen, Mount Gamalama and Mount Lewotolo as their eruption impact is the biggest compared to others.
Increasing activities of the Mount Gamalama are forcing 3,638 people to take refuge. Out of total, 465 refugees need special attention as they are the most vulnerable people of being exposed by eruption. They are babies, toddlers, children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, people with disabilities and old people. They are prioritized in terms of salvation, evacuation, security, health and psycho social service.
Three people were killed by cold lava flood of the volcano in the end of last year following heavy rain on the top of the volcano.
Meanwhile, Mount Kawah Ijen contains huge danger if it erupts as it threatens as many as 9,000 people living surround the volcano. Head of BNPB Syamsul Muarif urged authorities to stay alert to face the worst scenario. The biggest threat of Mount Kawah Ijen is not hot cloud, flamed material launch or volcanic ash, but is within its volcanic lake containing 30 million meter cubic of water with deadly acid level. However, people are still not urged to take refuge.
Mount Lewotolo, with eruption type of explosive, holds primary danger of volcanic bombs and hot cloud while the secondary one is cold lava flood. As many as 16,000 people living around the volcano are threatened and 500 of them are taking refuge. However, data shows that there has been no strong eruption that claims lives since 1660 up till now.
Meanwhile, Mount Lokon in the city of Tomohon of North Sulawesi that erupted on Dec. 27, 2011 still does not force people to take refuge.
In the meantime, Mount Anak Krakatau that erupts almost every day with small intensity does not pose any danger to people as it locates in a strait connecting the islands of Java and Sumatra.
The head of Data Center, Information and Public Relation of BNPB said that the volcano is in a growth phase and there is a small possibility that it erupts like what happened in 1883, triggering strong tsunami and claimed thousands of live.
CNTV
Sweden recognises new file-sharing religion Kopimism
A "church" whose central tenet is the right to file-share has been formally recognised by the Swedish government.
The Church of Kopimism claims that "kopyacting" - sharing information through copying - is akin to a religious service.
The "spiritual leader" of the church said recognition was a "large step".
But others were less enthusiastic and said the church would do little to halt the global crackdown on piracy.Holy information.
The Swedish government agency Kammarkollegiet finally registered the Church of Kopimism as a religious organisation shortly before Christmas, the group said.
"We had to apply three times," said Gustav Nipe, chairman of the organisation.
The church, which holds CTRL+C and CTRL+V (shortcuts for copy and paste) as sacred symbols, does not directly promote illegal file sharing, focusing instead on the open distribution of knowledge to all.
It was founded by 19-year-old philosophy student and leader Isak Gerson. He hopes that file-sharing will now be given religious protection.
"For the Church of Kopimism, information is holy and copying is a sacrament. Information holds a value, in itself and in what it contains and the value multiplies through copying. Therefore copying is central for the organisation and its members," he said in a statement.
"Being recognised by the state of Sweden is a large step for all of Kopimi. Hopefully this is one step towards the day when we can live out our faith without fear of persecution," he added.
The church's website has been unavailable since it broke the news of its religious status. A message urged those interested in joining to "come back in a couple of days when the storm has settled".
Despite the new-found interest in the organisation, experts said religious status for file-sharing would have little effect on the global crackdown on piracy.
"It is quite divorced from reality and is reflective of Swedish social norms rather than the Swedish legislative system," said music analyst Mark Mulligan.
"It doesn't mean that illegal file-sharing will become legal, any more than if 'Jedi' was recognised as a religion everyone would be walking around with light sabres.
"In some ways these guys are looking outdated. File-sharing as a means to pirate content is becoming yesterday's technology," he added.Piracy crackdown
The establishment of the church comes amid a backdrop of governmental zero-tolerance towards piracy.
The crackdown on piracy has moved focus away from individual pirates and more towards the ecosystem that supports piracy.
In the US, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) aims to stop online ad networks and payment processors from doing business with foreign websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement.
It could also stop search engines from linking to the allegedly infringing sites. Domain name registrars could be forced to take down the websites, and internet service providers forced to block access to the sites accused of infringing.
The government is pushing ahead with the controversial legislation despite continued opposition.
BBC
Israel concerned may be under cyber attack
(Reuters) - Israeli officials said on Friday they were concerned the country may be under cyber attack after a wave of credit card code thefts in the past week by a hacker who claims to be operating out of Saudi Arabia.
Credit card company officials said 14,000 numbers had been posted on line Tuesday and another 11,000 Thursday. However, they said some of the codes had expired and that the active cards were all being cancelled.
The hacker has identified himself as OxOmar and says he is part of a Saudi Arabian hacker team. In a post Thursday he said he had leaked information about more than 400,000 Israelis and said the "Jewish lobby" was hiding the scale of the attack.
Israeli officials say the hacker has also released email addresses and passwords, but have yet to confirm where he is based.
"This incident should be treated as a cyber attack," Justice Ministry official Yoram Hacohen told the Ma'ariv daily.
"?When it comes to digital felonies committed outside the country, it is difficult to locate the perpetrator if he took the correct precautions," Hacohen added.
The data theft was one of the worst that Israel has said it has faced, and while the financial damage was reportedly minimal, the breaches have heightened concerns about the potential use of stolen information by Israel's enemies.
"These matters are worrisome," Science and Technology Minister Daniel Hershkowitz told Israel Radio, calling the incident "a sample of the great danger out in cyberspace."
He added that Israel had "impressive capabilities" and was setting up an agency to deal with the issue, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged last year.
On the back of the credit card theft, a parliamentary committee has scheduled a session for the coming week to review Israel's readiness to defend itself from cyber attacks.
"We must prepare to cope with cyber threats in anticipation of any attempts to use Internet terror to strike at Israel," said lawmaker Ronit Tirosh, the committee chairwoman.
Some newspaper columnists speculated that hackers might be retaliating for recent attacks in Iran, including the mysterious Stuxnet computer virus that snarled its controversial nuclear computer systems.
"The peculiar incident we are facing could be a bad joke, a youthful prank, a hate-driven terror attack for beginners or the first stage in an Iranian cyber-terror attack," commentator Ben Caspit wrote in Friday's edition of Ma'ariv.
However, Hershkowitz dismissed such speculation, saying: "the imagination tends to soar."
The hacker wrote in his Web post: "So, I've started thinking of sending all Israeli credit cards I own which reaches 1M data."
"Enjoy it world! Purchase stuff for yourself online, buy anything you want," he added.
Dov Kotler, CEO of Isracard, a unit of Bank Hapoalim, said 5,200 credit card numbers listed by the hacker Thursday, belonged to his customers.
The thefts have dampened Internet sales in Israel, media reports said, though no figures were immediately available. Israeli reports have indicated that most of the information stolen had been gleaned from online commercial sites.
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