Classification Improvements in Automated Gunshot Residue (GSR) Scans

Classification of particles as gunshot residues (GSRs) is conducted using a semiautomatic approach in which the system first classifies particles based on an automatic elemental analysis, and then, examiners manually analyze particles having compositions which are characteristic of or consistent with GSRs. Analyzing all the particles in the second stage is time consuming with many particles classified by the initial automated system as being potentially GSRs excluded as such by the forensic examiner. In this paper, a new algorithm is developed to improve the initial classification step. The algorithm is based on a binary tree that was trained on almost 16,000 particles from 43 stubs used to sample hands of suspects. The classification algorithm was tested on 5,900 particles from 23 independent stubs and performed very well in terms of false positive and false negative rates. A routine use of the new algorithm can reduce significantly the analysis time of GSRs.     

Early Warning of Intentions or of Capabilities? Revisiting the Israeli–Egyptian Rotem Affair, 1960

A major school of thought in Israel asserts that: (1) a cornerstone of the Israeli security doctrine is gaining early warning based more on changes of the enemy's capabilities and less on learning its intentions; and (2) that deviation from the doctrine caused the strategic surprise experienced by the state on the outbreak of the 1973 Yom Kippur war. This assertion is examined here by looking into another case in which Israel was also militarily surprised. In February 1960 the Egyptian Army deployed offensively along the joint border, while the IDF remained unaware of the situation. Israel's conduct during the affair – known as the Rotem Affair – was based on lenient assessments (derived from sigint) regarding the Egyptian intentions, ignoring their capabilities. It transpires, therefore, that dominance of ‘early warning of intentions’ has been the rule rather than the exception.     

Sketching the Lineage: The Critical Method and the Idealist Tradition

The influence of philosophical idealism on critical theory is often taken for granted, but it has rarely been the subject of scrutiny. This paper attempts to explore the logic of idealism--as it developed from Kant, to Fichte and Schelling, Hegel, and the young Marx--and the way in which it frames the dominant alternative perspectives in critical theory. The interplay between traditions should illuminate some of the contributions of critical theory, expose certain problems that plague it, and offer a few positive suggestions for those committed to the critical enterprise in our own time. Thus, this article will hopefully serve as an example of an intellectual history with a political purpose.     

Making Sense of Hell: Three Meditations on the Holocaust

This essay is an inquiry into the epistemology of the holocaust. It contests organic explanations of the event in favour of an interpretative pluralism . Different questions are seen as demanding different forms of inquiry: what made the holocaust possible requires a political analysis, the issue of its uniqueness calls for a sociological perspective, while an anthropological approach is necessary in order to illuminate its enduring symbolic significance. The essay will deal with these matters in an innovative manner. Thus, in concert with one another these three meditations will provide a new constellation for viewing the holocaust even as they confront certain prevailing prejudices and assumptions.