Why Are Gamers So Much Better Than Scientists at Catching Fraud?

 https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/07/gamers-are-better-scientists-catching-fraud/619324/

 Two weeks before Dream’s confession, and halfway around the world, another fraud scandal had just come to a conclusion. Following a long investigation, Japan’s Showa University released a report on one of its anesthesiology researchers, Hironobu Ueshima. Ueshima had turned out to be one of the most prolific scientific frauds in history, having partly or entirely fabricated records and data in at least 84 scientific papers, and altered data and misrepresented authorship on dozens more. Like Dream, Ueshima would eventually come clean and apologize—but only after a data sleuth had spotted strange anomalies in his publications. Many of his papers have already been expunged from the scientific literature.

 But the consequences of ignoring fraud can be drastic too, and whole evidence bases, sometimes for medical treatments, can be polluted by fraudulent studies. The entire purpose of the scientific endeavor is brought into question if its gatekeepers—the reviewers and editors and others who are supposed to be the custodians of scientific probity—are so often presented with evidence of fraud and so often fail to take action.

Operations for greater running speed

 Sanhedrin (21b) The verse continues: “And he prepared for himself chariots and riders and fifty people to run before him” (I Kings 1:5). The Gemara asks: What is the novelty of these actions, since other wealthy people do the same, even if they are not the sons of kings, with designs on the throne? Rav Yehuda says that Rav says: What was unique was that the runners all had their spleens removed and had the soles of their feet hollowed, removing the flesh of their feet, and these two procedures enhanced their speed. 

 Rashi 
נטולי טחול וחקוקי כפות הרגלים - נטולי טחול על ידי סם שהטחול מכבידו לאדם וחקוקי כפות הרגלים אין בשר בפרסותיהם ורצים על הקוצים ועל הברקנין ואינן ניזוקין: 

 

A runner'S - YUTorah

 A Runner’s “quick” fix:
Medical splenectomies in the Torah   Ayelet Bersson - 

The Gemara in Sanhedrin (21B) comments on this pasuk that these specified servants of Adoniya’s had their spleens surgically removed, enabling them to run faster. Rashi further elucidates that the spleen weighs a person down; thus, its removal causes increased speed.
As unusual as the Gemara’s explanation sounds, removal of the spleen to increase speed was actually a common surgical procedure throughout ancient times. In Pliny the Elder’s The Natural History, a Roman encyclopedic work written around 77 AD, Pliny cites an idea that the extirpation of the spleen “renders runners more efficient” [1]. In the Greek culture as well, marathon runners often removed their spleens to increase their chances of winning competitions [2]. Furthermore, there exists an old French saying, “To run as one with his spleen out,” which clearly exhibits the belief that speed is accelerated with the extirpation of one’s spleen [3].
The notion that the spleen plays an inhibiting role in swiftness is not just an obsolete, archaic concept. Twentieth century German physician and scholar, Julius Preuss, followed by Fred Rosner, Yeshiva College graduate and current Assistant Dean and Professor of Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, both firmly believe the Gemara’s statement describing the spleen’s adverse effect on speed. Preuss and Rosner both understand the Gemara literally, even within a scientific lens, that Adoniya’s physicians removed the footmen’s spleens in order to increase the soldiers’ speed [1, 4].The Gemara in Sanhedrin (21B) comments on this pasuk that these specified servants of Adoniya’s had their spleens surgically removed, enabling them to run faster. Rashi further elucidates that the spleen weighs a person down; thus, its removal causes increased speed.
As unusual as the Gemara’s explanation sounds, removal of the spleen to increase speed was actually a common surgical procedure throughout ancient times. In Pliny the Elder’s The Natural History, a Roman encyclopedic work written around 77 AD, Pliny cites an idea that the extirpation of the spleen “renders runners more efficient” [1]. In the Greek culture as well, marathon runners often removed their spleens to increase their chances of winning competitions [2]. Furthermore, there exists an old French saying, “To run as one with his spleen out,” which clearly exhibits the belief that speed is accelerated with the extirpation of one’s spleen [3].
The notion that the spleen plays an inhibiting role in swiftness is not just an obsolete, archaic concept. Twentieth century German physician and scholar, Julius Preuss, followed by Fred Rosner, Yeshiva College graduate and current Assistant Dean and Professor of Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, both firmly believe the Gemara’s statement describing the spleen’s adverse effect on speed. Preuss and Rosner both understand the Gemara literally, even within a scientific lens, that Adoniya’s physicians removed the footmen’s spleens in order to increase the soldiers’ speed [1, 4].The Gemara in Sanhedrin (21B) comments on this pasuk that these specified servants of Adoniya’s had their spleens surgically removed, enabling them to run faster. Rashi further elucidates that the spleen weighs a person down; thus, its removal causes increased speed.
As unusual as the Gemara’s explanation sounds, removal of the spleen to increase speed was actually a common surgical procedure throughout ancient times. In Pliny the Elder’s The Natural History, a Roman encyclopedic work written around 77 AD, Pliny cites an idea that the extirpation of the spleen “renders runners more efficient” [1]. In the Greek culture as well, marathon runners often removed their spleens to increase their chances of winning competitions [2]. Furthermore, there exists an old French saying, “To run as one with his spleen out,” which clearly exhibits the belief that speed is accelerated with the extirpation of one’s spleen [3].
The notion that the spleen plays an inhibiting role in swiftness is not just an obsolete, archaic concept. Twentieth century German physician and scholar, Julius Preuss, followed by Fred Rosner, Yeshiva College graduate and current Assistant Dean and Professor of Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, both firmly believe the Gemara’s statement describing the spleen’s adverse effect on speed. Preuss and Rosner both understand the Gemara literally, even within a scientific lens, that Adoniya’s physicians removed the footmen’s spleens in order to increase the soldiers’ speed [1, 4].Preuss’s belief that the spleen inhibits swiftness was eventually eventually tested in 1922 by Jewish pharmacologist, David Macht. Macht, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, (and at Yeshiva College for a brief time), firmly believes in the synchronization of scientific discoveries with Torah and Talmudic ideas. Having read this Gemara, Macht decided to investigate the Talmud’s claim, and devised an experiment to research the correlation between medical splenectomies and speed. He trained fifty rats to walk across a thin rope, hypothesizing that the extirpation of the spleen would increase their speed and muscle coordination. Macht then splenectomized thirty rats, leaving twenty as his controls. As hypothesized, the average time to cross the rope decreased from 6.8 seconds to 4.6 seconds, signifying a correlation between spleen removal and advanced speed and muscle integration [3].
While Macht’s experiment attests to the ancient understanding of the spleen as an impediment to one’s speed, a major pragmatic question arises. How could a complicated surgery, that had a twenty-eight percent mortality rate even in the early twentieth century, have been performed so successfully with such a high survival rate before the discovery of antibiotics and modern surgical technology [2]?
One plausible resolution to this question is in Rambam’s twelfth century medical writings, where he states that the dangerous splenectomies were never performed in King David’s time. Instead, Rambam insists that Adoniya’s soldiers were given herbal drugs that shrunk their spleens, thereby decreasing the inhibiting weight [2].

Hundreds of protesters call for Abbas to resign over death of PA critic

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/hundreds-of-protesters-call-for-abbas-to-resign-over-death-of-pa-critic/

Hundreds of Palestinian demonstrators called for an end to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s 16-year reign on Saturday in the latest demonstration sparked by the death of PA critic Nizar Banat.

“Abbas, dissolve the PA, and get out of our way!” protesters called as they wound their way through Ramallah’s downtown.

As the protest heated up, hundreds of demonstrators began calling “the people want the fall of the regime” and “leave,” slogans associated with the 2011 Arab revolutions.

 The rally was part of a series of protests ignited by the death of Banat, a prominent opponent of the PA, while in the custody of Palestinian security forces last month. The demonstrations had paused following a harsh crackdown by PA security forces early last week.

RISING SMOKE: After 10.3M acres burned in US last year, West's 2021 fire season outlook uncertain

 https://www.foxnews.com/science/rising-smoke-after-10-3-million-acres-burned-in-us-last-year-wests-2021-fire-season-outlook-uncertain

 In a recent report, scientists at NOAA and NASA announced they had determined that the planet’s atmosphere has been trapping an "unprecedented" amount of heat, with the planet's energy imbalance approximately doubling from 2005 to 2019. 

Increases in greenhouse gases emitted, such as carbon dioxide and methane, trap heat in the atmosphere and capture outgoing radiation. The increasing imbalance is also due to increases in water vapor and decreases in clouds and sea ice.

In its National Climate Assessment, NOAA wrote that the fact the Earth’s climate is changing is "apparent across the United States in a wide range of observations."

"The global warming of the past 50 years is primarily due to human activities, predominantly the burning of fossil fuels," the agency said, noting "stronger evidence confirms" that an increase in extreme weather and climate events are related to human activities.

Unprecedented heat, hundreds dead and a town destroyed. Climate change is frying the Northern Hemisphere

 https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/04/world/canada-us-heatwave-northern-hemisphere-climate-change-cmd-intl/index.html

 Scientists have warned for decades that climate change will make heat waves more frequent and more intense. That is a reality now playing out in Canada, but also in many other parts of the northern hemisphere that are increasingly becoming uninhabitable.

Roads melted this week in America's northwest, and residents in New York City were told not to use high-energy appliances, like washers and dryers — and painfully, even their air conditioners — for the sake of the power grid.

In Russia, Moscow reported its highest-ever June temperature of 34.8 degrees on June 23, and Siberian farmers are scrambling to save their crops from dying in an ongoing heat wave. Even in the Arctic Circle, temperatures soared into the 30s. The World Meteorological Organization is seeking to verify the highest-ever temperature north of the Arctic Circle since records there began, after a weather station in Siberia's Verkhoyansk recorded a 38-degree day on June 20

Jerusalem wig shop vandalizer busted

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/309194

 Police detectives conducted an operation on Friday after a number of cases in the past month during which businesses selling wigs in Jerusalem were damaged.

Police officers were waiting at one of the businesses for the suspect, who arrived at the scene armed with a hammer and spray paint and broke down the business door.

As he began to damage the store he was caught in the act and arrested.

At the end of his interrogation, the court approved extending his detention by four days

 

Cop’s life saved by a rock to the head — and the tumor it revealed

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/cops-life-saved-by-a-rock-to-the-head-and-the-tumor-it-revealed/

 For policeman Barak Daddon, getting hit in the head by a rock during a Jerusalem funeral may have been the best thing that ever happened to him.

Daddon, a superintendent, was commanding police forces securing a Haredi funeral in the capital some six months ago, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

Clashes erupted between the masses that took part in the event and police officers attempting to uphold restrictions on gatherings, and Daddon was hit in the head with a rock, sending him to the hospital.

 

Women in the Modern Military: A Second Look

 https://www.jewishideas.org/article/women-modern-military-second-look

 One of the most contentious religious issues to roil Israeli society ever since the creation of the State has been the role of women in national service in general and in the military in particular. Israel was one of the first states to draft women into the military; the government gave religious young women the option of entering national service.  Haredi authorities considered even national service as a most serious violation of halacha, indeed an outright sin. R. Avraham Yeshaya Karelitz, the undisputed leader Israel’s Ashkenazi Haredi community when the state was proclaimed (he is generally known by the title of his best known writings as Chazon Ish), was unequivocal in his opposition. He asserted that national service was the virtual equivalent of adultery, idolatry and murder, three sins which Jews are mandated to resist even at the cost of their lives (yehareg ve’al ya’avor).[1] Needless to say, military service was totally out of the question as well. Indeed, R. Zvi Pesach Frank, the head of Haredi Beit Din and Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem for 36 years until his passing in 1961, explicitly stated that the drafting of women into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was a gzerat shmad, a decree compelling Jews to abandon their faith for another.[2]  Such hyperbolic statements reflect the depth of opposition that the Haredi leadership[3]evinced toward the policy of drafting women into the military.

 It is doubtful that the ongoing changes in both the means by which war is fought, and the treatment of women in the military, will have the slightest effect on many Haredi decisors. Their opinions regarding the intermingling of the sexes has hardened in recent years; and neither the evolution of combat operations, nor any regulations adopted either by non-Jewish militaries, or the IDF, will convince them to moderate their views. On the other hand, these changes may further moderate the views of those decisors who have chosen to address in constructive manner the issues of female membership in the military; the military occupational specialties (MOS) they might assume; and the commands to which they could ascend, whether in Israel, the United States, or other freedom-loving democracies.

Drafting Women for the Army and national service

Drafting Women for the Army
Rabbi Alfred  Cohen
https://www.yutorah.org/lectures/lecture.cfm/735795/rabbi-alfred-cohen/drafting-women-for-the-army 

 Although we usually think of halacha - the study of Jewish law - as a dry, academic discipline, it is really a mistake to think of it in those terms. Halacha has a dynamic all its own; it is impossible to rule on a halachic matter from a distance, on a theoretical plane.

The halacha reflects much more than a choice between two intellectual alternatives; at certain times, it demands that the pasek, the rabbinic authority, consider the proposed action in the context of the times and the implications it might have for society. The Chazon Ish chose not to approach the question of a woman's going to war in the academic fashion that the topic had been discussed by scholars for some two thousand years. Nor did he dissect the problem into specific legal questions - may a woman bear arms, is it a mitzvah for a woman to fight for the Land of Israel, are there wars where she should be included, etc. On the contrary, the Chazon Ish saw the matter entirely as an issue of morality going to the very heart of Judaism. In a letter to a colleague, his brother-in-law Rav Yaakov Koniefsky reported that the Chazon Ish had declared that if the law were indeed passed, it was the duty of every Jew to resist unto death - literally. For him it represented an encroachment upon the prohibition of "Arayof" - immorality and licentiousness - which is one of the three mitzyot for which a Jew must choose death rather than transgress. Rav Koniefsky also writes that the Chazon Ish, the Brisker Rav, and the Tchebiner Rav all concurred that if the measure became law, every family with·a draft-age daughter would have to leave the country! So strong were they in opposing the danger that they equally opposed a similar plan to draft girls not for the army but for some alternate National Service.

They left no doubt as to the cause for their opposition - the army in any country. and Israel is no different, is a place where moral standards are relaxed. to say the least, and it was just not the proper environment for a Jewish daughter, Against their will, the girls would be affected by the atmosphere and the environment to which they would be exposed, a milieu which would replace the positive reinforcement they would have gotten at home from parents and family.
Rabbis Isser Zalman Meltzer and Tzvi Pesach Frank also issued pronouncements that a person must choose death rather than accede to the government decree, as did the Steipler Rav and Rav Shach. When another rabbi suggested that perhaps it would not be so terrible if the girls served under carefully supervised conditions, the Chazon Ish retorted that the rabbi's opinion was totally worthless and, had he had any children, he would not have been able to say something like that The Chazon Ish actually ruled that the Sabbath should be desecrated to avoid compliance with a draft order and urged parents and teachers to inculcate young women with the laws of dying "al kiddush Hashem;' in sanctification of the Name.

Sephardic Chief Rabbi: Women in the army? Only to cook and do laundry

 https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4891186,00.html

 Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef says women serving in the IDF is 'not the way of the Torah,' further determining that women should not do national service either; he claims his father Rabbi Ovadia Yosef 'died of the sorrow he felt over the drafting of yeshiva students' just as Chazon Ish, a religious leader in Israel’s early days, might have 'died of the sorrow this holy struggle against the enlistment of women caused him.'

Can Women Serve In The IDF According To Halacha?

 https://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/interviews-and-profiles/can-women-serve-in-the-idf-according-to-halacha/2019/09/19/

Many assume that leading rabbis in the Religious Zionist camp support women enlisting in the IDF.

They are mistaken. Every leading Religious Zionist Torah authority forbids young religious women from enlisting in the army. Rav Shlomo Aviner has stated that women are not permitted to serve in the army just like they are not permitted to violate Shabbat.

Some people claim that Rabbi Shlomo Goren, of blessed memory, the first chief rabbi of Tzahal, permitted the enlistment of female soldiers, but he did so only in specific individual cases. Every other chief rabbi of Israel prohibited women from enlisting in the military. Outside of rabbis in the liberal camp of Religious Zionism – who are famous for expressing opinions contrary to the accepted halacha – the rabbinic opposition to women in the military is almost unanimous.

Historians ranked all the presidents. See where they have Trump

It's time Ilhan Omar and "the Squad" learned the truth about Israel and Hamas

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/309061

U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar appeared on CNN's "State of the Union" Tuesday, and was asked by host Jake Tapper about her long record of virulently anti-Israel comments (which included her comparison earlier this month of Israel to Hamas) and why some of her Jewish congressional colleagues had called her out for again issuing anti-Semitic tropes.

As Omar has done so many times in the past, she blamed her critics rather than take responsibility. "I've welcomed any time my colleagues asked to have a conversation to learn from them [and] for them to learn from me," said Omar, D-Minn. "I think it's really important for these members to realize that they haven't been partners in justice."

I'm a Palestinian Arab who grew up in a UNWRA refugee camp outside of Jerusalem, and been a human rights activist all my life. Let me say this as directly as I can: Rep. Omar does not know what she is talking about. Worse, for years, Rep. Omar has been engaged in not arguing any facts, but simply throwing out dirty anti-Semitic epithets, a mirror image of the anti-Semitism by "white supremacists" she claims to decry.

 

In first, rabbinical court rules lawyers of get refusers can be sanctioned

 https://www.jpost.com/judaism/in-first-rabbinical-court-rules-lawyers-of-get-refusers-can-be-sanctioned-672519

 Lawyers who act to prevent the giving of a get (Jewish divorce document) and harm divorce proceedings can be slapped with sanctions, the Jerusalem Rabbinical Court ruled in a groundbreaking decision earlier this week.

Av Beth Din Rabbi Meir Freeman, along with Rabbi David Berdugo and Rabbi Yitzhak Rabinowitz, issued the ruling after a husband who refused to give his wife a get stated that he was not opposed to issuing the divorce, but was doing so because his attorney had advised him to in order to benefit in financial negotiations against his wife.