April 3, 2009

It has happened to all of us. You compose an email and click the Send key … only to instantly realize that you sent it to the wrong person. Your next step is to frantically scramble for your email Outbox to try and stop the transmission. You open the Outbox just in time to see the email disappear from your pending list, spread wings and fly out into the cyber universe.

Did you just get sweaty palms reading that? If you’re lucky your gaffe was an innocuous little message inadvertently sent to the wrong friend. No harm, no foul. If you’re unlucky it was an email that will end up insulting someone or damaging a business relationship. However if you’re really, really unlucky, you mistakenly sent the email to an entire list of the wrong people. Maybe 28,000 people?? Yes, that’s what some unfortunate fellow at UC San Diego did earlier this week. In what has been an exceptionally difficult college admission year in California, 28,000 applicants to UC San Diego received an acceptance email earlier this week. The e-mail began, “We’re thrilled that you’ve been admitted to UC San Diego”. Their jubilation quickly turned sour however when they later received a second email stating that a mistake had occured. They had actually not been accepted. According to UCSD admissions director Mae Brown the email was sent to the entire list of 46,000 applicants instead of only the 18,000 who had been accepted.

Oops … sorry.

We live in an age of instant communications. Email has already replaced “snail mail”. That debate has long been officially concluded. Unfortunately the tortoise had no real fighting chance against the hare. In fact, email itself is now being scorned for being too slow and is being superceded by texting and instant messaging. People want and expect to receive information immediately. Not so long ago we had to wait days or weeks to receive information sent by mail. Today, critical data regularly traverses the globe in seconds.

Part of my working life is spent in the IT world. Rarely does a week pass without someone asking if they can retrieve an email that was sent in error. There are systems aplenty to recover deleted files. As a general rule however, you cannot recover an email once it has been sent. Speeding on the information super-highway can be a little dangerous at times. I know of at least one administrator at UC San Diego that is longing for the good old days of the tortoise.

The full LA Times story is at UCSD Sends 28,000 Acceptance E-mails in Error Read More »

Call her “Esther” or Madonna and still, the high priestess of Jewish mysticism is wading in troubled waters.

This morning, the Malawian government rejected Madonna’s petition to adopt a second Malawi-born child. The ruling judge said he felt the 4-year-old child, Chifundo “Mercy” James, was being well taken care of in a Malawian orphanage where she was receiving an education and lived near her relatives.

Seriously? An ORPHANAGE better than the life Madonna could provide?

Not so fast. It looks like there may be another reason why the Malawian government is incensed at the Material Girl, and perhaps, used a routine adoption as an opportunity for revenge.

Earlier this week FOX News reported that millions of dollars from Madonna’s 2008 “Raising Malawi” fundraiser had vanished:

Before Madonna ‘adopts’ another child from Malawi, maybe someone should ask her where the money went from her big star studded 2008 fundraiser for that country. We tried: this column has tried to ascertain from The Gucci Foundation and from Madonna’s Kabbalah-backed Raising Malawi, where the estimated $3.7 million has gone from the February 6, 2008 extravaganza. So far: No answers.

The 2008 event, co-sponsored by The Gucci Foundation and UNICEF was a lavish New York City affair. Many of Madonna’s A-list friends were there including fellow Kabbalists Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore, as well as offbeat religionists Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes.

The Huffington Post reported:

Celebrities paid $2,500 to $10,000 each to dine on grappa-cured salmon, wild striped bass, tart of goat cheese, foraged mushrooms, truffled mashed potatoes and sticky toffee pudding with creme fraiche…

Tom Cruise bid $100,000 for a sports package that included the privilege of hanging out at Yankee Stadium with Alex Rodriguez and a private hour playing soccer with David Beckham, but lost out to a bidder who ponied up $350,000.

“It was an extraordinary evening. The whole evening was quite moving,” Cruise told The Associated Press, accompanied by his wife, Katie Holmes, who agreed. Cruise called the United Nations “an absolute necessity” because of the staff who dedicate their lives to building peace.

A trip to Paris with a tour of a vineyard and lunch with Francois-Henri Pinault and Salma Hayek went for $120,000. The priciest auction item was a $600,000 winning bid to tour with Madonna and take a dance class with her and Gwyneth Paltrow.

The party was clearly a success, but the benefit part was not. Perhaps the Malawian government doesn’t trust Madonna. They’ve probably been wondering why it has taken over a year to account for all that auction money – and now they’re pissed because it’s still missing.

And then there’s the highfalutin Kabbalah Centre, who is equally responsible. Raising Malawi was co-created by Madonna and Michael Berg, the spiritual guru of The Kabbalah Centre in Los Angeles and is described as the organization’s official charitable foundation.

Yet according to the FOX News report, there was trouble at the get-go.

The fundraiser had some problems, however. Even though Raising Malawi had been in business for two years, it was still not approved as a sanctioned non-profit at the time. Instead, Gucci formed its own Foundation — known as a 501 c3 — to collect the money. They brought UNICEF on board to give the event a feeling of legitimacy. But in the end, the efforts expended were for Raising Malawi, an organization founded by the Kabbalah Center of Los Angeles. Raising Malawi teaches the Kabbalah curriculum, called Spirituality for Kids, to Malawi orphans.

Now, fourteen months after the fundraiser, there’s no accounting for the money that came in. At the time, Gucci claimed that they’d underwritten the entire event, that $3.7 million had been raised and that it had been split between Raising Malawi and UNICEF.

But since then, the Gucci Foundation has still not filed a Form 990 tax statement, and neither has Raising Malawi. Calls to Gucci haven’t provided any information, and calls and emails to Raising Malawi haven’t been returned.

In any case, the Kabbalah Centre should be able to answer where the $3.7 million went. But surprise, surprise – they’re not talking either.

Two phone calls I made to The Kabbalah Centre were misdirected. The person with whom I was told to speak had no voicemail. I then called Philippe van den Bossche, the L.A.-based executive director of “Raising Malawi” and was told he is currently traveling. So I emailed Mr. van den Bossche along with the foundation’s public relations contact, and so far…not a word.

Where the money went and why no one is talking is a bit of a mystery. Or really bad PR. Is it mere coincidence that in the same week this report leaked, Madonna’s Malawi adoption was rejected? She didn’t have any trouble a few years ago when she adopted David Banda. In fact, the courts then waived the residency requirement they are now insisting she comply with.

It seems the government feels Madonna’s good intentions with the African country are dubious at best and careless at worst. For her part, Madonna promises to appeal their decision.

From Haaretz.com:
By Anshel Pfeffer, Jonathan Lis and Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service and Agencies

“Security sources said on Thursday that right-wing extremists are likely to attempt to avenge the terror attack in the West Bank settlement of Bat Ayin, in which an axe-wielding Palestinian killed a 13-year-old boy and left another boy, 7, moderately hurt.

The attacker apparently entered unhindered into Bat Ayin, which is located in the Etzion bloc between Jerusalem and the southern West Bank city of Hebron. The religious settlers there have refused to build a security fence around their community – standard practice in most settlements – saying it would be a sign of weakness.” Click here to read the rest of the article on Israel Fears Jewish Extremists Will Avenge Settlement Murder Read More »

Having lived in Israel for many years you become accustomed to checking for stray bags and suspicious people. Life in the US however has traditionally been safer and simpler. All that changed dramatically on the morning of 9/11. We’re on heightened security alert – from government all the way down to private citizens. And recently a new threat has started to emerge. The threat of a cyberattack. This is not the simple virus that attacks your personal computer and destroys your data. The nation’s economy and infrastructure are dependant upon computers. A cyberattack would potentially threaten our electricity grid, banking system, water supply, air traffic and more. It could quickly cripple our economy and cause sweeping chaos.

The Pentagon and National Security Agency have been protecting government and military networks from intrusion by hackers for a number of years. In recognition however that our national security demands far reaching security measures, several lawmakers are proposing new legislation that will empower government to create cybersecurity standards that extend to private industry for the very first time. The proposed Senate legislation, co-sponsored by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) and Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine), promises to dramatically escalate U.S. defenses against cyberattacks.

“People say this is a military or intelligence concern, but it’s a lot more than that,” Rockefeller said. “It suddenly gets into the realm of traffic lights and rail networks and water and electricity.”  Acknowledging that defense against cyberattacks would require an ongoing effort, Rockefeller said that the proposal would call for an ongoing, quadrennial review of the nation’s cyberdefenses. “It’s not a problem that will ever be completely solved,” he said.

The legislation calls for the appointment of a White House cybersecurity “czar” who would have unprecedented authority to shut down private computer networks that were under cyberattack. The Office of the “National Cybersecurity Adviser”, reports directly to the president. It would require establishment of “measurable and auditable cybersecurity standards” that applies to private companies as well as government.

For the full article, please refer to the Proposed Senate Legislation Federalizes Cybersecurity Read More »