Features
Auschwitz, the reality of evil
(Ed. note: We received an inquiry from someone by the name of Richard Britton, who asked us whether we would consider printing something he had written about a recent visit he took to Auschwitz. Richard wrote: “May I send for your consideration an article (1050 words) I wrote following a recent visit to Auschwitz? This isn’t a ‘tour guide’ piece it’s about my personal reactions and outrage to what I saw and heard.”
We said we would. What follows is what Richard wrote:
I’m not entirely sure why I wanted to go to Auschwitz, the Nazi extermination camp in Poland – it was not the most obvious place to go for an Easter break! But I think it was prompted by something more than just morbid curiosity. A prominent local political figure – a Muslim whom I had known for several years – had made some anti-semitic comments which shocked me, happening as it did in my local community. It suddenly seemed a dangerously short step from anti-semitic remarks to persecution and violence against the Jews.
So against this background I wanted to try to understand the reality of the mechanistic killing of over a million Jews which took place there and to explore my own reactions when confronted with the hideous reality of genocide.
Born in 1942 I grew up in a small provincial town in the East Midlands. Although the war was very real for us – surrounded as we were by American Air Force bases – the enormity of the Holocaust didn’t really enter our consciousness until well into the 1950s. And it was not taught or talked about during my Grammar school years right up to 1960.
Although I am neither Jew nor Christian I think there was also an element of atonement – a wish to express my personal outrage at the enormity of the wickedness of cold, systematic murder.
Upon my return I find I have difficulty in processing and coming to terms with what I have seen and learned about those frightful wartime years in Poland. Writing this is, I think, part of that process. I don’t want to write a tour guide – there’s plenty of information readily available on the Internet. Instead I want to explain my reaction to what I saw and heard – things I shall remember and ponder on for a long time to come.
There are two camps about an hour’s journey from Krakow: Auschwitz itself and, about a mile away, the industrialised killing centre of Birkenau where between one and one-and-a-half million Jews were murdered in little more than two years.
Auschwitz is entered via the infamous “Arbeit Macht Frei” gate and the museum there contains many disturbing exhibits including the luggage and personal possessions of the last trainloads of victims; items which had not yet been sent back to Germany when the camp was finally abandoned early in 1945 as the Russian army closed in.
There are piles of cooking pots and utensils (victims had been told to take with them what they would need for their ‘new lives after resettlement’); luggage of all kinds – carefully marked with the names or addresses of their owners; spectacles; prosthetic limbs; and human hair shorn from the victims of the gas chambers, some of it woven into a fabric.
Amongst the displays was a pile of shoes and there jumped out at me the sight of a small child’s very faded red shoe. I was stunned and shocked to a standstill in front of the display cabinet. Here was a direct and intimate connection with a real child – almost standing in front of me – who had been led to their death by their, perhaps unsuspecting, Mother. That child looked at me across the years. Here was reality.
Amongst other horrors to be seen in Auschwitz, there remains a small gas chamber where the use of Zyklon B cyanide pellets had been pioneered. Unlike the large gas-chamber at Birkenau it is intact and to stand in the very place where thousands of people were murdered was a frightful, chilling experience.
But the Nazis realised that a larger-scale and more efficient killing process was required to deliver their mass-extermination plans of the ‘Final Solution to the Jewish question’ and it is at Birkenau where the mind-blowing industrial scale of the killing of Jews and other undesirable ethnicities such as Romas, strikes home. Up to 2,000 people at a time could be murdered in the large Birkenau gas chamber. Murder by the trainload.
The Auschwitz museum contains some remarkable photographs of people being unloaded from a train onto the infamous ‘ramp’ at Birkenau with the obscene selection process already in progress. Probably taken from a guard tower they show confused and anxious people but the scene is very orderly – no panic or violence of any kind. Clearly, the arrivals had been carefully persuaded that they were being ‘resettled’ in a work camp.
Even standing on that very ramp shown in those photographs where Jews from across Europe were offloaded it is difficult to come to terms with the realisation that the majority of them would be dead in the next hour or so as a result of a casual, off-hand, life-or-death decision taken in a couple of seconds. That this is so far outside any understanding of human norms of morality and that it happened in the very place I was standing was almost incomprehensible.
Although the Nazis blew up the undressing room, gas chambers and crematoria at Birkenau in an effort to destroy the evidence of their crimes as the Russian advance neared the camp, the ruins can still be accessed and one stands before them mesmerised, humbled and angered.
Despite being at the very site where all this took place it is difficult to grasp the horror, evil and extent of the cold, casual routine of murder which took place there only 80 or so years ago – just as my own life was beginning.
This is the reality of genocidal anti-semitism. This is maniacal Fascism. This is routine state-backed mass murder, planned and conducted on a systematic industrial scale. This is pure evil and wickedness and it really happened. Perpetrated by real people against other people they judged inferior and undesirable is, alarmingly, recent history.
Of course there have been genocidal killings around the world since then. Sparked by racial, religious and cultural differences and fuelled by fear, hate and ignorance, they are a depressingly regular occurrence through history.
I’m glad I went to Auschwitz-Birkenau. I experienced astonishment, sadness, outrage and other sentiments I haven’t come to terms with yet. And great depression at the evidence of man’s inhumanity to man and the feeling that evil lies just beneath the surface in a great many of us.
I was gratified to hear that visiting Auschwitz and learning about the Holocaust is a part of the school curriculum for Polish children. I wish it was possible for all young people to visit. We must not allow what happened at Auschwitz and similar camps to simply fade into history.
I have not previously been engaged with Holocaust Day. Now I shall be.
Features
Hacker and Fraud Prevention for Online Gambling Profiles
Safeguard your online casino & sports betting accounts from cyber threats
Follow these 10 vital steps to reinforce your online gambling profile by enabling two-factor authentication, using VPNs, unique passwords and more.
With the global online gambling market projected to reach over $100 billion by 2026, securing your online casino and sportsbook accounts is more critical than ever. As digital wallets swell with winnings so too does the motivation for cybercriminals to steal credentials and loot accounts.
#1. Activate Two-Factor Authentication
Topping the list is two-factor authentication (2FA) – requiring two credentials to login instead of one at FanDuel. Often this entails providing your password plus a one-time code sent via SMS or email.
Per an Oracle study, implementing 2FA would have thwarted 99% of historical cyber attacks that involved stolen credentials.
Most regulated online gambling sites offer 2FA, accessible under account settings. Turn it on immediately for stronger defense.
#2. Never Reuse or Recycle Passwords
A cardinal sin is recycling the same password across multiple sites or services. Once one account is breached, cyber thieves can access more accounts using that same password.
To avoid this, every account deserves a unique, strong password. For simplicity, utilize a password manager app to randomly generate and store site-specific passwords.
#3. Install a VPN for Public Wi-Fi Access
When playing online casino games on shared/open wireless networks, your data flows openly and risks interception. That’s where virtual private networks (VPNs) come in.
VPNs encrypt all network traffic to and from your device. This protects your gambling activity and account credentials from Wi-Fi eavesdroppers. VPNs also disguise your IP address.
Some top-rated services include NordVPN, ExpressVPN and CyberGhost.
#4. Keep Software Updated & Run Anti-Virus Scans
You must keep computers and mobile devices updated with the latest OS and security patches. Postponing critical updates leaves open dangerous holes that malware exploits.
Likewise run reputable anti-virus scans to catch viruses attempting to infiltrate systems and spy on login credentials for financial accounts.
#5. Verify the Security & Encryption of Sites
When signing up at online betting sites and casinos, verify the legitimacy of their security measures:
- Confirm the address starts with HTTPS, not HTTP
- Check that data transmissions are encrypted using at least 128-bit SSL
- Ensure site has proper licensing
- Review privacy policy for data storage and sharing
Reputable sites will display trust badges from companies like Norton and TrustE.
#6. Avoid Account Sharing
While tempting to give friends or relatives access to funded accounts, sharing login credentials is extremely risky. You lose control over deposits/withdrawals while exposing yourself to potential theft.
Instead, gift deposits to other player accounts or refer them to open their own secure accounts.
#7. Beware Account Takeover Scams
Exercise caution if contacted unexpectedly about unusual account activity. Savvy scammers will pretend a breach occurred to trick you into handing over your username and password.
If concerned about account integrity, directly access the site yourself and contact customer support – don’t click any links in unsolicited emails.
#8. Monitor Financial Statements
Carefully review online betting account and credit card statements to detect unauthorized transactions right away. Dispute unrecognized activity ASAP to limit losses.
For further vigilance, some banks offer real-time purchase alerts via email or SMS.
#9. Don’t Save Payment Info
Saving credit card or e-wallet details on gambling sites for faster future deposits also expedites withdrawals – by you and potentially hackers.
Instead, manually enter payment info each time to contain potential damage from any account infiltration.
#10. Create a Secure Email
A strong yet oft-overlooked defense is creating a secure email account strictly for gambling transactions. Keep it completely separate from your personal email to isolate threats.
Use a nickname, enable 2FA and establish a strong password using special characters, numbers, case changes and 15+ letters.
Table: Comparison of Top VPNs for Online Gambling Site Security
| VPN Service | Encryption Standard | Number of Server Locations | Allows P2P Traffic | Number of Simultaneous Connections | Money Back Guarantee |
| NordVPN | AES 256-bit | 5400+ | Yes | 6 | 30 days |
| ExpressVPN | AES 256-bit | 3000+ | Yes | 5 | 30 days |
| CyberGhost | AES 256-bit | 7400+ | Yes | 7 | 45 days |
Fortify Your Online Gambling Fortress
As online casinos and sportsbooks explode in popularity, no player is immune to the growing plague of cyber fraud and account theft.
Guard your profile by enabling two-factor authentication, setting strong passwords, installing critical software updates and more. Also research site security measures and payment options.
Features
Vital Role of True Randomness in Modern Computing
The critical need for true randomness in cryptography, simulations, and more
True randomness is essential for encryption, statistical sampling, simulations, and more computing applications to work effectively. We explore why.
The concept of randomness often evokes thoughts of unpredictability and chance occurrences. However in the world of computing, having access to true randomness is vital for many critical applications to function properly. Without the ability to generate random values and data, key aspects of modern technology simply would not work reliably.
In this article, we will explore what constitutes true randomness from a computational perspective, why it is crucially important, and some of the ways that software and hardware attempt to produce randomness reliably. Gaining insight into this topic highlights the dependence much of digital functionality has on the availability of non-deterministic, uniformly distributed random data.
What Makes Randomness “True”?
For data to be considered truly random from an information theory perspective, values must satisfy key mathematical and statistical qualities, for example at Lucky Seven Casino. True randomness implies meeting three core criteria:
- Uniform distribution — All potential values have an equal probability of occurring so that no bias exists towards certain numbers.
- Independence — The value at any position does not relate to or depends on values at other positions. Previous numbers do not influence future ones.
- Unpredictability — Knowing some values provides no useful information to predict other values. Guessing upcoming numbers is mathematically impossible.
Hence, true randomness requires generated data featuring high entropy (information density) with no observable patterns or correlations over any length or time period analyzed. Values must pass various statisticatests of randomness to qualify. True randomness exists only in specific natural phenomena scientists believe exhibit fundamental uncertainty such as radioactive decay. Computational methods can attempt to produce randomness but technically generate only an approximation usually called pseudo-randomness. However for many practical purposes, computationally generated randomness proves sufficient if it passes robust statistical testing.
Why True Randomness Matters Cryptography
Arguably, the area with the most crucial dependence on true randomness is cryptography. All modern encryption technologies require random number generation to ensure security. Encryption systems work by utilizing random numbers for:
- Key generation
- Initialization vectors
- Salts
- Nonces
- Padding
Any bias, predictability or correlation within random values used for the above purposes significantly compromises encryption protocols and introduces vulnerabilities. With trillions of dollars transferred online daily and vast amounts of sensitive data stored digitally, safeguarding cryptography requires high-quality random number generation rooted in solid entropy sources.
Simulations & Modeling
Outside of security, many more computing applications need randomness to operate correctly per their design intent. Monte Carlo simulations extensively utilize randomness to model complex real-world behaviors by running many iterations with differing random inputs. Financial analysis, climate modeling, nuclear reactions and molecular behavior represent common Monte Carlo simulation applications.
Games, Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
Gaming, AI and ML commonly incorporate randomness to increase variation, introduce unpredictability, and improve realism. For example, non-player characters in video games use randomness for movement, dialog and behavior to feel more lifelike and less robotic. AI/ML leverage randomness to train networks more thoroughly against a wider possibility space and build more resilient models less prone to biases.
Generating True Randomness via Hardware
Given the pervasive need for genuine randomness across computing, how do software and hardware reliably produce it? Most systems today use either specialized hardware random number generators or hybrid combinations of hardware and software.
Hardware options utilize the inherent randomness within low-level physical phenomena to produce entropy. Different techniques for generating randomness exist but most hardware implementations focus on three main sources:
- Thermal Noise
- Semiconductor Quantum Physics
- Chaotic Oscillator Outputs
| Generator Type | Description |
| Thermal Noise | Amplifies and extracts random electrical noise from resistor thermal vibrations |
| Quantum Physics | Leverages quantum mechanical properties like photon emission timing from LEDs/lasers |
| Chaotic Circuits | Uses unpredictable oscillator circuit outputs from chaos theory |
Semiconductor-based solutions can generate high bitrates up to 5Gbps using compact modern chip fabrication allowing extensive harvestingof entropy. However these sources derive from complex, random physical processes proving impossible to predict or fully model mathematically. This unpredictability provides excellent entropy quality unattainable via software algorithms alone.
Most general-purpose computers now integrate random number generators within CPUs allowing applications access to decent hardware-based random data. For the highest security use cases, dedicated standalone hardware random number generators exist exceeding >100Gbps speeds. Hence accessing genuine randomness is available today even on common computing devices.
Cryptographically Secure Pseudo-Random Number Generators
While hardware mechanisms utilize hard-to-predict physical phenomena to produce randomness, software solutions must take a different approach. Algorithmically-generated randomness cannot achieve true randomness from a physics perspective. However clever mathematical techniques like cyclical algorithms can generate randomness passing many statistical tests of randomness within their output bit length limits.
Cryptographically secure pseudo-random number generators (CSPRNG) serve as the premier software-based method for generating randomness. CSPRNGs work by repeatedly applying cryptographic primitives like hash or cipher functions on initial random seed values. This process produces a chain of output bits not reproducible without the original seed key. Leading CSPRNG algorithms include:
- Hash_DRBG
- HMAC_DRBG
- CTR_DRBG
Software libraries implement these CSPRNGs so developers can integrate quality randomness into applications with proper seeding. Seeding establishes the initial starting point for randomness generation using an entropy source like hardware random number generators or timing variability.
CSPRNGs allow the production of vast quantities of randomized data for any purpose needed. Compared to hardware mechanisms limited by physics on maximum speeds, algorithms scale boundlessly in the bits created as long as adequate computational power exists.
Yet key differences between software and hardware randomness remain. While CSPRNG outputs pass statistical testing and contain no observable patterns, their pseudo-randomness means given the same seed, the exact same value sequence will generate each time. Also, if a CSPRNG algorithm or implementation has flaws, adversaries could predict and exploit output resulting in compromised security. Still, with proper cryptographic design and regular reseeding, CSPRNGs provide quality randomness for most software needs.
Conclusion
From the above exploration, we see true randomness plays a pivotal role across computing – from cybersecurity to simulations and beyond. While no substitutes for true physically-derived entropy exist, modern hardware and hybrid hardware-software solutions provide abundant randomness for practical usage.
However as computing continues evolving with new technologies like quantum, ensuring high-quality randomness generation tackles emerging information security and system reliability challenges. Access to ample true randomness stands necessary now for current computing functionality and lays the foundation for future innovation.
Features
News from Israeli hotels
Introduction: The current wars in Gaza and Lebanon have had a disastrous effect on Israeli tourism. Recently we were contacted by a friend in the advertising business in Israel who asked us whether we would help to promote a couple of well-known Israeli hotels – who are hoping for a huge rebound in bookings once the wars come to an end.
Here is news about two leading Israeli hotels:
Mr. Roy Avidor is the new GM at The Ritz-Carlton, Herzliya.
We are delighted to welcome Roy Avidor as the new General Manager of The Ritz-Carlton, Herzliya!
Roy brings over a decade of leadership in the international hospitality industry, with a proven track record of operational excellence.
Most recently, Roy served as Director of Operations at the Sheraton Grand Tel Aviv, where he oversaw daily operations across multiple departments, always ensuring the highest standards of service. Prior to that, he held management positions at Celebrity Cruise Line and Isrotel Hotel Chain.
Roy’s extensive background in luxury hospitality, combined with his passion for service, makes him the perfect addition to our team and to his newest position as General Manager.
Boaz Elani Appointed General Manager of Sheraton Grand Hotel Tel Aviv
Boaz Elani has been named the new General Manager of the Sheraton Grand Hotel Tel Aviv, a prestigious property within the global luxury Marriott portfolio.
Bringing extensive expertise in luxury hospitality, Boaz most recently served as the General Manager of the Ritz-Carlton Herzliya, also part of the Marriott group. During his three-year tenure, he successfully navigated the hotel through two major challenges: the COVID-19 pandemic and the conflict in Israel. His steadfast dedication to exceptional service significantly enhanced guest satisfaction, solidifying the hotel’s reputation as a premier destination.
“I am honored by Marriott’s trust in me and thrilled to join the Sheraton Grand Tel Aviv team,” said Boaz. “This hotel holds a distinguished place as one of Israel’s finest and most iconic. Following its comprehensive renovation, we are committed to delivering unmatched experiences for our guests and continuing its tradition of excellence.”
The Sheraton Grand Tel Aviv, overlooking the Mediterranean, features 320 beautifully redesigned rooms, including premium, deluxe, and club accommodations, along with luxurious suites. Guests staying in club-level rooms enjoy exclusive access to the 18th-floor lounge, offering breathtaking sea views. The recent renovations incorporate modern aesthetics with natural, seaside-inspired materials, creating a serene and inviting ambiance.
The hotel boasts a range of world-class amenities, including a newly updated beachfront pool, a popular sushi bar open to both guests and the public, and a renowned gourmet breakfast. Its versatile meeting spaces and state-of-the-art conference halls have garnered international acclaim, earning it the 2024 World MICE Award for Best Event and Conference Hotel.
In line with Marriott’s global commitment to sustainability, the Sheraton Grand Tel Aviv has held Green Key Certification since 2014, highlighting its dedication to environmentally responsible practices.
With Boaz Elani at the helm, the Sheraton Grand Tel Aviv is poised to further elevate its status as a premier destination for both leisure and business travelers.
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