News Stories

[yezhanquan]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Unless you count the Palestinians who are brainwashed or gang-pressed into waging a jeezhad at the Israelis.....the Palestinians could have lived in peace in their own state if it wasn't for those self-serving fanatics.

And now Iran has nukes and Ahmadickjad wants to wax Israel with it...the ME seems alot like a gone case to me. The Koran preaches peace and respect for a stranger's culture, yet the radicals and fake imams in that region like to preach death to their so-called enemies. I'd say those nuts should just serve pork kebabs instead of lead rounds : it is equally hypocritical but no lives are lost.

I believe Fareed Zakaria mentioned in one of his books that the ME used the Israeli-Palestine conflict to deflect attention away from their own host of problems. It seems that the ME can only blame others for their misfortunes; they know not how to look in the mirror and see their own flaws. So easy to play the victim card.

[bladeofdarkness]

Originally Posted by yezhanquan

I believe Fareed Zakaria mentioned in one of his books that the ME used the Israeli-Palestine conflict to deflect attention away from their own host of problems. It seems that the ME can only blame others for their misfortunes; they know not how to look in the mirror and see their own flaws. So easy to play the victim card.

wagging the dog isn't exactly a new concept.
neither is wagging the jew.

the problem is that while the arab world has more or less grown out of that phase (mostly), much of the western world is still knee deep into the belief that the Arab-Israeli or Israeli-Palestinian conflict is still relevant.

[ZephyrLeanne]

Originally Posted by AnimeFan188

"The North American anime distributor Funimation filed a copyright infringement
complaint against 1,337 "John Does" over the 481st episode of the One Piece
television anime on Monday.

Interesting figure. 1337!

[killer3000ad]

Footage from the growing protests in Egypt.

Spoiler:

Holy crud, those two guys nearly got squashed by the rear wheels after falling.

[ganbaru]

Bomb found near police station in Belfast
http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNew...70P7I720110126

[SSIlanya]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

There are quite a number of countries who are willing to do anything to catch up technologically and even cut corners when rebuilding stuff from scratch.

Lets take a look at my country for example. Militarily, we copied :

1. The Steyr AUG + Tavor + SA80 and built it into the SAR-21. A crappy assault rifle which was designed to look "cool-looking" by adding a laser aiming device and a kevlar cheekplate, but it made the rifle a whole lot bulkier that many soldiers preferred the ancient Colt Commandos US gave us after Vietnam.

2. ST Kinetics CPW - a direct ripoff of the H&K MP7 redesigned to fire 9mm, 4.6 and 5.7 mm rounds. They added a slide-out buttstock which WILL BEND and even break after many rounds of automatic fire (physics of force transfer down a straight line, but towards different material strength).

3. Terrex AFV - We copied the US Stryker and added a more powerful engine. The next most brilliant thing is that it has never been combat tested, neither does the designer give a shit about something called inertia.

4. Bronco ATC - Take two M113 APCs, chain them together, and cut up the front part to put in window panels. Then sell it to the British.

And the only thing that is copied from scratch, or built properly, are the FN MAG GPMG and the Formidable class frigates. And I am sure there is some cheapskate budgeting involved...these stuff are supposed to be worth much more of our GDP.

Like how the nuts who bought the Leopard tanks without asking for the air-conditioners.....and the crews simply roasted inside until a high-ranking officer takes notice a couple of years later. Then they spin a huge story of how it was an "upgrade" when none of the procurement team ever thought of being in a tank before.

He's right, copying is not equal to innovation. Funny how new agencies often spin stories about it when it is not so.



The OMON will wax villages just to get a terrorist, be him/her a leader or a mere pawn. It simply breeds more contempt for the Russians....an eye for an eye will make everyone blind.

Not that there is anything pretty to see in the Belarus region these days other than that MILF spy the FBI caught last year......

If the person is punished the person is punished. Everybody knows that warfare won't be pretty.

But really, tighten the security after the job.

The North American anime distributor Funimation filed a copyright infringement
complaint against 1,337 "John Does" over the 481st episode of the One Piece
television anime on Monday. According to the suit filed in the Northern District of
Texas, the unidentified defendants "collectively participated, via the Internet, in the
unlawful reproduction and distribution" of the episode "Ace Rescued! Whitebeard's
Final Order!" via the BitTorrent file-sharing protocol. The suit lists defendants by
their host IP (Internet Protocol) addresses and Internet service providers. The
alleged incidents of copyright infringement took place between January 9 and
January 12."

Excellent.

Time to torrent 'illegally' another 20 episodes or should I help out my nearby dvd importer for a bit of competitive marketing? Fuck the companies.

Also I believe the correct term for J-20 would be reverse-engineered.

[yezhanquan]

Originally Posted by bladeofdarkness

wagging the dog isn't exactly a new concept.
neither is wagging the jew.

the problem is that while the arab world has more or less grown out of that phase (mostly), much of the western world is still knee deep into the belief that the Arab-Israeli or Israeli-Palestinian conflict is still relevant.

It is still relevant to who Vexx-o-san would describe as "the Palestinians who go to market and just want to live life".

[bladeofdarkness]

Originally Posted by yezhanquan

It is still relevant to who Vexx-o-san would describe as "the Palestinians who go to market and just want to live life".

yes, and to nothing else.
my point was that there are a LOT of problems from many different sources in the middle east.
there was once a time, when people (wrongly) believed that if you manage to solve the Israeli-Palesitnian conflict, it will somehow resolve all other conflicts and usher in "Peace in the middle east"
there are still people who refer to it as "The middle east peace process" and to the conflict in general as "the middle east conflict"

but now, its getting kinda hard to sell people on the idea that you can bring peace to the middle east by solving the Arab-Israeli thing.
Iraq's a bloodbath, Lebanon is suffering from severe political turmoil, Yemen is a hotbed for terrorism, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisa, are all undergoing riots, the Palestinians are divided into two different groups effectively at war with each other, Iran's developing nuclear weapons, and the spectre of Political Islam hovers over the heads of the entire middle east like the alien ship over New York in that movie "Independence day".
and not one of these things would actually be resolved by a peace treaty with Israel (some things might even grow worse).

[yezhanquan]

Originally Posted by bladeofdarkness

yes, and to nothing else.
my point was that there are a LOT of problems from many different sources in the middle east.
there was once a time, when people (wrongly) believed that if you manage to solve the Israeli-Palesitnian conflict, it will somehow resolve all other conflicts and usher in "Peace in the middle east"
there are still people who refer to it as "The middle east peace process" and to the conflict in general as "the middle east conflict"

To the bold part, really? Quite frankly, it's the first time I've heard this. No, really. Whoever goes around talking like that fully deserved to be drawn and quartered. The fight in the Holy Land only changes the spotlight; the various Muslim countries had problems that stemmed from other sources. Economic and political mismanagement is the one source of problems, if you press me to list just one.

[bladeofdarkness]

Originally Posted by yezhanquan

To the bold part, really? Quite frankly, it's the first time I've heard this. No, really. Whoever goes around talking like that fully deserved to be drawn and quartered. The fight in the Holy Land only changes the spotlight; the various Muslim countries had problems that stemmed from other sources.

ask any given person on the street, what the "Middle east conflict" is, and they will almost always refer to the Arab-Israeli one.
any talk of bringing peace in the middle east, would always lead to discussion on the Arab-Israeli conflict.

its been this way for ages.

[Tsuyoshi]

Originally Posted by bladeofdarkness

ask any given person on the street, what the "Middle east conflict" is, and they will almost always refer to the Arab-Israeli one.
any talk of bringing peace in the middle east, would always lead to discussion on the Arab-Israeli conflict.

its been this way for ages.

They will certainly talk about that but quite a few may also talk about Iraq and Afghanistan since that's been taking quite a lot of spotlight on its own. Granted, it's the aspect of the middle east conflict people have been focusing on for years, but there is also the "war on terror" now.

[bladeofdarkness]

Originally Posted by Tsuyoshi

They will certainly talk about that but quite a few may also talk about Iraq and Afghanistan since that's been taking quite a lot of spotlight on its own. Granted, it's the aspect of the middle east conflict people have been focusing on for years, but there is also the "war on terror" now.

Iraq is always talked about as "Iraq", or "the war on terror", but the one conflict that most people seem to think of as "THE middle east conflict" is the Arab-Israeli one.
side effect of all the focus this conflict gathered over the years.

while on the subject:

Bomb at Baghdad funeral in Shia Muslim area kills 30
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12298002
A car bomb has exploded near a funeral ceremony in a mainly Shia Muslim area of Baghdad, killing at least 30 people, Iraqi officials say.

Another 50 were wounded, they said.

The blast comes after a series of bombings killed dozens of Shia pilgrims during their annual pilgrimage to the holy city of Karbala last week.

[ganbaru]

S&P cuts Japan sovereign debt rating
http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNew...70Q23V20110127

[MrTerrorist]

Why smash up a brand new spy plane?

[SaintessHeart]

Here is a news source I don't usually quote since most people do not want to understand the stuff written in it, but I am just gonna do a hit-or-miss :

S&P cuts Japan’s credit rating

TOKYO (MarketWatch) — Standard & Poor’s on Thursday cut Japan’s long-term sovereign-credit rating, with the news sending the yen sharply lower against its major rivals.

The rating agency said it downgraded Japanese debt to AA minus from AA, but it also reaffirmed the nation’s short-term ratings at A-1 plus.
Ho drama continues

Just when it appeared settled, the drama over Macau gambling magnate Stanley Ho's empire takes a new turn.

The news sent the U.S. dollar (USDYEN 82.9600, +0.7500, +0.9125%) higher against the yen, hitting ¥83.18 after having traded at ¥82.14 shortly before the announcement.

The euro also spiked higher, climbing to ¥113.41 for a 0.7% gain, according to FactSet Research data. See more on trading in the dollar and other currencies.

S&P said in a statement that it “expects Japan’s fiscal deficits to remain high in the next few years, which will further reduce the government’s already weak fiscal flexibility.”

The deficit should fall “only modestly,” to 8% of gross domestic product in the fiscal year beginning April 2013, compared to an estimated 9.1% for the current fiscal year ending March 31, according to S&P.

Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda said he wouldn’t comment directly on the downgrade.

S&P also pointed to Japanese deflation and its aging population as drags on the economy:

“Falling prices have matched Japan’s growth in aggregate output since 1992, meaning the size of the economy is unchanged in nominal terms. In addition, Japan’s fast-aging population challenges both its fiscal and economic outlooks. The nation’s total social-security-related expenses now make up 31% of the government’s fiscal 2011 budget, and this ratio will rise absent reforms beyond those enacted in 2004.”

Naoto Kan, the prime minister of Japan, giving a speech earlier this month.

S&P also criticized the current Japanese government, saying the ruling Democratic Party of Japan “lacks a coherent strategy to address these negative aspects of the country’s debt dynamics.”

Still, it said its outlook on Japan’s long-term rating is stable, reflecting its view that an external balance sheet and “monetary flexibility” are helping offset the nation’s fiscal problems.

Wiggle room

Takahira Ogawa, S&P director for sovereign and international public finance rating, in Singapore, told reporters during a telephone conference, the outlook could improve if Tokyo made progress on social security and tax reform.

“I don’t think our action is self-fulfilling,” Ogawa said, referring to the downgrade.

He added that was little hope for change in the short term as a political consensus was unlikely to be reached before the next election.

Still, Ogawa said he was encouraged by Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s recent emphasis on fiscal consolidation, including a proposal to increase the consumption tax, but cautioned markets would likely be looking for progress in the next year to 18 months.

If the government “keeps producing large-sized deficits and the debt burden is getting bigger, than the domestic financial assets itself might not be able absorb to newly increasing government debt,” Ogawa said.

Noda, the finance minister, acknowledged that the government must advance its fiscal overhaul project to retain investor confidence in Japanese public debt.

“It is important to send out messages when necessary that Japan is trying to put itself on the path toward fiscal improvement, we will maintain fiscal discipline by delivering results,” Noda was cited as saying in a report by Dow Jones Newswires.. “It is important to gain the trust of the markets.”

Noda cited enacting the next fiscal year’s budget plans by the end of March and drafting a long-term tax and social-security overhaul by the end of June.

Not the first time

J.P. Morgan strategists said “anyone aware of Japan’s terrible fiscal balance would not be surprised” about the downgrade despite the market reaction, as Japan had been under review by S&P for a downgrade for the past year.

The analysts noted that S&P and Fitch Ratings both cut Japan to a rating of AA minus back in 2002, though S&P raised it back to AA in 2007.

At the time of the 2002 downgrades, they said, the dollar initially rose 0.5% against the yen, only to drop about 12% in the three months after the initial S&P rating cut.

S&P’s Ogawa also cautioned against making direct comparisons between Japan’s fiscal position and that of the U.S., adding that Thursday’s downgrade was the result of cumulative years of fiscal excess.

“Japan has been running significant fiscal deficits for 20 years, and yes, the U.S. has a more or less similar size of [annual] fiscal deficit [as a percentage of GDP], but their starting point is substantially better than Japan. That could make quite a lot of difference,” Ogawa said.

Japan is going for a dive. Will they drown or surface?

Then again, there is this interesting blog post about development in Asian countries :

Interesting Take On Singapore And Japan

imon Black is an extremely well-traveled international entrepreneur and investor and runs his own blog: http://www.sovereignman.com.

In his latest posting, he highlights Singapore’s visionary purpose of attracting foreigners to relocate to our Little Red Dot while comparing Japan’s lack of vision in a similar situation that could have very diverse long-term ramifications. Here is the key extract of his posting;

It’s amazing how so many governments don’t get it… going out of their way to repel or even prevent talented foreigners from settling, as if the fundamental freedom to work hard and prosper is somehow derived from bloodlines, ethnicity, or irrelevant, invisible lines on a map.

These governments will figure out soon enough that labor and intellectual capital are easily exportable assets. Some governments like Singapore, Estonia, and Chile understand that truth, and they’ve laid out incentives to compete for foreigners and establish conditions for long-term growth.

Singapore’s open, mutli-lingual, multi-cultural society is well-equipped to deal with the matter… and given the host of residency incentives that it already provides to talented foreigners, I suspect this free market approach will become a model for global migration and population stability.

One would think that the Japanese government would be rolling out the red carpet for young foreigners, yet Japan remains a fairly closed society. Foreign residents comprise less than 2% of the population according to government statistics, not enough to even qualify as a drop in the bucket.

Without serious addressing this issue and attracting young foreigners both at the economic and cultural level, Japan runs substantial risk of fading into obscurity.

For the full posting, click here: Japan Is Causing Its Own Demise

On an interesting side note, Simon mentioned how Singapore grew into today’s “modern, developed economic powerhouse” in three decades. If you thought that was impressive, take a look at at Shanghai in 1990 …

…and now in 2011 …

… is this a growing economy or a bubbling one? This sort of advancement makes Singapore really look like a backwater nation if you consider that Shanghai did it in less than 2/3 of the time we did.

Now consider this – will China’s “growth” be sustainable given their population size if they don’t attract foreigners or make their market more foreigner friendly and regulated?

Right now, it would seem that the world is doing business in China because they have to and not because they want to. Sounds like how Japan started, doesn’t it? China’s inflationary and growth rates are going through the roof in a hurry. Sounds like how Japan got there, doesn’t it?

I could go on and on but you get the picture.

[Simon]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

S&P cuts Japan’s credit rating

Haruhi S1 ep10 sums it up perfectly:

Asakura: Speaking theoretically, if there were a situation where maintaining the status quo would only make things worse but nobody knew what course of action would improve the circumstances, what would you do?

Kyon: What's that? Are you talking about the Japanese economy?

[Ithekro]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41283576...nce/?gt1=43001

Birds all died to blunt force trauma? Not sure if I buy that. niether does anyone in the comments section. Maybe they did, but why did they run into something, and what did they run into? (I'm sketching on what happened)

[Jinto]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41283576...nce/?gt1=43001

Birds all died to blunt force trauma? Not sure if I buy that. niether does anyone in the comments section. Maybe they did, but why did they run into something, and what did they run into? (I'm sketching on what happened)

Each other most likely.
Imagine there is a huge cloud of birds. The birds on one end of the cloud are frightend because of fireworks (or something else). Now part of the cloud turns mid air into itself (since these birds are not very well equiped for night flight operations, they will knock each other out of the bird cloud). This scenario is plausible... if it is true... who knows. But does it matter?

[flying ^]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

S&P cuts Japan sovereign debt rating
http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNew...70Q23V20110127

so will this stop yen buying spree by China or it's just gonna continue like business as usual?

[ganbaru]

Thousands march in Yemen to demand change of government
http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNew...70Q3Y420110127