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Minggu, 27 Oktober 2013

WIsata Sumatera Selatan

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Benteng Kuto Besak
Fakta menarik tentang museum ini adalah menghabiskan waktu selama 17 tahun untuk membangunnya, dimulai pada tahun 1780 dan diresmikan pada 21 Februari 1797. Ide pembangunan benteng ini dari Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin I (1724-1758). Benteng ini memiliki panjang 288,75 m, lebar 183,75 m, tinggi 9,99 m dan tebal 1,99 m. Terdapat pintu masuk di setiap sudut benteng ini, sisi masuk sebelah barat laut berbeda dengan ketiga sisi lainnya. Ketiga pintu masuk yang sama mereprentasikan karakteristik Benteng Kuto Besak. Anda dapat melihat 
Sungai Musidari pintu masuk utama, Lawang Kuto. Sedangkan pintu masuk di belakang pintu disebut lawang Buritan. Benteng ini ialah kebanggaan masyarakat Palembang karena merupakan benteng terbesar dan satu-satunya yang terbuat dari batu sebagai saksi keberhasilan mereka melawan bangsa Eropa.


Museum Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II 
Museum Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II  yang berada di seberang Sungai Musi ini memiliki bentuk asli bangunan tidak berubah dari masa awal pendiriannya. Lokasinya di Jalan Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II No. 2, Palembang.
Di museum ini Anda dapat menikmati sekitar 556 koleksi benda bersejarah, mulai dari bekas peninggalan kerajaan Sriwijaya hingga Kesultanan Palembang. Nama Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II dijadikan nama museum ini untuk menghormati jasanya bagi kota Palembang.
Museum ini berdiri di atas bangunan Benteng Koto Lama (Kuto Tengkurokato Kuto Batu) dimana Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin Jayo Wikramo dan Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin I (1724-1758) memerintah. Berdasarkan penyelidikan oleh tim arkeologis tahun 1988, diketahui bahwa pondasi Kuto Lama ditemukan di bawah balok kayu.
Benteng ini pernah habis dibakar oleh Belanda pada 17 Oktober 1823 atas perintah I.L. Van Seven House sebagai balas dendam kepada Sultan yang telah membakar Loji Aur Rive. Kemudian di atasnya dibangun gedung tempat tinggal Residen Belanda. Pada masa Pendudukan Jepang, gedung ini dipakai sebagai markas Jepang dan dikembalikan ke penduduk Palembang ketika proklamasi tahun 1945.  Museum ini direnovasi dan difungsikan sebagai markas Kodam II/Sriwijaya hingga akhirnya menjadi museum dan
Jam berkunjung museum ini adalah Senin hingga Kamis: 08.00 – 16.00 WIB,Jumat: 08.00 – 11.30; serta  Sabtu dan Minggu: 09.00 – 16.00. Untuk hari libur nasional akan tutup.


Pulau Kemarau

Pulau Kemarau berada di delta Sungai Musi. Nama Pulau Kemarau diberikan penduduk setempat karena delta ini selalu kering dan tidak pernah berair, bahkan ketika air pasang, seolah-olah seperti sebuah pulau terapung.
Pulau ini adalah tempat yang sangat spesial bagi etnis Cina lokal. Di pulau ini, ada pagoda dan kuil-kuil. Keberadaannya berkaitan erat dengan sebuah legenda yang mengatakan bahwa delta muncul sebagai bukti cinta Putri Siti Fatimah (putri Raja Sriwijaya) kepada kekasihnya. Kisahnya mirip dengan Romeo dan Juliet, atau Sampek Eng Tay.


Legenda ini dimulai pada akhir abad ke-14 ketika seorang pangeran dari Cina, Tan Bu An, datang ke Palembang untuk belajar. Setelah tinggal di sini selama beberapa waktu, ia jatuh cinta dengan putri Siti Fatimah. Dia kemudian datang ke istana untuk melamarnya. Orangtua Siti Fatimah memberikan persetujuan namun dengan satu syarat; Tan Bu An harus memberikan hadiah.
Tan Bu An kemudian mengutus bawahannya untuk kembali ke China dan meminta semacam hadiah dari ayahnya untuk diberikan kepada Raja. Segera setelah itu, utusan itu kembali dengan sayuran dan buah-buahan. Tan Bu An terkejut dan marah karena ia berharap ayahnya memberikan guci Cina, keramik dan uang.

Dia melemparkan muatan kapal tersebut ke Sungai Musi, dia tidak tahu bahwa sebenarnya  ayahnya menaruh uang di dalam sayuran dan buah-buahan tersebut. Karena dia malu setelah mengetahui tentang kesalahannya, dia mengumpulkan yang telah dibuangnya ke sungai dan Tan Bu An tidak pernah kembali lagi karena ia tenggelam bersama dengan sayuran dan buah-buahan tersebut.
Ketika Siti Fatimah mendengar tentang tragedi itu, dia berlari ke sungai dan menenggelamkan diri untuk mengikuti kekasihnya. Sebelum itu, dia meninggalkan pesan: "Jika Anda melihat sebuah pohon tumbuh di sebidang tanah di mana aku tenggelam, ini akan menjadi pohon cinta kita".

Sang putri kemudian tenggelam dan kemudian sebidang tanah muncul di permukaan sungai. Masyarakat setempat percaya bahwa ini adalah makam pasangan kekasih tersebut dan karena itu, mereka menyebutnya "Pulau Kemarau" yang berarti meskipun air pasang di Sungai Musi, pulau ini akan selalu kering.

Etnis Tionghoa setempat percaya bahwa nenek moyang mereka, Tan Bun An, tinggal di pulau ini. Oleh karena itu, daerah ini selalu ramai selama Tahun Baru Cina. Pada tahun 2006, pagoda dibangun sebagai tempat ibadah dan untuk acara lainnya.

Senin, 14 Oktober 2013

Human Trafficking

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Human Trafficking
Human trafficking is one of the most heinous crimes that ICE investigates. In its worst manifestation, human trafficking is akin to modern-day slavery. Victims pay to be illegally transported into the United States only to find themselves in the thrall of traffickers. They are forced into prostitution, involuntary labor and other forms of servitude to repay debts – often entry in the United States. In certain cases, the victims are mere children. They find themselves surrounded by an unfamiliar culture and language without identification documents, fearing for their lives and the lives of their families.
ICE is serious about ending human trafficking.
ICE relies on tips from the public to dismantle these organizations. ICE encourages you to keep your eyes and ears open to suspicious activity. Trafficking victims are often hidden in plain sight, voiceless and scared.

Human trafficking indicators include:
·  Does the victim possess identification and travel documents? If not, who has control of these documents?
· Did the victim travel to a destination country for a specific job or purpose and is victim engaged in different employment than expected?
·Is victim forced to perform sexual acts as part of employment?
·   Is the victim a juvenile engaged in commercial sex?
· Does the victim owe money to an employer or does the employer hold wages?
·   Did the employer instruct the victim on what to say to law enforcement or immigration officials?
·   Can the victim freely leave employment or the situation?
·Are there guards at work/harboring site or video cameras to monitor and ensure no one escapes?
· Does the victim have freedom of movement? Can they freely contact family and friends? Can they socialize or attend religious services?

Trafficking in Persons is defined as:
·  Sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age; or
·  The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage or slavery.

Recent Investigations :
·  Fifteen members of a sex trafficking organization have been charged with forcing at least 17 young Mexican women into prostitution in New York.
·Thirty-four individuals affiliated with a Somali gang were charged with sex trafficking seven young girls across state lines in Minnesota and Tennessee.
· Four Togolese nationals were convicted of labor trafficking in New Jersey. These individuals brought 13 adult females and seven juvenile females to the United States from Togo, Africa and forced them to work in hair braiding salons.

How to avoid becoming a human trafficking victim

·    Be wary of very attractive work opportunities.
·    If you are offered a very attractive work opportunity outside your country, make sure you ask lots of detailed questions and get convincing answers.
·   Contact the embassy of country in which you are thinking of working before you travel, and make sure your register at your national embassy as soon as you arrive in the country of your work.
·    Read employment offers and contracts carefully before you sign them.
·   Seek advice and guidance from people with occupational and legal experience before taking the job.
·   Ensure you leave your address and telephone numbers with family members and friends before you travel (these details shall be ascertained before travelling).
·   Keep a copy of your passport and ID card in a safe place.
·   Know your rights and duties fully before agreeing to any employment offer.
·   Avoid employment offers that come through the internet.
·   Be wary of offers of engagement and marriage that come through the internet.

SOPA mutates into much worse CISPA, the lastest threat to internet free speech.

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SOPA mutates into much worse CISPA, the lastest threat to internet free speech.

(NaturalNews) Just because SOPA and PIPA, the infamous internet "kill switch" bills, are largely dead does not mean the threat to internet free speech has become any less serious. The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), also known as H.R. 3523, is the latest mutation of these internet censorship and spying bills to hit the U.S. Congress -- and unless the American people speak up now to stop it, CISPA could lead to far worse repercussions for online free speech than SOPA or PIPA ever would have.

CNET, the popular technology news website that was among many others who spoke up against SOPA and PIPA earlier in the year, is also one of many now sounding the alarm about CISPA, which was authored by Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.). Though the bill's promoters are marketing it as being nothing like SOPA or PIPA, CISPA is exactly like those bills, except worse.

What CISPA will do, if passed, is remove all the legal barriers that currently stop internet service providers, government agencies, and others from arbitrarily spying on internet users. In the name of "cybersecurity," a term that is undefined in the bill, CISPA will essentially allow internet users to be surveilled by the government without probable cause or a search warrant, which is a clear violation of users' constitutional civil liberties.

Additionally, it will allow websites like Google, Facebook, and Twitter to intercept emails, text messages, and other private information that might be considered a threat to "cybersecurity." The government can then demand access to this information, even if it has nothing to do with copyright infringement, which is one of the excuses being used for why such a bill is needed in the first place.


Internet users are already required to abide by the same laws as everyone else

"Just because you commit a crime on the internet doesn't immunize you from liability just because it's on the internet," said Kendall Burman from the Center for Democracy & Technology, an internet freedom of speech advocacy group, to Russia Today (RT) in a recent interview. "Law enforcement has many tools to go after crimes that are committed anywhere, including the internet."

And Burman is right. Contrary to what former presidential candidate Rick Santorum and others have inferred about the internet being an unregulated "free for all," internet users are already required to abide by the same rules as everyone else. And those who commit crimes online are subject to the same legal obligations as those who commit them offline.

"When you talk about using information that the government receives that's purportedly for the purpose of protecting cybersecurity, and you're using it for law enforcement purposes or national security purposes that don't have anything to do with cybersecurity, well law enforcement has tools already to go after those crimes," added Burman. "And we very much fear that the information sharing machine that's related to cybersecurity could very much become a backdoor wiretap or a surveillance program by another name."

In truth, there is no legitimate need to pass any "cybersecurity" bills because legal mechanisms to address internet crimes are already in place.

Sources for this article include:

http://news.cnet.com

Bill Gates Says Meat Alternatives Are The Future Of Food

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Bill Gates Says Meat Alternatives Are The Future Of Food


Bill Gates sees meat alternatives a a big part of the future of food. On his blog, The Gates Notes, there is a feature called The Future of Food, where he explains how food scientists are starting to reinvent meat, and how this could help the whole world.
Gate explains that worldwide meat consumption has doubled over the past two decades and is expected to double again by 2050 when, as we know, world population is expected to reach at least 9 billion. It isjust over 7 billion now.
The economies of many developing countries are growing, so a lot more people are starting to be able to afford more meat. While less poverty in the world is a good thing, it takes a lot more resources (especially farmland and water) to meet that growing demand for meat. At the expected rate of growth, “the world will need millions of tonnes more meat than it does today”, Gates says. Meeting this demand is simply not sustainable.
As it’s unrealistic to expect everyone to become vegetarians, Gates sees part of the answer as the production of alternatives to meat and eggs. He points to several companies working on innovative solutions. Beyond Meat (which we have written about previously), and Hampton Creek Foods are both developing ways to use heat and pressure to turn plants into foods that look and taste just like meat and eggs. He says that when he tried it, he “couldn’t tell the difference between Beyond Meat and real chicken”.
Hampton Creek foods is working on a plant-based alternative for eggs. In one of the videos on Gates’ site, CEO and Founder Josh Tetrick explains that one of the big reasons they decided on eggs is that 1.1 trillion eggs (yes, trillion) were laid worldwide last year alone, and over 99% of these eggs come from battery cage farms. As well as the highly questionable conditions the chickens have to endure in these industrial-farming facilities, they require huge amounts of soy and corn. Instead of attempting to fix that broken system incrementally, the company is trying to invent a new model which involves using plant products to replicate eggs.
If they taste very similar and are good for your health, do you think meat and egg alternatives have the potential to curb resource-hungry meat production in the future?