News: Soldiers revealed via Facebook settings
Wednesday, July 17, 2013, 03:44 PM - News Stories New Facebook settings expose police officers, soldiers. 'Graph search' is being rolled out across the social media site and allows people to "discover fun connections" online.? But a search for SA Police, or the Australian Army, or Government departments reveals lists of names of people who work in those areas along with photos and information about their friends, families, and relationships...(Herald Sun)
Veteran photographer recounts his first Afghan war assignment. Michel du Cille, The Washington Post?s associate editor for photography, went to Afghanistan for the first time earlier this year, to accompany The Post?s Kabul bureau chief, Kevin Sieff, and report on a series of articles on the Afghan army. A winner of three Pulitzer prizes, du Cille is no stranger to conflict...
(Washington Post)
JARDINE: Modesto woman, brother in Army lead Skype contest. Every so often, a company will stage a contest to promote its product. Invariably, a Modestan will enter. Such was the case when Skype, which offers online video calls via computer or cell phone, asked users to submit their accounts of how the service benefits them. The entries are posted on www.skypestaytogether.com, and visitors can vote for their favorite. The winner will receive a $10,000 travel voucher...
(Modesto Bee)
Freelance Reporters Learning To Survive In War Zones. In an era when news organizations are shutting foreign bureaus to cut costs, more of the dangerous work of reporting from the world's trouble spots is falling to freelancers, who often must fend for themselves to get the story out and get out alive...
(Huffington Post)
Gunmen kill outspoken pro-regime Syrian journalist in Hezbollah stronghold in Lebanon. Gunmen burst into the first floor apartment of a pro-government Syrian journalist Wednesday, killing him in a hail of nearly 30 bullets in a Hezbollah stronghold in southern Lebanon...
(Calgary Herald)
Soldiers enter the history books.? The history of tomorrow is being written today. Historians will study the wars of this time for years to come, and thanks to the Veterans History Project, service members can contribute to that historical research by recording first-person narratives of their wartime experience...
(DVIDS)
Photographer earns rare honour. One local man is in the United States this week to get a rare and prestigious honour for a recent tour of his own duty. Photographer and filmmaker David Bowering will be bestowed with the Honorary Knight of the Order of St. Michael by the Army Aviation Association of America (AAAA). When asked what it means to him, the answer was simple...
(St. Albert Gazette)
Silsden history group appeals for World War One stories.? Silsden historians have called on the public?s help to tell the town?s story during the First World War. They want to reveal previously untold tales through residents? family albums, diaries and other memorabilia. The results will be displayed at an exhibition in August next year entitled Silsden?s Story: Our Town During the Great War...
(Craven Herald)
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Video: Son cries when told of Dad's return
Tuesday, July 16, 2013, 10:26 PM
A heartwarming video of six-year old Teagan Rhea-Gregg was posted to YouTube back in June.? I just learned about the video today when I a read a story on Daily Mail.
Teagan's reaction is priceless as YouTube user tommydabbs, who posted the video online, writes.
When Teagan is asked, "What would you say if we said daddy?s coming in just a few minutes," he breaks out into tears.
According to tommydabbs, this was Teagan's father?s 12th tour overseas with the United States Army 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, also known as the Night Stalkers.
Here?s the description from YouTube:
Frank (my brother-in-law) is back from Afghanistan and my nephews didn't know....until now. Normally Frank surprises the boys, but this time they were able to surprise him (and their mom). Teagan's reaction is priceless when he finds out his dad is coming home. This was Frank's 12th tour overseas with the United States Army 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, also known as Night Stalkers. *Please take a second to "like" this video for all of the parents, families and children serving in our Armed Forces.
You can watch the full video here.
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News: Facebook tied to Chinese soldier's death
Tuesday, July 16, 2013, 07:22 PM - News Stories Facebook of 2 soldiers linked to corporal death probed. The military sector will move to inspect Facebook check-in records by two sergeants tied to the recent death of Corporal Hung Chung-chiu and would immediately impose administrative punishments on them if they were found to have engaged in illegal use of smartphones to conduct the said check-ins when on duty or in the barracks, according to informed sources...(The China Post)
Blogger shares firsthand experience from Egypt. Elnaser Mahmoud is a blogger and website developer in Egypt. While he works on his small business, he is also actively using social media to reach out to his fellow citizens and to the West to inform people about what is going on inside his country. Northumberland Today was able to get him to take a few minutes to share what is going inside his country from his perspective. He points out the role of former Mubarak supporters, something not emphasized by many media...
(Northumberland Today)
Putting names and stories to the fallen of The Great War. A pictorial website dedicated to the men from Leicestershire and Rutland who fought in the First World War is attracting 700 hits a day from around the world.? Since ww1tigers.com was launched in February, more than 123,000 users have accessed its pages or have gone on line to find out more...
(This is Leicestershire)
J.K. Rowling Pretends She's a Military Dad to Write Latest Book. J.K. Rowling has said for years it seems that she wishes she could break away from being known as the brilliant mind behind Harry Potter. Now it seems she's really gone to extremes to do exactly that. It's been revealed that the author created an alter ego named Robert Galbraith to write The Cuckoo's Calling, a well-regarded mystery novel released in April. Galbraith was said to have spent several years in the Royal Military Police service and be a married father of two with an army background...
(The Stir)
Turkey, Egypt show 2 sides of social media. Two uprisings now under way - each different, each far from over - show the power, and the limitations, of social media when used amid social upheaval. In the Gezi Park demonstrations in Istanbul, Turkey, demonstrators have made brilliant use of social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to air their grievances. They've been so successful that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, helpless to control the story, attacked Twitter as "the worst menace to society."
(Philly.com)
Some Nebraska vets who haven't opened up to families sharing war stories with UNL researcher. Some Nebraska veterans have been sharing their war stories with a researcher from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, telling him things they've never told their families.? "It's easier for them to talk to someone they're not emotionally connected with," Brian O'Grady, a library staffer at UNL, told the Lincoln Journal Star...
(The Republic)
"Facebook Fast" Sought for Ramadan. Along with fasting during the day, some Muslims feel they should also start abstaining from Facebook and other social media.? Despite data showing a higher use of social media during the holy month of Ramadan, some Muslims see it as a time to also have a self-imposed fast from Facebook, according to Al-Arabiya...
(NBC Bay Area)
Our Collective War Story In 185 Photographs. War/Photography is a genre-defining exhibition currently on view at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington. And also the last place I wanted to find myself on a sunny midweek morning.? As a photojournalist and picture editor, I've consumed my fair share of conflict photography, essays and films. How could this exhibition possibly be any different from all the other shows I've seen in this vein?
(GPB News)
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Citizen videos help tell story of war in Syria
Monday, July 15, 2013, 06:08 PM
Mediashift has an interesting Q&A with Liam Stack, a reporter who blogs about the Middle East and curates citizen video for The New York Times.
Stack tells Mediashift's Madeleine Blair how he finds videos for Watching Syria's War, an online project for The New York Times that posts online video and images of the conflict in Syria.
Often the video and images that are posted are graphic in nature.
When asked whose videos are featured on the website, Stack told Blair:
?Our goal is to highlight videos that bring the voices of normal Syrians to our readers. The videos we feature generally come from either amateur filmmakers, a Syrian living his life in a conflict zone who may witness a bombing or atrocity and record it on his cell phone, for example; or activist videographers who put themselves in harm?s way to capture a moment of violence or a scene from combat. But there are limits to what we can know from this footage. Each video is a window into someone?s life that usually closes after a minute or two, and as such it is very hard to know for certain what we are actually seeing.?
Other questions that Stack answers include how he finds the videos, what qualities he looks for in a video, how does social media play a role in the reporting, and much more.
If you haven't seen Watching Syria's War, you can check out the website here.
Each video that is posted typically includes a description, tweets related to the video, what the New York Times knows or doesn't know about the video, and other related videos.
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News: First tintype photos since Civil War
Sunday, July 14, 2013, 11:46 PM - News Stories Life on the battlefield: A U.S. Air Force gunner's incredible tintype photos of fellow soldiers fighting in Afghanistan. They're the first tintypes created in a combat zone since the Civil War. Seeking to capture the humanity of his peers fighting in the Afghanistan war, California Air National Guard aerial gunner Ed Drew asked them to sit for photos on the battlefield.? While the process was painstaking and laborious - when duty called, the Brooklyn-based photographer dropped his camera and jumped into a helicopter - the images were gripping...(Daily Mail)
Be All That You Can Be, in the? Afghan National Army? Here?s something you don?t see every day: a recruitment ad for the Afghan National Army, with the high-quality video and rousing music one expects from a US recruitment ad you?d catch on Sundays during football season...
(DefenseNews)
Readorama: Recounting the last stories of the last veterans of the Great War. For three years, Missouri-born Frank Buckles bore the distinction of being America?s last veteran of World War I. After he died in 2011 at age 110, many lamented the permanent loss of his recollections.?? But by then New York writer Richard Rubin had interviewed Buckles many times.? Those visits were part of Rubin?s heroic effort, begun a decade ago, to interview as many World War I vets as he could find. Buckles was one of dozens, all between 101 and 113 years old ? and now all deceased ? with whom Rubin spoke...
(Kansascity.com)
Can Big Data solve the mystery of suicide? Everywhere on the Internet, we're trailed by bots that inspect our searches and social chatter, attempting to predict what we're going to buy, watch or who we might date next...
(NBC News)
Story puts a face on soldier's history. Eric Story wants to kick around a soccer ball with his friend Reg, maybe catch a Shakespeare show in Saskatoon in the big tent near the Mendel Art Gallery and then talk politics over a glass of beer.? Story, 20, met Reg Bateman a few months ago. Sort of.? This spring, Story joined 11 other university students from across Canada plus two professors and a professor's wife for the Canadian Battlefields Foundation annual study tour in Belgium and France...
(The StarPhoenix)
Group wants to hear your story. American Rosie the Riveter Association is trying to locate women in Springfield and the surrounding area who worked on the homefront during World War II.? Thousands of women worked to support the war effort as riveters, welders, electricians, inspectors in plants, sewing clothing and parachutes for the military, ordnance workers, rolling bandages, clerical and many other jobs such as volunteer workers collecting scrap metals and other critical materials...
(news-leader.com)
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23 journos have been killed so far in 2013
Saturday, July 13, 2013, 04:12 AM
The Committee to Protect Journalists is reporting that 23 journalists have been killed (motive/confirmed) in 2013.
One of the latest deaths involved an Egyptian photographer, Ahmed Samir Assem, working for a newspaper affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.? Assem is said to have captured his own death on film as security forces opened fire on a large crowd this past week.
You can see a screenshot of the grainy film (pictured above) as the soldier turned and shot in Assem?s direction, killing him.
To help explain CPJ?s statistics, the site only counts killings that are motive/confirmed, meaning, only if they are reasonably certain that a journalist was murdered in direct reprisal for his or her work; was killed in crossfire during combat situations; or was killed while carrying out a dangerous assignment such as coverage of a street protest.
As of today, here?s a breakdown of the world?s deadliest countries for journalists:
Syria: 8
Pakistan: 4
Brazil: 3
Somalia: 2
Egypt: 2
Russia: 2
Turkey: 1
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Philippine Navy ship blogs, tweets, Facebooks
Friday, July 12, 2013, 11:42 PM - Milbloggers in the News
Image via navy.mil.ph
The BRP Ramon Alcaraz was acquired by the Philippines from the US Coast Guard in 2012 and is now serving in the Philippine Navy.
Last week, the BRP Alcaraz had a sendoff ceremony in San Diego, California.
Now, people can follow the crew of the BRP Alcaraz and the ship?s journey not only through blogs, but through social networking websites like Twitter and Facebook.
According to the website Rappler, three officers with the ship will be blogging on the Philippine Navy?s website and Lt Jr Grade Errol de la Cruz, a naval officer on the ship, will also be posting to his personal blog.
The ship also has an official Facebook account with nearly 1,000 followers already and a Twitter account.
According to Rappler, ?Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte encouraged Filipinos to follow the online updates on BRP Alcaraz "and learn about the life and experiences of the members of the Philippine Navy."
More on the story here.
WIKIPEDIA: BRP Ramon Alcaraz
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News: Photog captures own death in firefight
Thursday, July 11, 2013, 05:56 PM - News Stories Photographer May Have Captured His Own Death During Egypt Protests. Among the 51 people killed by Egyptian security forces on Monday was a newspaper photographer whose video of the firefight has become an iconic symbol of the ongoing protests?and possibly a record of his own death. Even more chilling than the sight of a solider shooting at crowds from a nearby rooftop is the ending of the video, where the solider appears to aim directly at the camera just before the video abrpublty ends, allegedly when he shot the man on the other side of the lens...(The Atlantic Wire)
Military Journalism Contest Again Welcomes Bloggers. The annual Military Reporters & Editors (M.R.E.) journalism contest will again include a "non-corporate blogging" category for creators of online news content. Two awards may be given in the category: one recognizing independent bloggers and a second recognizing bloggers associated with an established news outlet...
(Red Bull Rising)
US Air Force Lets Web 2.0 Flourish Behind Walls. The U.S. Air Force is using Web 2.0 technologies to better support its missions despite wariness about security, a civilian technology official of the service said last week.? The new techniques, including blogs, wikis and personal profiles, are coming out of an initiative by Air Force Knowledge Now (AFKN), a resource provided on the Department of Defense (DOD) intranet...
(PCWorld)
Award-Winning Documentary Features Camp Pendleton Marines. Camp Pendleton Marines are being featured in a new military documentary. Patrol Base Jaker follows Marines and the counter-insurgency efforts in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. The documentary goes behind the scenes, documenting the daily activities of combat and civilian affairs teams as they fight the Taliban and help secure the local population. Some of the Marines featured are based in Camp Pendleton...
(Patch)
Head of Dubai Police abandons Twitter account after Morsi ousting. Head of Dubai Police Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan bin Tamim tweeted one word on July 4 - ?bye? - with a picture containing the words ?due to the removal of the Muslim Brotherhood from power, this account will become deserted?.? Tamim had regularly exchanged tweets with Muslim Brotherhood followers and was known to mock them...
(7 Days Dubai)
Bodh Gaya: Now 'IM' Tweet Says Mumbai Next Target. A twitter account, purportedly belonging to terror outfit Indian Mujahideen (IM), has warned that the next target would be Mumbai, prompting the state authorities to tighten security across the city. A Maharashtra Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) official said the initial assessment suggests that the account does not appear genuine but the investigators are not taking the matter lightly...
(Outlook India)
Instagram photos lead to Fort Carson soldier?s arrest. Police say pictures found on an Instagram account led to the arrest of a Fort Carson soldier suspected of sex assault.? According to the Colorado Springs Gazette, a woman who was assaulted on July 1 spotted pictures of her alleged attackers on the social media site and alerted detectives, who linked them to 22-year-old Army Spc. Felicion A. Charles...
(KDVR)
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Military.com passes 1 million Facebook likes
Thursday, July 11, 2013, 02:36 PM - Facebook
I often write about military organizations like the Marines that reach Facebook milestones, so this post is a rarity.
Military.com, the parent of this website, reached an impressive milestone on Facebook this past weekend with their 1 millionth fan.
On July 6, the news organization reached 1 million likes.
In a press release celebrating the milestone, T McCreary, President of Military.com, said, ""One million 'Likes' on Facebook is a significant milestone for us. As a community website, we are always looking to extend our reach and provide information to our members. We've worked hard to ensure our social media destinations are valuable for anyone looking for information about the military."
The company thanked fans on Facebook and even gave away gift cards to a select few who helped them reach one million likes.
You can fan Military.com on Facebook here.
WIKIPEDIA: Military.com
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IDF officer used fake Facebook profile for sex
Wednesday, July 10, 2013, 04:41 AM - Facebook A colonel in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is being accused of setting up a fake Facebook profile under the name ?Alon Rotem? for the purposes of luring women into having sex with him, reports Haaretz Daily Newspaper.According to Haaretz:
?The army is investigating allegations against him, following an increasing number of complaints by women surfacing on social networks. The officer asked Maj. Gen. Guy Tzur, commander of the Ground Forces, for a leave of absence until the matter is cleared up.?
The IDF has had its share of problems lately with social networking sites like Facebook.
Recent incidents that drew negative attention involved video and photos of female IDF soldiers half-naked that went viral last month.?
The incidents prompted the IDF to develop a "social networking code of ethics".
Full story here.
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News: Amazing Instagram photos by U.S. Marine
Wednesday, July 10, 2013, 03:45 AM - News Stories Marine 'Snaps' Leg, Picks Up Photography, Shoots One Of The Most Fascinating Military Instagrams Ever. The change for U.S. Marine Matthew Callahan came when he "snapped" his leg.? It was his first deployment to Afghanistan with 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment. He was an "assaultman," a Marine specialized in assaulting hardened positions.(Business Insider)
Police: Pictures on website led to Fort Carson soldier's arrest. Pictures on a social media site led police to a Fort Carson soldier who is jailed on investigation of sexual assault.? Police in court papers say the alleged victim in the case spotted the images after a July 1 attack and burglary and alerted detectives who tracked them to Army Spc. Felicion A. Charles, 22.
(The Gazette)
War stories. A few weeks ago, Priscilla Rall, a volunteer from the Veterans History Project, stopped in Upper Sandusky to interview Lew Gottfried. The retiree recently published a book, "Protecting Our Liberty," which features the stories of more than 50 military veterans, most from Wyandot County.
(The Advertiser-Tribune)
Project preserves Nebraska veterans? stories. Kathy Berrick grew up knowing her father served in World War II. Beyond that, details were hard to come by. ?He was just one of those veterans who did not want to talk about the war,? Berrick said. ?I took pride knowing he served, but really, I knew little else.?? During a function at St. Teresa?s School in Lincoln, Berrick started talking to Brian O?Grady, an interlibrary loan borrowing specialist with the University Libraries.
(Beatrice Daily Sun)
DARPA-funded project uses social media to predict suicide by soldiers. An effort called the Durkheim Project has brought together a collection of big data companies, universities and government agencies that want to predict suicide risks among veterans by analyzing their social media posts.
(Gigaom)
British pop producer launches ?Afghanistan?s Got Talent? TV show. According to reports Cowell?s Syco Entertainment and Fremantle Media will launch the local version of internationally-popular reality show ?Got Talent? in Afghanistan.? The show created by British pop producer Simon Cowell will come in television screens under the name of ?Afghanistan?s Got Talent? through local channel 1TV media based in Kabul.
(Khaama Press)
Egypt Army Says Images of Dead Children From Syria. Egypt's army spokesman Ahmed Mohamed Aly denied on Monday that army forces fired life shots at protesters. The spokesman added that one of his colleagues is currently being operated on because he received a bullet to the head which indicated that shots came from the top of buildings. "The images of dead children which were displayed on one of the Facebook pages of Islamist parities is from the civil war in Syria," Aly insisted.
(All Africa)
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TX Soldiers post photo in uniform, underwear
Tuesday, July 9, 2013, 10:12 PM - FacebookSoldiers from around the world have been getting into trouble lately for posting provocative photos and video clips to social networking sites like Facebook.
Two female U.S. soldiers out of Fort Sam Houston, Texas, are the latest military members to stir up some controversy after posting a photo of themselves in uniform, with their pants pulled down slightly showing off their underwear.
In early June, the Israeli military disciplined several female soldiers who posted images of themselves in underwear and combat gear to the social networking site Facebook. Then days later a video emerged of more female soldiers within the IDF dancing around half-naked.
Not long after the IDF scandal, the Australian Defence Force was caught up in an electronic sex scandal.
KENS5 reports:
?Two young military members apparently uploaded a photo of themselves to Instagram in their underwear while wearing their military uniforms. Instagram is a popular photo and video sharing app that allows users to like, comment and share posts.
The photo was confirmed by a Fort Sam Houston spokesperson. The two women could face anything from a verbal warning to a court marshal, he said.?
Full story and photo here.
WIKIPEDIA: Fort Sam Houston
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News: Mine Facebook to prevent military suicide
Tuesday, July 9, 2013, 06:30 PM - News Stories Military Suicide Risk Could Be Prevented By Mining Facebook Posts. The rising problem of military suicide risk is being addressed by the Durkheim Project, which is a collaboration between Patterns and Predictions, a data mining company, Facebook and the Department of Veterans Affairs, MSN News reported. The group of researchers aims to predict increased suicide risk among military veterans based on the words and phrases they use on social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn...(International Digital Times)
Collection of 90K war letters reveal voices of soldiers from American Revolution to Iraq.? U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Horace Evers was setting up a command post in Munich with other Allied soldiers in the final days of World War II when he stumbled across sheets of Adolf Hitler's personal stationery in the dictator's abandoned apartment...
(The Gazette)
Found in the attic? A cowardly soldier's diary of Gettysburg. With the recent fuss about the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, I was all the more excited by a surprise while cleaning out the attic the other day. Beneath the Honus Wagner baseball cards and next to the Andy Warhol high school journal containing doodles of soup cans was the Civil War diary of ancestor Rutherford B. Rotstein, a private in the 999th Pennsylvania Regiment and reluctant combatant at Gettysburg. He wrote better than he fought, which wasn't saying much...
(Pittsburg Post-Gazette)
Eygpt's military release new footage of violence. Egypt's military released further footage of what it described as an assault earlier in the day by supporters of ousted president Mohammed Morsi on the Republican Guard building in Cairo...
(telegraphtv)
Brotherhood posts old photos of Syrian children as victims of Egypt?s army. The Facebook page of Egypt?s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) - the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood - has posted old photos of children killed in Syria as photos of children killed on Monday.? More than 50 people were killed early on Monday during a sit-in in front of Egypt's Republican Guard headquarters. The sit-in was organized by Islamist supporters of ousted president Mohammad Mursi...
(Al Arabiya)
Prince Andrew becomes first UK royal on Twitter. Twitter is now a bit more royal. Britain's Prince Andrew has joined the micro-blogging service as @TheDukeOfYork.? Within hours of opening the account Monday, Andrew had more than 10,000 followers - but also had received several abusive comments...
(KEYC)
Egyptian Army Issues Facebook Statement Calling For Peaceful Protests; Morsi Prosecution Begins Monday. There have been heavy clashes between various factions after president Mohamed Morsi was ousted as the Egypt?s leader.? The military has warned against counter attacks by Morsi supporters and called for a return to order after week long demonstrations and protests asking for Morsi to step down...
(International Business Times)
Online videos showcase Syrian rebels' foreign weaponry. From his home in the English town of Leicester, former business administrator Elliot Higgins trawls through sometimes hundreds of online videos a day from Syria's civil war.? His research, begun after he took redundancy late last year, has made him a self-taught expert on the weaponry of a conflict largely inaccessible to outsiders, in which disparate rebel groups, some linked to al-Qaeda, form their own supply lines...
(Chicago Tribune)
A Veteran's Story: Korean War was enough for him.? When it comes to remembering what happened on the front lines in the Korean War, former Army Sgt. James Hunter would just as soon forget.? ?There are things that happened there that I never want to talk about again,? Hunter said.? A weapons instructor working as an adviser with a Republic of Korea line infantry company, Hunter spent 13 months in Korea...
(Mansfield News Journal)
Citizen Journalist Killed In Syria. Fidaa al-Baali was a trusted source for international journalists.? He used his video camera to document the Syrian war and anti-government protests. Baali died last Friday.? We talk about his contributions, and have an update of the continuing upheaval in his country...
(Here & Now)
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Syrian cannibal rebel threatens worse
Monday, July 8, 2013, 10:53 PM
Do you remember that viral gory video of a Syrian rebel commander cutting the organ out of a Syrian soldier and taking a bite?
It drew a lot of attention...
Well, now the Syrian rebel, Khalid al-Hamad, who explained himself in an interview in May to TIME over Skype, is back in the news and he?s promising to commit more ghastly crimes if ?foreign-backed terrorists in Syria do not receive more military aid from abroad.?
PRESS TV reports:
?We will do worse than this if we don?t get help and no-fly-zone and heavy weapons,? said Khalid al Hamad, known by his nom de guerre Abu Sakkar, in an exclusive interview with the British state-run broadcaster, the BBC.???I didn?t want to do this but I was forced to. We should scare them and humiliate them just as they are doing to us ... I did this so they will be deterred. Now, they will not dare be wherever Abu Sakkar is,? he pointed out.
Full story here.
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News: Afghan firefight on YouTube investigated
Sunday, July 7, 2013, 04:13 AM - News StoriesMilitary Police are investigating how unedited footage of last year's Battle of Baghak in Afghanistan ended up on the internet. ?Military Police are investigating how unedited footage of New Zealand soldiers involved in a shootout with Afghan insurgents came to be posted on YouTube.? Last month the Defence Force released helmet camera video footage taken from the "Battle of Baghak" to illustrate how tough it is fighting in the Afghan mountains...
(NZ Technology News)
Presidents on Twitter this week: Morsi, Washington, Jefferson. With the observation of the Fourth of July and the overthrow of Egypt?s first democratically-elected president, Twitter witnessed more history than usual this week. Wednesday, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi?s Twitter account broadcast messages even as military leaders ousted him from office. Thursday, The Daily Dot published posts from ?The Top 6 Founding Fathers on Twitter,? inspiring this collection. On social media, some former presidents do better than others...
(UTSanDiego)
App links struggling vets with nearby network of military friends.? Jacob Wood was at the funeral of a fellow Marine veteran who committed suicide in 2011 when he discovered just how close potentially life-saving help had been.? The two men served in the same sniper section during deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, but when his friend returned home, he fell into isolation and depression...
(Stars and Stripes)
Drop and give me 20 Twitter updates, soldier. The few, the proud, the out of breath: The British military is loosening its standards for physical fitness, but just for one specialized branch: its "cyber reservists." To address the threat of cyber espionage, the United Kingdom says computer hacking recruits won't have to meet the same levels of fitness that other reservists must...
(The Buzz)
(Bangor Daily News)
Prominent Egyptian blogger released from jail, remains on trial.? A prominent Egyptian blogger jailed for insulting deposed President Mohamed Mursi was released from prison on Saturday, state news agency MENA said, but he remained on trial for inciting violence.? Ahmed Douma was sentenced to six months in jail for calling Mursi a criminal and a murderer in media interviews, in a case activists said was part of a crackdown on dissent by Mursi and his Islamist-led government...
(Chicago Tribune)
Twitter translation service for non-Arabic speakers. A new Twitter service automatically translates tweets of leading figures for global understanding of Egyptian issues.? BBC reports that Twitter is using Microsoft Bing translator as an experiment, covering European languages such as Italian, French and Spanish, before extending it to Arabic.? According to the report, non-Egyptians were able to read the tweets of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi in their local languages, as Egypt's military ousted on him on Wednesday...
(India Today)
WWII vets share story on making P-47 aircrafts. During World War II, workers in Evansville built more than 6,000 P-47 Thunderbolt Airplanes and only a handful are still flying today.? Two were supposed to be on display near the Evansville Airport Saturday morning, but they didn't end up making it. However, that didn't stop local veterans and others who helped with the war effort back at home from getting together and sharing their stories.? We all have stories to tell, but as the years go by, fewer and fewer can speak first hand about World War II. On Saturday, many did at a homecoming of sorts near the Evansville Airport...
(14 News)
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Military Mom blog wins back-to-back titles
Sunday, July 7, 2013, 03:52 AM
Rebecca Yarros, who writes the military spouse blog "The Only Girl Among Boys" at theonlygirlamongboys.blogspot.com has won Circle of Moms' Top Military Mom Blog for 2013.
Rebecca also won the title in 2012.
This year, "The Only Girl Among Boys" finished with 1,324 votes to edge out "The Deployment Diatribes" with 1,154 votes.
A short description of her blog on Circle of Moms reads, "Rocking out our 4th deployment with our 4 little boys, trying to find the humor in the ups and downs, but never afraid to explore the not-so-funny side of our crazy, post-wounded, wonderful military life."
According to Watertown Daily Times, Rebecca's husband Jason is deployed to Afghanistan with the 10th Combat Aviation.
You can see the Top 25 Military Mom bloggers of 2013 here.
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Facebook helps Marine find service dog
Saturday, July 6, 2013, 01:23 PM - Facebook
Facebook has proved to be an effective way for people to be reunited with other people, mementos and even animals.
Last month, a toddler who lost his military "Daddy doll" at a shopping mall had it returned after a Good Samaritan found the doll and posted its picture to Facebook.
Another Good Samaritan found a shadow box containing a U.S. flag, picture and medals that a National Guard soldier had lost.? It was eventually returned after a photo of the shadow box was posted to the Facebook page of a local news station.
Here?s another story in which Facebook has helped.
A military working dog named Chewie joined the Virginia Beach Police Department after the military downsized its Improvised Detection Dog Program in 2012.
The dog's original handler, Sgt. Johnston with the US Marines, began a search to find out what became of Chewie.
As the Virginia Beach Police report, the search led to a post and message on the Department?s own Facebook page.
?The Virginia Beach Police Department?s Public Affairs Office read the post and forwarded the message to Sergeant Chris Tull of the K9 Unit.?? Much to our surprise, Sgt. Tull is Chewie?s new handler!? Sgt. Tull has been in contact with the former handler and with the woman who created the post on our Facebook.? Sgt. Tull is also putting together a care package of VBPD K9 items to send to Sgt. Daryl Johnston as a thank you for his work with Chewie and his service to our country. Sgt. Johnston was happy to hear that Chewie was working and still saving lives.? Sgt. Tull and Johnston plan to stay in touch with updates about what Chewie is doing.
Also, in their search for Chewie, they located the breeder and Chewie?s parents, who have a litter on the way in August.? Sgt. Johnston is hoping to get one of the pups.?
Sgt. Johnston has also been extended an invitation to stop by to visit with Chewie.?
More here.
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News: Combat camera specialist killed
Saturday, July 6, 2013, 03:00 AM - News Stories Official: Training explosion killed Augusta Army photographer. Army Spc. Hilda Clayton, an Augusta photographer who documented overseas security missions, died during an Afghan National Army training exercise Tuesday, when a mortar system failed and created a ?catastrophic explosion? that killed four people and wounded 11, according to an Army colonel...(The Augusta Chronicle)
Skype therapy? It's working for veterans. Ruben Moreno Garcia, who served three combat tours in Iraq, now lives with his family in this Imperial Valley community and works as a mechanic in Yuma, Ariz.? Kathryn Williams, a clinical psychologist for the Department of Veterans Affairs, has an office in La Jolla, more than 100 miles away...
(Los Angeles Times)
A soldier's diary. EDITOR?S NOTE: The following is written by Zach Hardin, a daily recap of what he has seen so far from the battlefield at Gettysburg.? We arrived on Thursday, and reported to our company. We spent the evening drilling, and setting up our camp. The next morning, our brigade bugler woke us up at 4 a.m. We did not know the reason so early, but we found out later the men of the 24th were woken up at 4 a.m. on the first day of battle to be issued hardtack and salt pork for three days...
(The Telegraph)
Journalists jailed, fined for critical reporting in Somaliland. The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) condemns the draconian sentences handed to two journalists by the Somaliland Court in Hargeisa.? Hassan Hussein Abdullahi, also known as Keefkeef, received a two-year jail term and a fine of two million Somaliland shillings, while journalist Mohamed Ahmed Jama, also known as Aloley, received a one-year jail term and was fined one million Somaliland shillings...
(IFEX)
Texas author honored for war stories. As a writer, Tim O'Brien has stood at the dizzying intersection of boyhood memories of small town July Fourth parades in Minnesota and an eye-opening combat tour of Vietnam.? The Austin-based novelist and short story author who teaches creative writing at Texas State University in San Marcos was last week named the winner of the Pritzker Military Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement...
(San Antonio Express-News)
Halifax artist, soldier chronicles her time at war. A new exhibit at Halifax's historic Citadel Hill is teaching people about the war in Afghanistan through the eyes of a young artist who served as a soldier in the war.Citadel Hill is one of Canada's most famous forts, known for celebrating Canadian military history. The latest exhibit is bringing Canada's more recent combat history to light...
(CBC News)
Mursi?s speech: How Twitter ? and one angry TV guest ? reacted. As record numbers of Egyptians took to the streets to demand the resignation of Mohammad Mursi, crowds also gathered online for a virtual mudslinging match against the embattled president. Thousands turned to sites like Twitter and Facebook to comment on Mursi?s speech in the early hours of this morning ? and few held back in their criticism.? ?Mursi is dying, but we still need to be in everywhere in the streets before his sheep start appearing,? tweeted Mohammad Khairy, a chemical Engineer living in Egypt...
(Al Arabiya)
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State Department pays $630K for Facebook likes
Friday, July 5, 2013, 04:36 AM - Facebook
The State Department has got some attention this week after it was revealed it spent over half a million dollars to get Facebook likes across a number of accounts.
The Washington Examiner reports:
?State Department officials spent $630,000 to get more Facebook "likes," prompting employees to complain to a government watchdog that the bureau was "buying fans" in social media, the agency's inspector general says.
The department's Bureau of International Information Programs spent the money to increase its "likes" count between 2011 and March 2013.?
The spending did help grow Facebook likes, but the target audience still wasn?t captured.
Apparently, only 2 percent of Facebook fans engage with the State Department?s Facebook pages which leads you to wonder how effective the likes they did get really are.
You can read more here.
Wikipedia: United States Department of State
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Social networking dominates Egyptian revolution
Friday, July 5, 2013, 04:19 AM - News Stories If you?ve been following the events in Egypt, you know that social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter have been a big part.? Here?s a roundup of some of the headlines from around the internet over the last few days.New Twitter Tool Translates The Last Desperate Tweets Of Egypt?s Fallen President. Avid Twitter followers saw the short reign of Egypt?s Mohammed Morsi crumble in real time this afternoon, as the army overthrew the mostly tyrannical ruler. Twitter began auto-translating Morsi, who issued a string of desperate tweets...
(TechCrunch)
Egypt Likes Facebook, but Investors Prefer U.S. Beyond the streets, Egypt?s crisis has been unfolding on Facebook. The Egyptian military?s 48-hour ultimatum was posted to its official page. Deposed President Mohammed Morsi?s ?vision? for the country went out via his own...
(Wall Street Journal)
Internet fills the gap as Egyptian military shuts some TV stations. The Internet held up in Egypt as the military deposed the country's president Wednesday, with both the former president's aides and the opposition using Twitter and Facebook extensively to communicate with followers in Egypt and the rest of the world...
(ComputerWorldUK)
Morsi Advisor Posts Frightening Statement On Facebook About What Is Happening To Egypt. Essam El-Haddad, presidential assistant on Foreign Relations to Mohamed Morsi, took to the official Facebook account to post a frightening statement about an impending military coup in Egypt...
(Business Insider)
Will the Real Egyptian President Please Tweet? Perhaps it's a sign of the times, but as wire services scrambled this afternoon to see if they could get a reaction from Mohammed Morsi, (the newly deposed former President of Egypt) they turned to a quote via a Twitter account where he allegedly called the military's actions a "full coup".
(PBS)
Egypt's Morsi had Twitter, the generals had the tanks. As the Egyptian leader was ousted by the military, he and his allies live-tweeted their side of the events. Now the world can read these tweets, because of Twitter's new translation tool...
(CNET News)
Egyptian Revolution: 10 Shocking Images Of Tahrir Square From Twitter, Vine, Instagram [PHOTOS] Egypt is in the throes of another revolution as the Egyptian Army issues an ultimatum to incumbent Islamist President Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood to step down within 48 hours or face military intervention to remove him from office...
(International Digital Times)
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Source: http://milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry130717-154401
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