A Fight to Win the Future: Computers vs. Humans

NYTimes

At the dawn of the modern computer era, two Pentagon-financed laboratories bracketed Stanford University. At one laboratory, a small group of scientists and engineers worked to replace the human mind, while at the other, a similar group worked to augment it.

In 1963 the mathematician-turned-computer scientist John McCarthy started the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. The researchers believed that it would take only a decade to create a thinking machine.

Also that year the computer scientist Douglas Engelbart formed what would become the Augmentation Research Center to pursue a radically different goal — designing a computing system that would instead “bootstrap” the human intelligence of small groups of scientists and engineers. [...]

Rav Amsalem acknowledges Army converts don't accept mitzva observance - but says they are Jewish anyway

YNET

  

גרים - גם אם לא מקיימים מצוות

הליטאים ממשיכים לתקוף את פסק ההלכה של הרב עובדיה יוסף, שהכשיר את גיורי צה"ל, בטענה שהגרים לא מקבלים על עצמם עול מצוות. הגיע הזמן להרמת מסך: נכון, הם לא מתכוונים להיות דתיים, אבל גיורם תקף - אפילו מלכתחילה

Abuse: Psychotherapist seduction of clients - Yes frum therapists do it also!

It is necessary to be aware of one of the clear and established dangers of psychotherapy. That is the therapeutic relationship makes it relatively easy for a therapist to seduce his/her client. Therapist and client  spend much secluded time together discussing very personal matters and often this involves intense emotion.

Even frum therapists - including rabbis - have seduced their clients. While it is clearly against the law - but this applies primarily to licensed therapists. Seduction by unlicensed therapists apparently is viewed as two consenting adults . While for licensed therapists it is acknowledged that the therapist has a position of authority and  thus sexual relationship with a client is viewed as an abuse of that authority. There is also a halachic problem. A married woman who has sexual relationship with a therapist is committing adultery and her husband needs to divorce her. When a frum married woman is seduced by her therapist - if she files a complaint her husband will most likely believe her and thus must divorce her.  The case if the husband doesn't know or doesn't believe his wife must be handled by a major posek. Because of this halachic problem - as well as the disgrace to the family - seduction often goes unreported in the frum community.

A woman (or man) who has been seduced by their therapist or rabbi needs to speak to a competent Rav who has the ability to organize community resources - including the police - to stop the therapist
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This page of Dr. Ken Pope provides some information. Aside from the terrible sin - there is the likelihood of serious psychological damage.

1. When people are hurting, unhappy, frightened, or confused, they may seek help from a therapist. They may be depressed, perhaps thinking of killing themselves. They may be unhappy in their work or relationships, and not know how to bring about change. They may be suffering trauma from rape, incest, or domestic violence. They may be bingeing and purging, abusing drugs and alcohol, or engaging in other behaviors that can destroy health and sometimes be fatal.
2. The therapeutic relationship is a special one, characterized by exceptional vulnerability and trust. People may talk to their therapists about thoughts, feelings, events, and behaviors that they would never disclose to anyone else. Every state in the United States has recognized the special nature of the therapeutic relationship and the special responsibilities that therapists have in relation to their clients by requiring special training and licensure for therapists, and by recognizing a therapist-patient privilege which safeguards the privacy of what patients talk about to their therapist.
3. A relatively small minority of therapists take advantage of the client's trust and vulnerability and of the power inherent in the therapist's role by sexually exploiting the client. Each state has prohibited this abuse of trust, vulnerability, and power through licensing regulations. Therapist-patient sex is also subject to civil law as a tort (i.e., offenders may be sued for malpractice), and some states have criminalized the offense. The ethics codes of all major mental health professionals prohibit the offense.

Parkinson drug causes compulsive behavior such as gambling

Time

 A drug fact-sheet put together by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists says that before taking ropinirole:

    ...you should know that some people who took medications such as ropinirole developed gambling problems or other intense urges or behaviors that were compulsive or unusual for them, such as increased sexual urges or behaviors. There is not enough information to tell whether the people developed these problems because they took the medication or for other reasons. Call your doctor if you have an urge to gamble that is difficult to control, you have intense urges, or you are unable to control your behavior.

Battle over televised kiruv המאבק הבא: הרב אמנון יצחק גם נגד 'הידברות

BHOL

מזה חודשים ארוכים, מתנהל מאבק שקט בבתי הרבנים והעסקנים נגד ערוץ הטלוויזיה 'הידברות'.

אולם, עוד בטרם יצא המאבק לדרכו באופן רשמי, ביום ג' האחרון, נשא הרב אמנון יצחק דברים חריפים בגנות הערוץ – והעלה את המאבק לכותרות 'בדלת האחורית'.

מה הבעיה בערוץ 'הידברות'?

ובכן, המתנגדים טוענים בתוקף, כי 'פעילות התשובה' עליה מספרים מנהלי הערוץ, היא רק תירוץ לבקשת תרומות ולהחתמת גדולי ישראל.

לדברי המתנגדים, ראשי הערוץ מסתירים מגדולי ישראל, שחתמו לטובת פעילות 'הידברות', את המידע החשוב לפיו מדובר בערוץ טלוויזיה לכל דבר, שניתן לצפות בו דרך הכבלים. בפני גדולי ישראל, מוצג 'הידברות' כ'ארגון תשובה' במסגרתו מועברות הרצאות - ולא כערוץ טלוויזיה.

"אם גדולי ישראל היו יודעים שמדובר בערוץ טלויזיה, לא רק שלא היו תומכים בו – אלא היו יוצאים נגדו חוצץ", טוענים עסקנים עמם שוחחנו.

Genetic Tests Can Unearth Family Secrets, Such as Incest

ABC News

The genetic tests that have revolutionized the identification and treatment of many illnesses can also unearth family secrets like incest, sparking an ethical discussion in the medical community over how these inadvertent findings should be handled.

At Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, sophisticated DNA analyses used to diagnose such disabilities as birth defects, epilepsy or developmental delays revealed that in some children, about 25 percent of genetic material inherited from their mother was the same as material inherited from their father. That suggested their parents were first-degree relatives -- father and daughter, brother and sister, or mother and son. Children who inherited half as much identical DNA from both parents likely were the offspring of second-degree relatives, such as an uncle and niece. Had the mothers and fathers of these youngsters been unrelated, those same stretches of DNA would have differed.

In the few months that Baylor has been performing these detailed genetic tests, there have been fewer than 10 cases of consanguinity -- the phenomenon of inheriting the same gene variations from two closely related people, said Dr. Arthur L. Beaudet, chairman of Baylor's department of molecular and human genetics. However, wider use of such testing in children with disabilities is expected to identify additional cases of incestuous parentage. [...]

Yeshiva Fair Is a Bastion for Jewish Books of the Printed Variety

NYTimes

There, in a cavernous hall on its campus, Yeshiva University is holding its annual seforim sale — its book fair. It offers 150,000 new and incontrovertibly genuine books — printed and bound — of 13,000 titles. They include gilded volumes of Torah and Talmud, novels, cookbooks, biographies, humor collections, self-help guides and children’s picture books, all Jewish-themed.

The fair opened on Sunday and ends on Feb. 27; 15,000 people are expected to visit and to spend a total of $1 million [...]

Director of National Intelligence says Muslim Brotherhood is "largely secular"

YNET

US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said during a House Intelligence Committee hearing Thursday that Egypt’s branch of the Muslim Brotherhood movement was "a very heterogeneous group, largely secular, which has eschewed violence and has decried al-Qaeda as a perversion of Islam." [...]

Rav Ovadia Yosef's original letter validating army conversions

Interior Ministry gets tough on int'l Orthodox conversions

JPost

Is the Interior Ministry attempting to encourage non-Orthodox conversions for people planning on making aliya? Probably not, but the ministry’s current conduct appears to make it far easier for Reform and Conservative converts to be recognized for the purpose of immigrating and receiving Israeli citizenship.

A recent letter sent by the ministry to Rabbi Seth Farber, head of the ITIM organization, states that its authority on determining the validity of Orthodox conversions from abroad for the purpose of granting Israeli citizenship is the Israeli Chief Rabbinate. This means that if the rabbinate does not recognize the Orthodox conversion court, not only will the convert be deemed non-Jewish in Israel, he or she will also not be recognized by the state for citizenship.[...]

Army Geirus - Psak of Rav Amar with comments by Rav Ovadiah Yosef