Beis Yaakov Expells 9 Girls for "non-kosher" cellphones

Nine students from the Beis Yaakov Yerushalayim (BJJ) Jerusalem High School were expelled because they own "non-kosher" cell phones.

mynet, the regional ynet website reported as follows (roughly translated by Jameel).

The story began in the twelfth grade class this week, when a student suddenly jumped up excitedly and announced that her friend got engaged.

Her teacher realized that she had received the happy information via a text message sent to her cell phone, and immediately called for the school principal.

The principal demanded that the girl hand over the phone.

Ultra-Orthodox rabbis have forbidden the use of "non-kosher" cell phones, which allow SMS text messaging. Since the prohibition is considered very serious, the student was expelled from school.

Yet the principal didn't stop there. He went through the phone's directory to see what other girls in the class had "non-kosher" cellphones. Apparently, Kosher cellphones have a similar prefix, so it was easy to spot the "non-kosher" ones.

The principal's detective work resulted in 8 other girls from the class being called in to be reprimanded for using non-kosher phones, and then they were all expelled as well.

"Many girls at the seminar are stressed out because they have a phone that is not kosher and fear being caught," said one student.

"There are those who are now trying to get a kosher phone, so they can show that to the principal, if caught. Since we're dealing with 12th grade, no one wants to get thrown out of school 6 months before they starts going out on shidduch dates", another student said.

It should be emphasized that this is not the only institution that treats the subject seriously.

In some Ultra Orthodox institutions, even the parents aren't allowed to own non-kosher cellphones.



Hat-tip to Faith for the above poster...

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Cellphone Technology Breakthrough: Smeller ID

Though this sounds like a Purim joke, someone apparently invested huge amounts of money in this idea.

Globes and A7 have the stink:

Israeli computer and telecommunications giant Comverse has unveiled a multi-sensual feature for cellphones.

Presented on February 16 at 2010 Mobile World Congress, Comverse's new feature will enable callers to send smells. Comverse hopes to convince mobile operators to purchase the application, which will absorb and transmit the scent of the caller's environment or cologne to the person he or she is calling, according to Globes online business magazine. The scent may also be used as identification of the caller. [a7]

Multi-sensual communications enables the caller to add the aroma of his or her environment or a personal scent to an SMS. The recipient will be able to identify the sender by his or her scent, or perhaps realize that the sender is in a cafe.

Comverse Chief Innovation Officer Daphna Steinmetz said, "This is technology that in future will transmit molecules via the telephone. We can currently provide this as a pilot on just one Nokia handset." [globes]

Tell me, do you really want to know what the person on the other end of of your call smells like?

I'm sure this technology will get integrated quickly into SKYPE...and then its only a matter of time before this becomes a Facebook App as well - Rate your friend's smell!

Ungh.

PS: There used to be a parody called "Smell U - Smell Me" technology. I guess yesterday's parody is tomorrow's technological reality. Heh -- Lurker found it for me.


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Orange Phone Ramadan Offer Update

Important Update:

The 2000 free minutes Ramadan offer is between the nighttime (Ramadan party hours) hours of 9:30 PM and 6:00 AM -- and are only from Orange to Orange phones (within the Orange network). The free minutes are NOT to every single Israeli destination.

Not as amazing as being able to call every single number in Israel, but still impressive...

However, the NFC (news first class, news 1) website has an additional scoop about Orange's targeted advertising offers for the "Arab sector".

If you're an Arab and newly engaged, you're entitled to a package of 1500 talk minutes per month, at 9 agorot a minute.


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Special Muqata offer for Orange Phone Users (Israel)

Special Muqata Offer -- for RAMADAN! (This month only -- as Ramadan started Friday...) [See Update Below]

If you're an Orange(tm) mobile phone user in Israel, there's a super secret phone offer for the "Arab sector" that can be used by anyone who happens to find out about it (hence, this special notification from Jameel at the Muqata) .

If you send the text message "ramadan" to 999 by SMS, you're eligible for 2000 free minutes between the nighttime (Ramadan party hours) hours of 9:30 PM and 5:00 AM.

Based on the hours my kids have been keeping this summer, this should save us a lot of money.

Don't thank me, I'm a giver....

Update: The 2000 free minutes are apparently only within the Orange network and not to all Israeli numbers.

More details to follow...


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IDF Targets the iPhone

In their ongoing FieldSec (Field Security) battle against cell phones, the IDF has declared war...on Apple's iPhone.

NRG/Maariv reports: [translated from the Hebrew] After the Second Lebanon war, the Israeli Navy's commander, General Eli Marom forbade Naval soldiers from bringing cellphones with built-in cameras onto bases and ships -- since photos of the bombed INS Hanit appeared on the internet.

Going one step further, the Israeli Air Force has now placed a strict ban on Apple's iPhone -- no soldier can bring an iPhone onto any IAF Airbase whatsoever.

One IAF airman stated:

"We saved up money for a long time [for the iPhone]as it costs several thousand Shekels -- and now we need to sell them at a loss. Every phone today already has internet connectivity and a built in phone. Our officers suffer from paranoia that the whole world is listening to them. This is just an attempt to annoy us...the IDF is in "trauma".

The IDF Spox responded:

The IDF goes to great lengths to protect field security and data integrity. In order to prevent information leaks, iPhone and similar phones are prohibited from IAF airbases unless permission is granted by the FieldSec Officer to only allow access of the phone to non sensitive areas.

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Popcorn and Cellphones

I'm waaaay to busy to seriously post this week. Yet, when I get 10 emails with the same topic, I can spare 2 minutes to write this. There are youtube videos going around showing how you can cook popcorn between cellphones -- the obvious message being that cellphones are bad, scary, and they cook your brain based on the emitted radiation.



The videos however, are fake.

They were produced by a blue tooth headset company to scare you into using their product, to get millions of page views of their videos, and generate marketing/media buzz.

For the record, you cannot "microwave", "cook", or "nuke" popcorn via 4 cellphones, or even cook an egg with 100 cellphones!

In October 2005, the UK based Brainiac show demonstrated that it simply does not work.



So the next time you get a scary looking video or internet email...check with Snopes.

They are your friend.


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