Monday, October 31, 2011

Bank DKI Earned Rp 304 Billion Profit

Residents’ trust toward DKI Bank services is increasing. It is proven
by the bank financial performance improvement. Until September 2011,
Bank DKI earned profit before tax as much as Rp 304 billion or grows
28.27 percent compared to the same period in 2010 as much as Rp 237
billion

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Island Records To Release A New Amy Winehouse Album

The album will be released December 5; the album was compiled with help from Amy Winehouse’s musical partners: Mark Ronson and Salaam Remi.

The two had listened to the songs she had recorded and with the help and collaboration from the label, winehouse’s family and management have managed to make this CD.

Winehouse's final studio recording - a cover of "Body & Soul" sung with Tony Bennett - will be included in the album.

"If the family had felt that this album wasn't up to the standard of 'Frank' and 'Back To Black' we would never have agreed to release it and we believe it will stand as a fitting tribute to Amy's musical legacy," Father, Mitch Winehouse said in the Island Record Statement.

A donation of 1 pound ($1.60) from the sale of each album in the U.K. will go to a foundation to assist disadvantaged children and young adults set up in the artist's name following her death.

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Prijanto Instructs Investigation toward Civil Servant`s Violence Act Case

Jakarta Deputy Governor Prijanto has instructed Head of Jakarta
Communication Information and Public Relations Department
(Diskominfomas), Sugianta, to check and investigate violence case done
by AM, Head Section of Post and Telecommunication for East Jakarta
Communication Information and Public Relations (Kominfomas)
Sub-Department, to his staff Renny Prianahatin (25), a civil servant
candidate. The investigation result is expected to be reported to
Prijanto by Monday (10/24)

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'Kaka Kembali, Dunia Sepakbola Bergembira'

AFP/PEDRO ARMESTREBeritabola.com Madrid - Jose
Mourinho menyanjung comeback gemilang Kaka musim ini. Mourinho bahkan
menyebut sepakbola dunia bakal bersuka cita menyambut "kembalinya" eks
pesepakbola terbaik dunia itu.

Sejak pindah ke Real Madrid
musim panas 2009 lalu, penampilan Kaka cenderung menurun. Cedera yang
berulang kali menimpanya membuatnya tak mampu tampil
maksimal.

Maka sempat ramai gosip jika Kaka bakal hengkang dari
Santiago Bernabeu, meski begitu Mourinho menegaskan tak ingin melepas
pemain asal Brasil itu dan begitu juga Kaka yang tak ingin
pergi.

Semakin ciamiknya performa Mesut Oezil sebagai playmaker
tim membuat Kaka sempat kesulitan mendapat tempatnya kembali. Namun
Kaka membuktikan jika kelasnya tetap sebagai pesepakbola papan atas
dan masalah performa naik-turun sebagai pemain itu
biasa.

Belakangan dirinya terus dipercaya Mourinho sebagai
penghuni starting eleven dan diduetkan bersama Oezil. Meski
permainannya setipe, namun keduanya malah mampu tampil baik dan
menguntungkan Madrid.

Sejauh ini Kaka sudah tampil 12 kali dan
menyumbang empat gol. Ganjarannya adalah Kaka pun kembali dipanggil
masuk ke timnas Brasil.

Comeback gemilang Kaka inilah yang
membuat Mourinho tersenyum puas. Ia menyebut Kaka yang sebenarnya
sudah muncul dan dunia sepakbola bisa kembali menikmati permainan
bapak satu anak itu.

"Aku tahu Kaka yang sebenarnya. Dia adalah
pemain fantastis ketika aku di Italia. Real Madrid tidak pernah
mempunyai dia dalam versi itu dan akhirnya dia menemukan keseimbangan
fisik secara keseluruhan," ungkap Mourinho di situs resmi
tim.

"Dia menikmati bermain sepakbola. Dia kuat dan baik dalam
merubah ritmenya pada permainan. Wajar jika dia akhirnya kembali ke
timnas Brasil dan aku turut senang, karena ia mendapatkannya dengan
kerja keras. Sepakbola akan menikmati kembalinya Kaka,"
pungkasnya.
(dtc/mrp)

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The Roys Set To Appear on 'Larry's Country Diner'

The Roys rose to the occasion with a rousing rendition of "Give A Ride To The Devil" from their current Rural Rhythm Records' CD, Lonesome Whistle.  "And we didn't leave until we'd gotten our fill of the Diner's awesome cheeseburgers and chocolate pie," adds Lee Roy.  This is The Roys' second appearance on the popular RFD-TV show this year.

AIR DATES/TIMES (more info at www.larryscountrydiner.com):

Thursday, October 27th at 7:00 p.m. CDT

Friday, October 28th at 9:00 a.m. CDT

Saturday, October 29th at 10:00 p.m. CDT

Lee and Elaine are the reigning Inspirational Country Music Duo of the Year, and are in the running for three additional ICM awards this year: Vocal Duo of the Year, Inspirational Bluegrass Artist and Inspirational Country Song ("I Wonder What God's Thinking").  The Roys will perform on this year's show, which will be held in Nashville on Friday, October 28at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center.

The duo heads back out on the road on October 29 for shows in Alabama, Minnesota, Kentucky, Florida and Virginia.  These dates follow a hectic summer of high-profile performances at Country Thunder Festival USA(where they opened for Lady Antebellum), Dollywood, Dogwood Park Concert Series, and numerous other festivals and events.  The Roys have appeared on several Fox Television Network shows, Daily Buzz, ABC-TV's What's The BuzzDaytime, GAC-TV, and other national programs.

Fans can catch up with all the news and The Roys' complete itinerary by going to theroysonline.com.

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Messi Menjawab Keraguan dengan Hat-trick

(Reuters)Beritabola.com Barcelona -
Lionel Messi sempat diragukan karena tak mencetak gol dalam beberapa
laga. Tapi striker Barcelona ini memilih santai dan akhirnya dia pun
sukses membungkam keraguan dengan hat-trick ke gawang
Mallorca.

Keraguan tersebut muncul setelah Messi gagal
menyumbang gol saat Barca mengalahkan Viktoria Plzen di Liga Champions
berakhir 3-0 dan laga imbang 0-0 melawan Sevilla serta kemenangan
tipis 1-0 atas Granada.

Messi akhirnya memutus puasa golnya
saat menjamu Real Mallorca, Minggu (30/10) dinihari WIB. Di depan
pendukungnya sendiri, bomber Argentina itu memutus puasa golnya dengan
langsung mencetak hat-trick untuk memberi kemenangan timnya
5-0.

Pemain terbaik dunia dua kali itu menepis kritik
terhadapnya sekaligus menyatakan bahwa kemenangan Barcelona merupakan
hal yang jauh lebih penting ketimbang gol-golnya.

"Sedikit gila
bagiku untuk bilang bahwa aku berada dalam krisis setelah tiga
pertandingan tanpa mencetak sebuah gol," ucap Messi seusai
pertandingan seperti dikutip YahooSports.

"Tidak ada tekanan
selama Barcelona terus memenangi pertandingan," cetus
dia.

Dengan tambahan tiga gol ini, Messi untuk sementara
memuncaki daftar pencetak gol terbanyak di La Liga dengan 13 gol
melewati dua rivalnya Cristiano Ronaldo dan Gonzalo Higuain dengan
masing-masing mengoleksi 10 gol.
(dtc/rin)

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Sunday, October 30, 2011

Hari Selasa Terburuk Memulai Diet

JIKA Anda tengah berencana
melakukan program penurunan berat badan atau diet, jangan lakukan pada
Selasa. Sebab, sebuah studi terbaru mengemukakan bahwa Selasa adalah
hari paling buruk untuk memulai diet.

Studi itu melibatkan
2.000 perempuan Inggris yang telah melakukan diet dalam satu tahun
terakhir. Ditemukan, mereka yang memulai diet pada Selasa cenderung
menyerah atau kehilangan semangat dalam waktu seminggu. Akhirnya,
mereka pun mendapati diri mereka lebih gemuk daripada ketika mereka
mulai.

Di sisi lain, mereka yang mulai diet pada Minggu atau
Senin jauh lebih mungkin untuk berhasil dalam diet. "Secara
psikologis, pelaku diet lebih termotivasi untuk melanjutkan upaya
mereka mulai lagi di awal minggu," kata juru bicara Diet Tesco,
pelaksana studi, seperti dikutip Daily Mail, Selasa (18/10).


Studi ini juga menemukan bahwa mereka yang memulai diet mereka
pada Sabtu lebih bersemangat dan berkomitmen menjalani diet hingga
memenuhi target berat badan yang diinginkan. (MI/ICH)

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In high spirit

In high spirit
The Jakarta Post | Sat, 10/29/2011 5:54 PM
A | A | A |

Former national athlete from Papua, Mely Mofu, bears the SEA Games torch while being escorted by traditional dancers. (Antara/Alexander W. Loen)Former national athlete from Papua, Mely Mofu, bears the SEA Games torch while being escorted by traditional dancers. (Antara/Alexander W. Loen)

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New UK ISP porn filter: a tragedy of transparency, privacy and security

Like a Hammer Horror movie monster that keeps coming back to life for a new sequel no matter how much its death at the end of the first movie makes sense, the UK’s government-backed ISP porn filtering plan is back for another predictable round of B-grade nonsense.

On Monday it was announced that Britain’s four largest Internet providers (comprising roughly 90% of the market) would be implementing filters to block a range of non-specified adult-themed sites as part of an agreement between the government and a Christian organization.

Ostensibly, this will be so parents can make sure their kids don’t see unwanted filth.

The initial announcement was handled so poorly that first impressions in the press made it seem like internet access would be flat-out filtered to UK citizens unless they specifically embarrassed themselves by openly asking to see filthy dirty porn on their computers.

By Tuesday it was explained that the four main UK internet providers would instead be offering an opt-in for filtering only to those beginning new service. Except it’s actually not that simple.

Truth of what will happen with this mess is somewhere in the middle, and definitely not as benign as many are now suggesting.

Look at the implementation, and no matter where you stand on porn, I think you’ll see this plan is going to cause a lot of problems on its way to the eventual fail bin.

Keep Calm and Carry On - As Big Brother Logs Your Every Move

UK Prime Minister David Cameron announced the details of the plan made in conjunction with Christian charity “Mother’s Union” and its published Bailey Report to create measures that will prevent customers of ISPs BT, TalkTalk, Virgin and Murdoch’s Sky to access pornographic, gambling, self-harm and other blacklisted websites.

First reports made it seem like customers would wake up and find half the internet missing. In clarifications it was explained that new customers would be forced to choose between regular and decaf internet, while existing subscribers would be “prompted” to make a choice - presumably via email.

In case you’re wondering, unlike other reporters on this issue, I refuse to overlook the fact that each ISP has not revealed what is on these blacklists, while at the same time they have all made it clear that their filtering blacklists contain websites beyond the scope of adult pornography. Nor have they defined pornography.

The UK ISP filtering blacklists, and what puts a site on them, are still a mystery.

Do they blacklist, as Guardian’s Tom Scott once suggested, Flickr, Tumblr and more?

Still: an opt-in sounds okay, right?

It’s being sold to customers as a feature they can activate. However, the devil is in the implementation.

TalkTalk uses a network-level blocking system called HomeSafe, a URL sniffing company that scans all web addresses that users visit (for “malicious software” and blacklisted sites) regardless of whether they have opted-in to the service.

Security researcher Richard Clayton raised the alarm on HomeSafe this May, citing massive privacy concerns and saying HomeSafe could be easily spoofed by criminals. Disturbingly, TalkTalk calls it a “whole home filtering solution” to cover “every device in the home.”

UK internet providers BT, Sky and Virgin Media give customers an install disk. The filter is PC-based software that comes on a new CD - a CD that customers need in order to set up their connection.

As we all know, any computer will have everything needed to set up an internet connection. It’s unclear what customers are actually installing to their computers.

With the UK conservative government electing to put the onus on the private sector and avoid a public legislative smackdown - and a particularly charged on over the evils of pornography - this has produced a situation where there is a frightening lack of technical and peer scrutiny of the mechanisms being employed.

Combined with a lack of transparency on the ISP’s front, everyone (users, consumers, experts and media) are unclear as to what’s exactly below the hype and spin.

Oh - And They’re Still Inventing The Threat

So while we all know that there are many great options for parents to control household internet content (Cybersitter, Bumpercar and even SafeSearch lock), it’s obvious to all of us that an ISP filter is little more than a Band-Aid for what the Christian mothers and the UK government seem to want to accomplish.

I took the time to read the Bailey Report. Make no mistake: I’m a staunch advocate against young people seeing sexualized content before it is appropriate for them to do so.

Yet I was astonished at how much of the Bailey Report is a whole lot of fear mongering about children seeing sexy ads or being sold age-inappropriate t-shirts. And the evils of an internet and technology that the authors are grossly - and in my opinion dangerously - ignorant about.

I ignored the dozens of time the Bailey Report quoted random, unnamed parents about their fears. Instead I took the time to examine what little data the report provided to support its claims, including the bibliography.

Statements made about the effects of porn in the report sound like rhetoric about mail-order smut from the 1950s. What’s worse, the Bailey Report’s citations repeat the anti-porn hysteria in (Murdoch family funded) Australia Institute’s 2009 Flood Report (”Youth, Sex and the Internet“).

That the UK government might decide serious issues of privacy, security technology, and youth safety on lunatic assertions based on a 200-person phone call survey summary is pretty shocking. And yes, these are the same people that brought about the Australian internet filter.

So, all things considered - if these people really care about the children, and the people raising them, then they’re going to need a better plan.

Or, a bigger boat.

Photo by Mark Ramsay under Creative Commons 2.0 Generic license, via Flickr.

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New Girl (guest star Lake Bell) - November 1 Preview

New Girl returns on Tuesday, November 1 to FOX. Jess accidentally walks in on Nick naked, sending his self-confidence to an all-time low – just after an attractive co-worker (guest star Lake Bell) agrees to go out on a date with him. Meanwhile, Winston becomes obsessed with learning pop-culture references online in the 'Naked' episode airing at 9pm.

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'The Immortals' Extended Preview

Visionary director Tarsem Singh (The Cell, The Fall) transports us in this epic tale of treachery,vengeance and destiny in Immortals, a stylish and visually spectacular 3D action adventure. As a power-hungryking razes ancient Greece in search of a legendary weapon, a heroic young villager rises up against him in athrilling quest as timeless as it is powerful.

The brutal and bloodthirsty King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) and his murderous Heraklion armyrampage across Greece in search of the long lost Bow of Epirus. With the invincible Bow, the king will be able tooverthrow the Gods of Olympus and become the undisputed master of his world. With ruthless efficiency,Hyperion and his legions destroy everything in their wake, and it seems nothing will stop the evil king’s mission.

As village after village is obliterated, a stonemason named Theseus (Henry Cavill) vows to avenge hismother, who was killed in one of Hyperion’s brutal raids. When Theseus meets the Sybelline Oracle, Phaedra(Freida Pinto), her disturbing visions of the young man’s future convince her that he is the key to stopping thedestruction. With her help, Theseus assembles a small band of followers and embraces his destiny in a final,desperate battle for the future of humanity.

The Immortals stars Henry Cavill, Stephen Dorff, Isabel Lucas, Freida Pino, Luke Evans, Kellan Lutz, John Hurt, and Mickey Rourke. Opens nationwide Friday, November 11, 2011

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Saturday, October 29, 2011

Ketupat Babanci, Tasty Yet Rare Betawi Culinary

Betawi has various special and unique culinary. From a number of
Betawi culinary, ketupat (rice cake) babanci is already rare and
seldom shown. If you want to taste it, you must wait big events which
involve Betawi Consultative Board (Bamus) such as the Betawi Eid that
was held in Penggilingan on October 1-2. Moreover, this food can also
be found in every bazaar and culinary party held by empowerment &
family welfare driving team (TP PKK) or Betawi Bamus

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The Roys Set To Appear on 'Larry's Country Diner'

The Roys rose to the occasion with a rousing rendition of "Give A Ride To The Devil" from their current Rural Rhythm Records' CD, Lonesome Whistle.  "And we didn't leave until we'd gotten our fill of the Diner's awesome cheeseburgers and chocolate pie," adds Lee Roy.  This is The Roys' second appearance on the popular RFD-TV show this year.

AIR DATES/TIMES (more info at www.larryscountrydiner.com):

Thursday, October 27th at 7:00 p.m. CDT

Friday, October 28th at 9:00 a.m. CDT

Saturday, October 29th at 10:00 p.m. CDT

Lee and Elaine are the reigning Inspirational Country Music Duo of the Year, and are in the running for three additional ICM awards this year: Vocal Duo of the Year, Inspirational Bluegrass Artist and Inspirational Country Song ("I Wonder What God's Thinking").  The Roys will perform on this year's show, which will be held in Nashville on Friday, October 28at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center.

The duo heads back out on the road on October 29 for shows in Alabama, Minnesota, Kentucky, Florida and Virginia.  These dates follow a hectic summer of high-profile performances at Country Thunder Festival USA(where they opened for Lady Antebellum), Dollywood, Dogwood Park Concert Series, and numerous other festivals and events.  The Roys have appeared on several Fox Television Network shows, Daily Buzz, ABC-TV's What's The BuzzDaytime, GAC-TV, and other national programs.

Fans can catch up with all the news and The Roys' complete itinerary by going to theroysonline.com.

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Text your say: Deadly violence in Papua

Text your say: Deadly violence in Papua
The Jakarta Post | Fri, 10/28/2011 9:02 AM
A | A | A |

Your comments on the death of Mulia police chief Adj. Comr. Dominggus Octavianus Awes, after he was shot on Monday, bringing the total death toll to 12 as part of a string of violence taking place in Papua this month:

People must be very saddened and concerned by the death of Mulia Police chief Adj. Comr. Dominggus Oktavianus Awes.

The government should prioritize and intensify dialogue rather than taking a repressive approach. To face this problem, the government should become “a good father” to the province.

I hope the central government will be more serious about improving the quality and the availability of education there.

Intensive cooperation should also be fostered among the local government and traditional leaders and religious figures, because those leaders can more readily calm their angry followers.

Bambang Utomo
Jakarta

Nothing has changed since Soeharto. What can you expect from a system in which the military’s influence is still everywhere, including both within the House and at the top of the executive branch of
government?

What is the difference between Indonesia’s present day regime and that of Soeharto?

Hipolit P.

I think the cop killer must be connected to those behind the killing of six victims during the congress riot. It is so obvious that there is a person or group that opposes the congress of Selfius Bobii and
his supporters.

Internal conflict among pro-independence groups were plain as day before the congress was planned. Lambert Pekikir, the Free Papua Movement (OPM) leader, was apparently turned away by the congress, and so was the West Papua National Committee (KNPB) with Tabunies and Benny Wenda’s International Lawyers for West Papua (ILWP) or International Parliamentarians for West Papua (IPWP), or the killer could even be a Herman Wainggai follower.

There must be a conspiracy behind the events, and one of the pro-independence groups was involved and disrupted the congress by killing its own people.

Rafli

As we know, many officials in our country are involved in corruption and unfortunately the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), which is officially fighting corruption, works very slowly.

The KPK, which should be independent in its work, has too much involvement from members of the House of Representatives and other constituents. Because of this, the image of the KPK is a body that really fights for those who are corrupt. It seems useless. Some people even want to abort it.

Why is that? Well, we know that police officers, tax officers and justice officers can be corrupt. I think that the law should be applied consistently so that it becomes a deterrence for these people.

Doel Al Munawar

 

Next topic

The government is reviving its family planning program, which was introduced during the Soeharto era, as the population closes in on 240 million. What do you think?

Send your thoughts by email, SMS, Twitter or Facebook. Include your name and city.

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Religious radicalism and the masculinization of God

Religious radicalism and the masculinization of God
Satrio Wahono, Jakarta | Mon, 10/24/2011 6:56 PM
A | A | A |

We apparently live in fear now that terrorist bombers are flourishing in the country. Less than a year after the suicide bombing of the police headquarters in Cirebon, West Java, we have again been shocked by similar acts of terror at Bethel Injil Sepenuh Church (GBIS) in Surakarta, Central Java, in late September.

This series of events inevitably leads us to the gloomy conclusion that the movement driven by radical religious doctrine has not disappeared in Indonesia. Such a doctrine believes that any means — including the use of violence — are justified to overthrow an order perceived as secular and corrupt. In exchange, followers of the doctrine aspire to establish an ideal order that they believe will be approved by God. Therefore, analyzing such a doctrine is important for us in an attempt to neutralize it.

If we assume that radical doctrine justifying the use of violence is a dependent variable, a possible independent variable is what I call the “masculinization of God”, which means a doctrine that perceives God as a “He” or a “Man” who is strict, violent, reason-oriented and shares typical male characteristics.

Any gender theory will teach us that there is a distinct demarcation between masculinity and femininity. The former is identical with reason, which leads to an ambition to have control over nature and seek singular truth. It is also emotionless and violent. In short, the spirit of masculinity is the spirit of domination.

On the other hand, the latter is identical with emotion, leading someone with a feminine nature to develop peaceful and caring characteristics. In other words, the spirit of femininity is the spirit of restoration.

Based on the binary opposition, the masculinization of God inherently contains two erroneous assumptions. First, the process assumes God, which is supposed to be gender neutral, as a substance that recognizes sex. In the context of Islam, for example, as illustrated by Dr. Kaukab Siddique in Menggugat Tuhan yang Maskulin (Critiquing Masculine God), this is partially because the Koran refers to God as huwa (“He” in Arabic).

Second, the first erroneous assumption perceiving God as dominantly male in turn generates a masculinized version of Islam. This means that such a version of Islam venerates physical power and justifies any means to achieve dominance over other parties, especially over those that are different or a minority.

How unfortunate it is since the two erroneous assumptions can actually be overcome if Muslims realize that the Koran doesn’t always use masculine terms to refer to Allah. For example, every chapter (sura) in the Koran always begins with “In the Name of God, the All-Compassionate and Merciful (rahîm)”.

The word rahîm is derived from rahm or womb, which is identical with women and femininity. As a consequence, God essentially also has feminine attributes that prioritizes restoration over domination, caring and nursing people over coercing them. In turn, this creates a possibility to postulate a version of Islam that is more peaceful, tolerant, inclusive, kind and caring for people who are different and in the minority.

Since one of the factors causing the religious radicalism that is behind the suicide bombers is the masculinization of God, a logical solution to the problem should be to restore the perception that God is the omnipotent substance that should be gender neutral. In short, this means that we have to demasculinize God.

Based on the perspective, God or Allah is neither a male nor a female. Therefore, God actually has feminine as well as masculine attributes. Moreover, the Mercy of God covers all creatures, making God only see the deeds of people, not their gender, in passing His judgment.

As a result, the demasculinization of God should be conducted by recognizing and incorporating feminine attributes into religious doctrine in order to promote a balanced version of religion.

That is, a version of religion that aligns emotion with reason, peaceful attitude and strictness, domination with restoration. Hopefully, such a version will bring us an inclusive religion that believes other religions can also offer ways to achieve salvation in the afterlife.

Such an inclusive version of religion is not impossible. For example, one clause in the Second Vatican Council reads that Christianity believes there are other means of afterlife salvation in other religions, since the mercy of God transcends and surpasses the boundaries of theological doctrine.

All in all, it is the right direction for us to avoid classifying God as a masculine substance, since God should indeed be gender-neutral. Besides, the masculinization of God will only bring us a dangerous version of religious radicalism whose side effects can assume a destructive form such as a suicide bomb.

So, it will be better for all of us faithful to believe in a gender-neutral God to promote a future version of religion that can provide mankind with hope and enlightenment instead of destruction.

The author is a columnist and writer.

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Lost in translation: Siri cannot understand the Scottish accent

Many Scottish iPhone users have found themselves struggling to use the new Siri voice-recognition feature, because the intelligent assistant cannot understand the accent.

Siri has been a focus for technologists worldwide after Apple’s latest iPhone 4S came bundled with the voice-activated technology, and seemingly reacts to unexpected responses and dialectic differences — like, “what is the meaning of life?”, responding with a number of pre-defined answers.

But users of the iPhone 4S in Scotland have been left with Siri, on the most part, not understanding what has been said.


(Image source: Getty)

Scotland, the country land-attached to the north of England, still has English as its national language. While the Scots speak English, the dialect is different and the spoken word is widely considered to be more pronounced, with a unique ‘Scottish twang’, so to speak.

For example, as one newspaper reports, “Can you dance with me?” is interpreted as: “Can you Dutch woman?”. Another example has a user trying to ’set a reminder for 12 o’clock’, with Siri misinterpreting this as the word “treblecock” — a word that does not exist.

While voice-recognition software is far from perfect, Siri is considered to be unique in its field and ahead of its game, particularly for the general consumer market.

Apple says that Siri is designed to work “in any country”, and specifically the UK, Australia, the U.S., France and Germany:

“You can choose to speak to it in English, French, or German. However, Siri is designed to recognize the specific accents and dialects of the supported countries listed above. Since every language has its own accents and dialects, the accuracy rate will be higher for native speakers.

Siri will support additional languages from next year, including Japanese, Chinese, South Korean, Spanish and Italian.

But though all countries in the United Kingdom speak English natively, the accent differs greatly across the four countries of the UK.

Amid rumours that Siri could be ported to other Apple technologies in 2013, such as a dedicated television as CNET report, this gives Apple ample time to work around the nuances with various common languages.

But for Scottish users of the iPhone 4S, for now, voice-controlled technologies may not be quite ready for them yet.

Related:

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Letter: Kalla may have answer on Papua

Letter: Kalla may have answer on Papua
| Sat, 10/29/2011 12:49 PM
A | A | A |

The chaos in Papua cannot be satisfactorily resolved if the government continues blindly on its current path, viewing Papua only as a “security” problem that can be resolved by force, more force and more and more force.

The result of pursuing this myopic security-only concept is that the government has now dug itself into a hole and acts as though the way out is to keep on digging.

That will not solve the problems of Papua; it will only result in a violent armed rebellion as happened in Aceh when the government likewise viewed Aceh as solely a “security” problem.

The solution in Aceh was for the government to think “outside of the box”, which it did brilliantly under the firm hand of then vice president Jusuf Kalla.

I believe that SBY would be well-advised to call again upon Kalla to help resolve the problems of Papua by taking into account not only the political aims of the government but also involving the people of Papua in the solution.

This will resound to the benefit all the citizens of Indonesia, not just the citizens of Papua.

Will Jourdin
Ubud, Bali

president obama|7 eleven|annalynne mccord|carmageddon|redskins

Friday, October 28, 2011

'Klise' a dance, music, installation

'Klise' a dance, music, installation
Ganug Nugroho Adi, The Jakarta Post, Surakarta, Central Java | Fri, 10/28/2011 10:04 AM
A | A | A |

Experimental: Installation becomes an important part of the Klise performance.Experimental: Installation becomes an important part of the Klise performance.An exploration of choreography and costume was the basic concept of the Klise dance presented by young choreographer Enno Sulistyowati at Galeri Kecil at the Central Java Cultural Center in Surakarta (Solo) recently.

A kimono captivated the audience as it was draped around a dancer, with the garb of three players forming an important part of the show besides the display room chosen as the stage.

Unlike typical dance theater, the stage lighting of Klise was bright, with three women standing at three points. In the middle was Enno, whose body was wrapped in a rope coil. Slightly at the rear, at the right of the stage was Dewi Galuh Sintosari in her long samparan (classical dance costume), and on the left was Astri Kusuma Wardani in her plastic kimono on a small sloping platform.

The head-turning dancer in the middle showed lively movement. In her gym-like costume, she began wriggling, moving her fingers, feet and body. As her hand motions slowed, there was a moment of silence. The sound of a zither, the clack of wooden clogs and the rhythmic resonance of a gong followed thereafter.

Despite her supple movement, she displayed attempts to get rid of the rope coil engulfing her from neck to feet. The two dancers behind started moving; the one on the right lifting her legs, waving the cloth on her arm and shifting her position, and the other on the left hardly shifting from her place. With such gestures, the wooden clogs kept clacking and the gong resounding, reflecting a feeling of unease.

Another silence prevailed, with no sound or motion. A plastic bag with water hanging at the back of the stage was dropped. And the three were in motion again. For 30 minutes, Enno, Galuh and Astri demonstrated their body signals and expressions almost without leaving their original positions.

Enno said after the show, “Klise is the story of concubines. I’m trying to portray the situation of women waiting for the time when they have to see the king, prime minister, governor or any other man to become their mistresses.”

Through Klise, Enno translates the “waiting time” into gesticulations and expressions of anxiety, resistance and finally resignation. This resignation is again interpreted as the women’s awareness of maintaining appearances so as to be worthy of serving as concubines.

The use of the kimono, added Enno, was inspired by the obedient attitude of Japanese women, who tended to give the best they had to their men. “But the concubines in my story aren’t Japanese women. I’ve only used the clothing,” said Enno, who earned the Empowering Woman Artist title from the
Yayasan Kelola (foundation) for the performance.

For her space experiment, Enno gave her artistic touch by placing a plastic kimono in the foreground. She also made a slanting platform for one of her dancers to make her rear position more prominent. The dancers and their costumes became part of the space of choreography.

Musical illustrations also served to set as the show’s setting and installation. At certain moments the sounds of the zither, clogs and gong boosted the power of body gestures and rhythms. Arranged by Gunawan Gondrong, the music functioned as an illustration at one time and an installation at another.

Perfect mix: Enno Sulistyorini (left) and Dewi Galuh Sintosari in their dance performance, Klise, staged at Galeri Kecil, Central Java Cultural Center, Surakarta. Choreographer Enno combines dance, music and installation.Perfect mix: Enno Sulistyorini (left) and Dewi Galuh Sintosari in their dance performance, Klise, staged at Galeri Kecil, Central Java Cultural Center, Surakarta. Choreographer Enno combines dance, music and installation.“The musicians and their property were thus in the same room. This, too, was a space experiment,” said Enno, who was born in Surakarta on May 4, 1981. Klise itself is an experimental blend of installation art, music and dance.

So far, according to her, music has just given illustration. In Klise, music and dance combine into a repertoire that can be enjoyed as a performance rather than accompaniment.

The story offered by the three Surakarta dancers that evening in fact didn’t flow in a linear fashion. They were preoccupied with their respective gesticulations that seemed unrelated to each other. The “waiting women” were perhaps only revealed to the audience in the synopsis, and later perhaps from the leading dancer’s attempt to escape the coil of rope. Even the falling plastic bag of water was hard to fathom as a symbol due to her domination.

“It’s an experimental work, so I’ll be making further improvements. Klise is actually also an enhancement of my previous creations, which were Samparan, Moving Space and Ruang Dalam Tubuh [inner body space],” Enno said.


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Mandy Moore Lands New ABC Comedy

Singer/Actress Mandy Moore has landed a deal with ABC, starring in a single-camera comedy about a newlywed couple.

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New Mac OS X malware with DDoS functionality spotted in the wild

Security researchers from multiple companies, have spotted a new Mac OS X malware. Dubbed ‘Tsunami’, the malware’s primary goal is to act as platform for executing distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.

What’s particularly interesting about this backdoor, is the fact that malware coders have ported the malware bot from Linux to Mac OS X in an attempt to enter the Mac OS X market segment.

See also:

More on the malware:

In addition to enabling DDoS attacks, the backdoor can enable a remote user to download files, such as additional malware or updates to the Tsunami code.  The malware can also execute shell commands, giving it the ability to essentially take control of the affected machine. In terms of functionality, the Mac variant of the backdoor is similar to its older Linux brother, with only the IRC server, channel and password changed and the greatest difference being that it’s a 64-bit Mach-O binary instead of an ELF binary.

The malware is currently detected as OSX/Tsunami-A.

Related posts:

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Mandy Moore Lands New ABC Comedy

Singer/Actress Mandy Moore has landed a deal with ABC, starring in a single-camera comedy about a newlywed couple.

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Is HP permanently broken?

The continuing soap opera that is Hewlett-Packard’s boardroom and executive suite raises the question: is HP permanently broken?

Devices vs systems
HP started building devices (an audio oscillator) in the 1930s. They remain largely a device company – even after spinning off instrumentation and test equipment - to this day with printers and PCs.

As a device company HP was characterized by strong product divisions building premium quality and, often, market-leading products. HP pioneered the programmable calculator business in the early 70s and the HP 12C business calculator has been a top seller for decades. And they’ve done well with printers.

But the computer business is about systems, not devices, and here HP has had a harder time finding its way. For example, its early PCs and minicomputers used instrument buses to connect peripherals rather than more standard computer buses: handy for the instrument business but not so good for users.

With the collapse of the minicomputer industry in the late 80s, and the success of HP’s printer business, HP was almost the only minicomputer maker able to survive the transition to a PC dominated era. But it wasn’t until they acquired Compaq – who had earlier acquired the leading minicomputer maker DEC – that HP got engineers with a serious system and storage focus. And it wasn’t until Cisco entered the server business that HP got serious about networking.

HP’s big problem
While there is plenty of grist for the tabloid mill in HP’s executive circus – why does a millionaire CEO fiddle expenses for dinner with a woman who isn’t his wife? – the board’s lack of a strategic vision keeps them from setting priorities for the CEO. In other words, when you don’t know where you want to go, any CEO will do.

In 1999 HP divested its multi-billion-dollar test equipment business to better focus on its systems businesses. That was a good start but it did not go far enough.

Going forward
The company needs to go all in on systems. This means:

  • Spinning off the remaining non-systems businesses including printers, calculators, imaging and PCs.
  • Focus on quality systems solutions to major business problems, instead of raw devices spackled together with professional services.
  • Committing to massive disruption of the storage and networking businesses by moving to 40% gross margins from the current 60+% range through the use of volume and scale out technologies, open source software and targeted innovation leveraging the latest technology.

Can HP compete with 40% gross margins? Well, Apple has done pretty well.

New franchises in the IT industry are built on major disruption of existing markets. Storage and networks are ripe for disruption and HP is well-positioned to remake the economics.

The Storage Bits take
These issues are why HP’s board appears to be riven by intractable disagreements and hamstrung by the enormous sprawl of HP. The company lacks a strategic vision, but it is profitable enough that no one wants to shake things up.

Companies, like people, rarely make hard choices until they are in crisis. And HP is far from crisis.

But the current board – hardly a hardware systems exec among them – has no strategic vision for the company. And HP’s portfolio of businesses will evade serious crisis for years.

It is other players that will force the issue.

  • Intel is powerful and highly profitable and continues to cast about for new ways to leverage its chipmaking prowess.
  • Apple has a huge war chest and a vision for consumers that will ultimately drive the systems business.
  • Cisco still wants into the server business and is increasingly desperate.
  • Storage vendor EMC’s successful technology publishing model is sucking up a rising percentage of the highest margin sales.

Somehow, someday, these players and other secular trends will come together to bring an external crisis upon HP. That is when hard choices will be made.

Until then, enjoy the show.

Comments welcome, of course. I started watching HP in the early ’80s when I worked at DEC. I wish they’d get their storage act together.

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Thursday, October 27, 2011

'Burn Notice' Season Premiere Sneak Peek

USA Network’s hit sun-soaked spy drama Burn Notice returns with six all-new episodes of the fifth season on Thursday, November 3 at 10/9c.

The series stars Jeffrey Donovan (“J. Edgar”), Gabrielle Anwar (“The Tudors”), Bruce Campbell (“Cars 2”), Sharon Gless (“Nip/Tuck”) and Coby Bell (“The Game”).

Guest stars this season include Dean Cain (“Superman”), Eric Roberts (“The Dark Knight”), Lauren Stamile (“Off Centre”), Kristanna Loken (“Terminator 3”), Jere Burns (“Dear John”), Indigo (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”), Andre Holland (“Bride Wars”), Ian Anthony Dale (“The Hangover”) and Ptolemy Slocum (“Hitch”).

The mid-season summer finale of Burn Notice left blacklisted spy Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan) at the beck and call of a new breed of bad guy who infiltrates his life in deeper ways than ever before. As Michael continues working alongside his former agency in Miami, he’s forced to protect his loved ones by aiding an enemy. Helping him along the way are his beautifully hot-tempered, on-again girlfriend Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar); our favorite Mojito-loving retired Navy Seal, Sam (Bruce Campbell); and burned counterintelligence expert, Jesse Porter (Coby Bell). Michael’s sharp-tongued mother Madeline (Emmy® Award-winner Sharon Gless) also returns, ready to heat up South Beach. 

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Cesc: Messi Terlahir untuk Jadi Pemenang

Getty ImagesBeritabola.com Barcelona -
Lionel Messi sudah absen mencetak gol dalam tiga pertandingan terakhir
Barcelona di semua ajang. Menyebut rekannya terlahir untuk jadi
pemenang, Cecs Fabregas percaya kalau 'Si Kutu' akan segera kembali
cetak gol.

Secara keseluruhan, penampilan Messi bersama
Blaugrana sepanjang musim ini nasih sangat memuaskan. Dengan catatan
16 gol dan 10 assist dalam 15 kali penampilan jadi bukti ketajaman
penyerang asal Argentina itu.

Namun, dalam tiga pertandingan
terakhir Barca, ketajaman El Messiah seakan sirna. Puncaknya terjadi
saat Messi gagal mengkonversi sebuah tendangan penalti saat Barca
ditahan Sevila di kandangnya, Stadion Camp Nou.

Namun kondisi
tersebut tak lantas membuat Cesc Fabregas hilang kepercayaan pada
rekannya itu. Fabregas yakin bahwa Messi akan mampu mengembalikan
sentuhannya yang menghilang di tiga pertandingan
terakhir.

"Messi adalah yang terbaik dan terlahir untuk jadi
pemenang," ungkap Fabregas pada Mundo Deportivo. "Messi selalu ingin
mencetak gol, namun itu tidak dilakukannya di hari
Rabu."

"Bagaimanapun juga, hal hebat mengenai sepak bola adalah
bahwa pemain terbaik tidak membutuhkan waktu banyak untuk mendapatkan
kembali kemampuannya," tambah Fabregas.

Terkait ketajaman
Messi, Fabregas yakin kalau akhir pekan ini pesepakbola 24 tahun itu
akan bisa kembali berkontribusi dengan gol-golnya. Barca akan menjamu
Real Mallorca dalam lanjutan Liga Spanyol akhir pekan ini.

"Di
hari Sabtu (29/10) besok dia akan mendapatkan kesempatan lain untuk
membuktikan jika dia yang terhebat," tutup pemain 24 tahun asal
Spanyol itu.
(dtc/din)

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Reshuffle joke

Reshuffle joke
The Jakarta Post | Mon, 03/14/2011 12:47 PM
A | A | A |

Reshuffle joke: by Irma R DamayantiReshuffle joke: by Irma R Damayanti

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Officials deny Papua alert status

Officials deny Papua alert status
Arya Dipa and Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung | Thu, 10/27/2011 6:53 AM
A | A | A |

The Free Papua Movement (OPM) denied that the organization was behind the killing of Mulia Police chief Adj. Comr. Dominggus Oktavianus Awes.

OPM international spokesman John Otto Ondawame said Dominggus was one of “those who must take responsibility for the series of crimes against humanity in Puncak Jaya”.

In his email sent to The Jakarta Post on Wednesday, the Vanuatu-based Ondawame accused the police and military of having been behind “increased human rights abuses, barbaric killings, tortures, intimidation and rapes against innocent civilians in the area”.

He also said the deployment of more troops to Papua would “create devastating effects on civilian lives”.

“Such a deployment will never destroy the true aspiration of the people of West Papua. Rather it will encourage their sentiment against Jakarta,” he said, adding that the leaders of the people of West Papua had always called on the Indonesian government to withdraw security forces from the region.

“We strongly believe that through peace talks we can find the best solution to the long-standing issue of West Papua. Is Jakarta ready to enter into new round-table peace talks?”

The situation in Papua has been tense for the past two weeks following a series of shootings that have claimed the lives of eight people, including Dominggus.

However, the government has revised a previous statement on the security status of Papua, saying there was no plan to send further Indonesian Military (TNI) and police troops to the troubled province despite rising tensions.

Defense Minister Purnomo Yusginatoro denied a previous statement made by National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Anton Bachrul Alam that the status of Puncak Jaya had been elevated to “Alert 1”.

“The disorder only took place in Puncak Jaya. The third Papuan People’s Congress was held in Abepura. It is still within the police’s jurisdiction,” Purnomo told reporters in Bandung on Wednesday when accompanying President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on his visit to PT Dirgantara Indonesia.

“Currently, none of our troops are from outside Papua. The situation is being handled by troops from the local garrison. There has been no reinforcement of combat troops in Papua,” said Purnomo.

Anton said on Tuesday that more than 170 officers of the police Mobile Brigade had been deployed to Papua while Papua Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Wachyono said 280 mobile brigade officers would be sent from Jakarta over the next few days.

Papua interim governor Syamsul Arief Rivai urged the congregation of Gereja Kristen Injili (GKI) to turn Papua into a peaceful paradise.

“Let’s turn Papua into a little heaven, like the lyrics of the song; a piece of heaven on Earth,” he said at the opening of the Papua GKI synod congress in Sentani, Jayapura.

Papua GKI synod leader Rev. Yemima Krey Mirino called on the government to sit down with the Papuan people to discuss the current problems.

“The government must be willing to hear what is happening and then work together to seek a solution, so people can live in peace,” he said.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono emphasized the government’s stance on defending the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. “We love peace but we must defend the unitary state of the Republic of Indonesia at all costs.”

Nethy D. Somba
and Bagus BT Saragih contributed to this story

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T-Mobile announces HTC Radar 4G coming 2 November for $99.99

T-Mobile revealed some release details for their upcoming HTC Radar 4G Windows Phone 7.5 device on their Twitter account. The HTC Radar 4G will be released on 2 November for $99.99 with a 2-year contract. Generally a device with this subsidized cost comes in at about $399.99 with no contract. I should have some more details for you next week too ;)

I have already stated this will likely be my wife’s next phone if the camera can perform well and as shown in this Pocket-lint review it looks quite good. Aaron also has a hands-on video of the HTC Radar 4G over on PhoneDog.com so check that out too.

I will be at Nokia World this week and will get to see the new Nokia Windows Phone devices that will be announced. I hope at least one comes to T-Mobile USA, but if not then the HTC Radar 4G is a good candidate to consider. My only hesitation is the limited, and non-expandable, 8GB memory since I have 32GB in both my HTC HD7 and Dell Venue Pro and really can’t go with anything less than 16GB.

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Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Hundreds of Shacks in Tanjung Priok Toll Pit Dismantled

North Jakarta Satpol PP and local Binmas personnel dismantled hundreds
of illegal shacks in Tanjung Priok toll pit, North Jakarta, Wednesday
(10/26)

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Pekojan Mosque, Witness of Indonesia-Arab Friendship

Most of the people passing along Jl. Pekojan Raya, Tambora, West
Jakarta, probably do not realize about the presence of an old mosque
with high historical values located at the left side of the road. The
mosque is not only known as a place where Islamic teachings spread
from colonial era until now, but also as witness of historical
friendship between Indonesia and Middle East nations, particularly
Arabians. No wonder if Pekojan area, where the mosque located, is
called as Arab Village

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Android 4.0's Five Best New Features for Users

Welcome to Android 4: Ice Cream Sandwich

Welcome to Android 4: Ice Cream Sandwich

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Lifebook dari Fujitsu

FUJITSU menorehkan debut dengan meluncurkan notebook
bernama Lifebook SH771. Produk perusahaan ternama di Jepang itu
memiliki layar berukuran 13,3 inci, berat 1,22 kg dan baterai yang
tahan hingga 18 jam.

"Fujitsu mengerti kebutuhan akan
keseimbangan antara ketahanan dan portabilitas dalam aktivitas
sehari-hari. Karenanya, kami membuat produk ini," ujar Lim Teck Sin,
Wakil Kepala Product Marketing an Engineering Fujitsu PC Asia
Pasifik.

Produk tersebut memberikan dua pilihan Intel Core
processor i7 dan i5 yang didukung hard disk drive sebesar 500 Gb.
Untuk Lifebook dengan i7 akan dijual sekitar US$2.500 dan i5 sebesar
US$1.800. Keduanya direncanakan akan beredar di Indonesia pada
Desember.

Lifebook dilengkapi dengan USB anytime charging dan
USB3.0 port sehingga bisa mengisi baterai smartphone, PSP, MP3 player,
dan gadget lainnya tanpa harus mengaktifkan notebook.

Dengan
layar monitor Super Fine HD back light LED dan daya terang hingga 300
nits, pengguna bisa juga menikmati video dan film. Dilengkapi dengan
DTS Boost, notebook mampu memerikan suara jernih dan meningkatkan
kenyaringan dengan mengurangi kebisingan di sekitar. (MI/BEY)

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TNI-Polri Kejar Kelompok Bersenjata di Papua

Metrotvnews.com, Magelang: Panglima TNI Laksamana TNI
Agus Suhartono mengatakan, personel TNI dan Polri terus mengejer
kelompok bersenjata di Papua. "TNI dan Polri secara bersinergi hingga
sekarang terus melakukan pengejaran terhadap kelompok-kelompok
bersenjata," katanya di Magelang, Jawa Tengah, Rabu (26/10).

Ia
mengatakan hal tersebut usai acara wisuda prajurit taruna Akademi TNI
tahun pelajaran 2011/2012 di Lapangan Sapta Marga, kompleks Akademi
Militer Magelang. Menurutnya, permasalahannya kelompok bersenjata itu
berbaur dengan masyarakat. "Jadi yang dihadapi pasti lebih menguasai
medan. Mereka berbaur dengan masyarakat sehingga sulit sekali. Aparat
mendeteksi seseorang kalau tidak sedang membawa senjata mana petugas
tahu mereka kelompok bersenjata atau bukan," katanya.

Namun, ia
menambahkan kalau sudah menjadi target pasti akan diketahui, yang
penting adalah keamanan masyarakat. Menurutnya, masalah di Papua
sampai sekarang dalam kondisi terkoordinir. Artinya semua kegiatan
yang dilakukan masih dalam konteks sipil. Karena itu TNI membantu
tugas-tugas kepolisian.

"Mereka yang dikerahkan di sana (Papua)
adalah pasukan TNI kewilayahan, di bawah Kodam Cendrawasih. Kami tidak
akan menambah kekuatan dari sini, tetapi masih memanfaatkan pasukan
yang berada di Papua," katanya.

Ia menuturkan, TNI tetap
membantu kepolisian dalam hal operasi keamanan dalam konteks operasi
kepolisian. "Penambahan pasukan dilakukan Brimob. Sekali lagi
konteksnya operasi kepolisian. Kami menggunakan pasukan kewilayahan,"
katanya.(Ant/BEY)

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23 percent of companies offer customer support via Facebook

MarketTools, an online market research company that also provides software and services for enterprise feedback management (EFM), has released a new social media study. The biggest finding is that almost one-quarter of companies (23 percent to be exact) provide customer service and support via Facebook, and just over a tenth of firms (12 percent) provide customer service and support via Twitter.

MarketTools conducted the study in September 2011 by surveying executives at companies with annual revenue greater than $10 million. It’s not clear how many companies were asked to participate, but in the end there were 331 completed surveys.

The study found 34 percent of the executives surveyed stated that they were aware of customers using social media to comment on or complain about their company and its products. Despite this, less than a quarter of these executives said that their companies “always” respond to these customers. Still, 33 percent of them said their companies have a greater focus on using social media to capture customer feedback when compared to the same time last year.

Of the 68 percent of companies that have an active presence in social media, Facebook tends to be the first choice. 48 percent have an active presence on Facebook, 24 percent have a Twitter account, and just 17 percent use their own company blog.

Interestingly, only about 22 percent of those surveyed stated that their company’s CEO regularly participates in social media on behalf of the company. Facebook is again the social media channel of choice: 68 percent of CEOs use Facebook, 44 percent participate on the company blog, and 35 percent participate on Twitter.

On the one hand, 95 percent of respondents believe that satisfied customers are very important or extremely important to their company. On the other hand, only 36 percent have formal voice of the customer programs in place to collect and analyze customer feedback, and of those companies, nearly half (45 percent) solicit customer feedback on a quarterly or less frequent basis.

“Companies are increasingly embracing social media as a way to interact with their customers, though they are missing an opportunity to incorporate this feedback into a voice of the customer program,” Karin Adams, Director of Enterprise Products at MarketTools, said in a statement. “Organizations that use enterprise feedback management solutions are able to analyze feedback gathered through social media channels, along with feedback gathered through more traditional channels, to uncover insights to help improve business processes that lead to higher overall customer satisfaction.”

See also:

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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

RUU BPJS Diragukan Rampung Bulan Ini

Metrotvnews.com, Jakarta: Pembahasan RUU Badan
Penyelenggara Jaminan Sosial (BPJS) masih dilakukan antara pemerintah
dan Pansus BPJS di DPR. Berlarut-larutnya pembahasan membuat RUU
tersebut pesimistis selesai diakhir masa sidang saat
ini.

"Melihat dari kondisi yang berjalan saat ini, saya
pesimistis RUU BPJS terwujud. Persoalannya masih kompleks, jadi sisa
waktu yang tinggal beberapa hari tidak mungkin terselesaikan," kata
pengamat ekonomi Ahmad Erani Yustika ketika dihubungi, Selasa
(25/10).

Seperti diketahui, RUU BPJS masih terganjal sikap
pemerintah dan Pansus DPR yang tidak menghasilkan titik temu terkait
pembentukan BPJS II. Pemerintah ingin BPJS II terbentuk pada tahun
2015 sedangkan Pansus DPR ingin tahun 2014, bersamaan dengan
pembentukan BPJS I.

BPJS I yakni BPJS yang mewadahi jaminan
kesehatan, kecelakaan dan kematian. Sedangkan BPJS II melingkupi
jaminan pensiun dan hari tua.

Menurut Erani, persoalan esensial
yang masih menjadi penghalang yakni beban anggaran yang akan
ditanggung pemerintah dan peleburan BUMN-BUMN yang selama ini melayani
jaminan sosial.

"Kembali kepada niat pemerintah. Persoalannya
apakah anggaran bersedia disedot ke BPJS, kemudian apakah mau
BUMN-BUMN itu dilebur. Ini permasalahan yang krusial yang belum
terselesaikan," urai Erani.

RUU BPJS sudah empat kali masa
sidang batal disahkan oleh DPR. Pemerintah dan DPR selalu alot dalam
pembahasan, padahal RUU tersebut memasuki tenggat waktu tanggal 28
Oktober esok.(MI/DNI)

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Court acquits two iPad re-sellers

Court acquits two iPad re-sellers
The Jakarta Post | Tue, 10/25/2011 5:01 PM
A | A | A |

The Central Jakarta District Court acquitted iPad merchants Dian Yudha Negara and Randy Lester Samu of charges that they broke the law by selling Apple iPads without Indonesian manuals.

“Defendants Dian Yudha Negara and Randy Lester Samu have been found not guilty,” presiding judge Sapawi said in his verdict as quoted by tribunnews.com on Tuesday.

The defendants had been charged with violating the 1999 Consumer Protection Law.

An article in the law requires vendors to provide an Indonesian manual for the electronic devices they sell.

However, according to the judge, in reference to a 1999 Trade Minister Decree, iPad is not classified as an electronic device that must come with an Indonesian language manual.

The two were also charged under the 1999 Telecommunications Law for reselling iPads without proper certification.

Sapawi said the 1999 Telecommunications Law only addressed distributors, institutions and importers, while Dian and Randy were acting individually, “hence, the regulation does not apply to them”.

Prosecutors previously demanded a five-month jail term for both.

Dian and Randy were arrested in November last year in a sting operation carried out by undercover police officers seeking to buy eight iPads over an Internet forum.

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Religious radicalism and the masculinization of God

Religious radicalism and the masculinization of God
Satrio Wahono, Jakarta | Mon, 10/24/2011 6:56 PM
A | A | A |

We apparently live in fear now that terrorist bombers are flourishing in the country. Less than a year after the suicide bombing of the police headquarters in Cirebon, West Java, we have again been shocked by similar acts of terror at Bethel Injil Sepenuh Church (GBIS) in Surakarta, Central Java, in late September.

This series of events inevitably leads us to the gloomy conclusion that the movement driven by radical religious doctrine has not disappeared in Indonesia. Such a doctrine believes that any means — including the use of violence — are justified to overthrow an order perceived as secular and corrupt. In exchange, followers of the doctrine aspire to establish an ideal order that they believe will be approved by God. Therefore, analyzing such a doctrine is important for us in an attempt to neutralize it.

If we assume that radical doctrine justifying the use of violence is a dependent variable, a possible independent variable is what I call the “masculinization of God”, which means a doctrine that perceives God as a “He” or a “Man” who is strict, violent, reason-oriented and shares typical male characteristics.

Any gender theory will teach us that there is a distinct demarcation between masculinity and femininity. The former is identical with reason, which leads to an ambition to have control over nature and seek singular truth. It is also emotionless and violent. In short, the spirit of masculinity is the spirit of domination.

On the other hand, the latter is identical with emotion, leading someone with a feminine nature to develop peaceful and caring characteristics. In other words, the spirit of femininity is the spirit of restoration.

Based on the binary opposition, the masculinization of God inherently contains two erroneous assumptions. First, the process assumes God, which is supposed to be gender neutral, as a substance that recognizes sex. In the context of Islam, for example, as illustrated by Dr. Kaukab Siddique in Menggugat Tuhan yang Maskulin (Critiquing Masculine God), this is partially because the Koran refers to God as huwa (“He” in Arabic).

Second, the first erroneous assumption perceiving God as dominantly male in turn generates a masculinized version of Islam. This means that such a version of Islam venerates physical power and justifies any means to achieve dominance over other parties, especially over those that are different or a minority.

How unfortunate it is since the two erroneous assumptions can actually be overcome if Muslims realize that the Koran doesn’t always use masculine terms to refer to Allah. For example, every chapter (sura) in the Koran always begins with “In the Name of God, the All-Compassionate and Merciful (rahîm)”.

The word rahîm is derived from rahm or womb, which is identical with women and femininity. As a consequence, God essentially also has feminine attributes that prioritizes restoration over domination, caring and nursing people over coercing them. In turn, this creates a possibility to postulate a version of Islam that is more peaceful, tolerant, inclusive, kind and caring for people who are different and in the minority.

Since one of the factors causing the religious radicalism that is behind the suicide bombers is the masculinization of God, a logical solution to the problem should be to restore the perception that God is the omnipotent substance that should be gender neutral. In short, this means that we have to demasculinize God.

Based on the perspective, God or Allah is neither a male nor a female. Therefore, God actually has feminine as well as masculine attributes. Moreover, the Mercy of God covers all creatures, making God only see the deeds of people, not their gender, in passing His judgment.

As a result, the demasculinization of God should be conducted by recognizing and incorporating feminine attributes into religious doctrine in order to promote a balanced version of religion.

That is, a version of religion that aligns emotion with reason, peaceful attitude and strictness, domination with restoration. Hopefully, such a version will bring us an inclusive religion that believes other religions can also offer ways to achieve salvation in the afterlife.

Such an inclusive version of religion is not impossible. For example, one clause in the Second Vatican Council reads that Christianity believes there are other means of afterlife salvation in other religions, since the mercy of God transcends and surpasses the boundaries of theological doctrine.

All in all, it is the right direction for us to avoid classifying God as a masculine substance, since God should indeed be gender-neutral. Besides, the masculinization of God will only bring us a dangerous version of religious radicalism whose side effects can assume a destructive form such as a suicide bomb.

So, it will be better for all of us faithful to believe in a gender-neutral God to promote a future version of religion that can provide mankind with hope and enlightenment instead of destruction.

The author is a columnist and writer.

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