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Israeli court says emojis can signal your intent
The emojis you send are always open to interpretation, and when the person reading them is a judge, there could be tangible consequences. A court in Israel, for instance, has ordered a couple to pay $2,200 for using emojis that "convey great optimism" in a text they sent to landlord Yaniv Dahan. The couple contacted Dahan regarding a classified ad he posted online promoting his property. They used a bunch of festive icons that the landlord said led him to believe they wanted to rent his home.
Court says Facebook not to blame for Israeli terror incident
Facebook is currently the defendant in several lawsuits accusing the social network of enabling terrorism and propagation of extremist views. Now, one of those cases has finally reached a resolution, and it has the potential to affect the court's decision for all the other lawsuits. According to the documents The Verge got its hands on, a federal court in the Eastern District of New York has dismissed a lawsuit that sought to hold Facebook legally responsible for the death of five people killed by Palestinian terrorist attacks in Israel back in 2015.
Intel buys self-driving tech firm MobilEye for $15.3 billion
Intel's recent work with MobilEye on self-driving cars must have gone well, because the chip giant is buying its Jerusalem-based partner for $15.3 billion. The deal was first reported by Israeli business site The Marker but has now been confirmed by the two companies. MobilEye is one of the largest players in autonomous vehicle tech and was in the news recently over a spat with Tesla following a fatal Model S crash in Florida. However, it recently teamed with Intel on BMW's iNext self-driving platform, which the automaker aims to put into service by 2021.
Deep learning could predict car trouble before you notice it
Trying to replicate the sounds your car is making to the mechanic you're talking to is equal parts frustrating and embarrassing. But neural networks could put your best "worn out wheel bearing" impression into retirement. Israeli company 3DSignals uses deep learning to keep track of sounds, listening for deviations from the norm in musical and mechanical acoustics. According to an interview with IEEE Spectrum, the company is in talks with "leading European automakers" to put its ultrasonic microphones in their cars.
Fake news starts an Israel-Pakistan Twitter dispute
There's no question that fake online news can have dire consequences, but it's now clear that this is true even on an international scale. After a false story claimed that Israel was threatening to nuke Pakistan if it sent troops into Syria, Pakistan Defense Minister Khawaja M. Asif warned Israel that his country could retaliate with nuclear weapons if necessary. He later backtracked by saying that Pakistan was peaceful and had nukes solely as a "deterrence to protect our freedom," but only after Israel's Ministry of Defense noted that the offending statement (attributed to former Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon) didn't exist.
Facebook briefly suspended accounts of Palestinian journalists
Last week, seven Palestinian editors from two different publications reported that they had been locked out of their personal Facebook accounts without notice or reason. The social giant told The Electronic Intifada that it was accidental and restored access to six of them by Saturday, though one remains suspended as of press time. But employees from both Shehab News Agency and Quds News Network doubt that their colleagues were banned in error. Rather, they have pointed to Facebook's recent agreement with Israel earlier this month to jointly crack down on "incitement" by Palestinians on social media.
Facebook works with Israel to curb posts inciting violence
Facebook is no stranger to fighting terrorism online, but it's about to take those efforts one step further. In the wake of lawsuits from terror victims' families, the social network is partnering with Israel on ways to track and pull content that incites violence. The country claims that a year-long surge in Palestinian violence was partly sparked by social posts, and hopes that tighter controls on those posts will help douse those flames. The two aren't saying exactly what they'll do, but Facebook has stressed its belief that it can fight extremism through a "strong partnership" between public and private organizations.
Major cyberattack seller knocked offline as it faces arrests
One of the more popular cyberattack peddlers just came crashing down. Israeli law enforcement has arrested Yarden Bidani and Itay Huri as part of an FBI investigation into their alleged control of vDOS, one of the most popular paid attack platforms. According to information unearthed by security guru Brian Krebs from a third-party hack targeting vDOS, the two teens raked in at least $618,000 launching "a majority" of the distributed denial of service campaigns you've seen in recent years. The platform itself is also offline, although that's due to one of vDOS' victims (BackConnect Security) using a bogus internet address claim to stem the flood of traffic hitting its servers.
Google explains why Palestine isn't labeled in Maps
Services like Google Maps have not just functional but symbolic importance, as a bug on a map of Israel has proved. A Gaza City journalism group spotted a change in the way Google represented Palestine on a map of Israel, causing outrage on both mainstream and social media in the Middle East. "[Our group] condemns the crime carried out by Google in deleting the name of Palestine, and calls for Google to rescind its decision and apologize to the Palestinian people," the Forum of Palestinian Journalists said in a statement.
Families of terror victims in Israel sue Facebook for $1 billion
The families of five Israeli and US citizens killed by Palestinian attacks on Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and the West Bank are suing Facebook for $1 billion in damages, Reuters reports today. In their lawsuit, the plaintiffs claim the social network "played an essential role in Hamas's ability to carry out its terrorist activities" and made it easier for the group to "communicate, recruit members, plan and carry out attacks, and strike fear in its enemies."
'Cyborg heart patch' combines electronics and living tissue
One of the latest inventions out of Tel Aviv University can patch up broken hearts. We're talking about the real organs here, especially those damaged by myocardial infarction or heart attack. A team from the Israeli university created a "cyborg heart patch" that combines both living tissue and electronic components to replace the damaged parts of the organ. "It's very science fiction, but it's already here," says one of its creators, Prof. Tal Dvir. "[W]e expect it to move cardiac research forward in a big way." The patch can contract and expand like real heart tissue can, but it can do much, much more than that.
Waze app leads IDF soldiers into Palestine, conflict erupts
At least one Palestinian man is dead, and another 10 reportedly have been severely wounded, after an Israeli Defense Force truck strayed into the Kalandia Palestine refugee camp on Monday -- reportedly at the direction of the Waze navigation app. Multiple reports state that two members of the IDF's canine unit on an "administrative task" were travelling a road they thought was within the Israeli border. It wasn't, inciting residents who began throwing stones at the truck. When a hurled firebomb set the truck alight, the IDF soldiers ditched the vehicle and ran in different directions. One soldier managed to call for reinforcements. However, the other soldier left his phone in the truck and could not be immediately accounted. In response, the IDF deployed additional IDF ground and air forces to search for him. He was found, unharmed, a few hours later.
House looks into claims the NSA spied on Congress
You're not the only one concerned that the National Security Agency might be spying on Congress... Congress is, too. The House Intelligence Committee says it's investigating claims that the NSA monitored communications between members of Congress and Israeli leadership as they discussed the Iran nuclear agreement. The Committee not only wants a point-by-point verification of the Wall Street Journal's original report, but to find out whether or not the NSA was following the rules.
The NSA spied on Congress, too
Just because the United States said it stopped spying on friendly foreign heads of state like Germany's Angela Merkel, doesn't mean that Uncle Sam actually has. Eavesdropping has actually continued and the list of targets included Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, The Wall Street Journal reports. What's more, the National Security Agency was caught spying on members of Congress and American-Jewish groups as a direct result, according to WSJ's anonymous sources.
PotBotics: better cannabis recommendations through science
Medical cannabis, recreational cannabis; it's getting hard to tell the two apart -- even in states where only the former is allowed. Just look at your local dispensary. If it's anything like my local weed shop, your cannabis choices are governed more by the brand name and relative THC content than they are the other active cannabinoids -- you know, the ones with the actual medical benefits. This is great for your average stoner recuperating from a backiatomy, but for patients who really do need these complementary cannabinoid effects, guessing whether Blue Dream or Vallejo Sour Diesel will best help alleviate the effects of their chemo simply won't do. That's why the Bay Area startup PotBotics is working to put some real science -- from a curation of existing scholarly articles and independent studies -- behind cannabis recommendations.
Israel, US arrest four over a string of big bank hacks
After months of investigation, law enforcement has nabbed suspects believed to be behind hacks at JPMorgan Chase and other big banks... and they're not quite the master criminals you might expect. Both the FBI and Israeli police have arrested four people for what now appears to be a classic "pump and dump" stock fraud scheme. The group (which includes one still at large) artificially drove up share prices and volumes for 'quiet' companies through a mix of email campaigns and pre-arranged trades, and sold to reap the windfall. In certain situations, they even pushed for private companies to go public solely to turn them into targets.
Google's Waze testing carpooling program in Israel
Google's navigation subsidiary Waze is getting into the carpooling business via a pilot program in Israel, according to Reuters. The application, called RIdeWith, will use the company's traffic reporting system to figure out popular routes and match drivers with users going the same direction. Unlike contentious ridesharing services from Lyft and Uber, however, Waze's program won't allow drivers to earn a salary. Instead, they can only claim two trips a day, and collect just enough from riders to cover gas and vehicle wear-and-tear.
The Big Picture: Ultraviolet strands form this celestial tapestry
Sometimes you just need to grab 18 miles of fluorescent string, coat it in ultraviolet paint and stretch it along an art installation and hit it with black lights. At least that's what artist Julien Salaud did recently with his "Stellar Cave" series. As My Modern Met observes, the threads are wrapped around nails to create images of animals, humans and other stuff in a way that'd evoke "mythology and mysticism." The exhibits were on display at Israel's Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art and you can check out more images at the links below.
Bringing empathy to the Middle East through gaming
Navit Keren grew up in Israel. She's lived through the signing of historic peace treaties, and horrific terrorist attacks. Just as important though, she's witness to the dramatic deterioration of the relationship between Israelis and Palestinians. The biggest problem she sees, is a lack of empathy. Those living on the other side of the divide are not people, but enemies. "Others" to be feared and hated. Her effort to bridge the gap between the two sides is a pretty novel one: a location-based game. Welcome to the West Bank is merely a working title, but it gets right to the heart of the game. Israeli citizens, primarily teenagers, would play as Palestinian teenagers living in the West Bank. Basically she's asking people to walk a mile in someone else's virtual shoes.
PayPal acquires Israeli company that can predict future malware
It's always good news when a service that processes a lot of cash improves its security measures. PayPal, for instance, has just established a security center in Israel by acquiring a local company called CyActive. The company already has a Fraud and Risk Detection Center in Tel Aviv, but CyActive is a totally different beast: it "specializes in technology that can predict how malware will develop." It's sort of like Minority Report's PreCrime, except it uses predictive analytics instead of human precogs to foresee new cybersecurity threats. The startup's employees will now be in charge of implementing technology that will protect the payment platform from future cyberattacks.
