News Stories

[MrTerrorist]

Al-Shabab radio gives weapons prize to Somali children
A radio station run by Somalia's al-Shabab Islamist group has awarded weapons to children who won a Koran-reciting and general knowledge contest.

Okay that's just an insult and mockery of Koran-reciting contests. In Malaysia and Brunei, the Koran-reciting contests prizes are money, food or gifts. If those countries heard this story, they will not like it.

[bladeofdarkness]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

Yet it seems to remain a main issue stopping the peace process. The Christians aren't fighting for it anymore, but always seem concerned about its safty. The Muslims (well Palestinians at least) want it as their capital as well since it is also in the West Bank area, and if I recall there is still a dispute over the treaty terms from 1967. Also remember that there are a lot of crazies out there that believe the whole 2012 world ending nonsense. They will try to make the world end...and one of the main features for that ending is Jeruselem.

there is no dispute over the treaty, as there was no TREATY.
there was an armistice line drawn by troop positions on the ground.

Mind you that the Vatican and Mecca are second choices for holy cities. Jeruselem was always the first choice it seems. Both were picked because Jeruselem was out of reach, or overly violent when the choice was made.

actually, mecca is the FIRST choice for muslims, medina being the second and Jerusalem being the THIRD one.
and it was only chosen for political reasons rather then actual religious ones.

What I am surprised about, it why didn't Israel just take over the whole place when it had the opportunity. Drive them off the lands and claim it in full rather than the occupied state you all left it in. By the time you started with the settlements in the West Bank it was too late. By then you were negotiating with the Palestinians rather than driving them out. By then you have the United States and everyone else poking around. You won a Six Day War, but didn't capitalize on it. Now you have this mess that looks like it is about to blow up (again) in your faces, and the rest of the world (US included) looks like it is far beyond ready to just let Israel fall this time around (even though the world had very little to nothing to do with any of Israel's victories in the last several wars).

because we don't ACTUALLY drink children's blood and piss pure liquid evil.
thats just what people SAY about us.

also, that territory was held by Jordan, so the people we'd be kicking out would be Jordanian citizens.

I respect Israel for its ability to win and defend itself. But its policy shifts and seeming (at least from some news sources) suggested racial superiority, are rubbing that respect the wrong way. Either do it or don't do it...this halfway nonsense is making things worse for both sides. Make a deal or cast them out....leaving them as the occupied party just invites more violence in the long term. Be the caring neighbor or the conquorer...don't be the idiot politician or scumbag hood that tried to get rich on the backs of your own and your enemies.

again, "cast them out" is another way of saying "ethnic cleansing"
which is bad P.R (and also evil, but mostly its the P.R)

[Ithekro]

because we don't ACTUALLY drink children's blood and piss pure liquid evil.
thats just what people SAY about us.

What color is pure liquid evil anyway? I'm sure someone would call that "badass" in a video game or movie.

As for "ethic cleasnsing", usually what is desired here is called "we won, we want this land now, please leave, or else we shoot you". It isn't ethic cleansing unless you just want them all dead, as oppose to just wanting to move them to someplace else. It isn't much better mind you, but it is a single step up. I recall the Jews have been "cast out" several times that didn't involve whole scale slaughter or genocide. The other times have been ethnc cleansing of one form or another (force conversion seems worse than forced relocation, and I'm fairly certain death is much worst than both).

[bladeofdarkness]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

What color is pure liquid evil anyway? I'm sure someone would call that "badass" in a video game or movie.

As for "ethic cleasnsing", usually what is desired here is called "we won, we want this land now, please leave, or else we shoot you". It isn't ethic cleansing unless you just want them all dead, as oppose to just wanting to move them to someplace else. It isn't much better mind you, but it is a single step up. I recall the Jews have been "cast out" several times that didn't involve whole scale slaughter or genocide. The other times have been ethnc cleansing of one form or another (force conversion seems worse than forced relocation, and I'm fairly certain death is much worst than both).

ethnic cleansing means cleaning an area of a specific ethnic group.
it doesn't require (though it often involves) killing them all.

oh, and liquid evil is colored Indigo.
which is why its the one color of the rainbow that only few people remember.
nobody wants to think of rainbows as evil.

[AnimeFan188]

"After being spectacularly hacked multiple times earlier this year, Sony has
decided it’s tired of being sued for its security failures and other issues and is
requiring gamers on its Play Station Network to sign an agreement saying they
won’t join class-action lawsuits to take the tech giant to court in the future."

See:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/201...-service-hack/

[bladeofdarkness]

Originally Posted by AnimeFan188

"After being spectacularly hacked multiple times earlier this year, Sony has
decided it’s tired of being sued for its security failures and other issues and is
requiring gamers on its Play Station Network to sign an agreement saying they
won’t join class-action lawsuits to take the tech giant to court in the future."

See:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/201...-service-hack/

you know, i was kinda ambivalent on the whole PSN hack thing and Sony's pathetic reaction to it.
but now i can safely say that Sony can go F#@K itself.

[DonQuigleone]

@Israel: I think it's wrong to consider this a religious conflict. Religion comes into it, sure, but it's primarily a nationalist conflict. It's a lot like what went on in the balkans, with the difference that the Jews weren't even there 100 years ago.

It's still the same idea though, 2 nationalist ideologies claiming a particular piece of land must be theirs, almost by divine right. The divine is brought up, but only to justify the nationalist assertions.

[Decagon]

Originally Posted by MrTerrorist

Al-Shabab radio gives weapons prize to Somali children
A radio station run by Somalia's al-Shabab Islamist group has awarded weapons to children who won a Koran-reciting and general knowledge contest.

Okay that's just an insult and mockery of Koran-reciting contests. In Malaysia and Brunei, the Koran-reciting contests prizes are money, food or gifts. If those countries heard this story, they will not like it.

In previous years, when the competition was organised in the southern port of Kismayo, the first prize included an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade launcher).

I don't know much about the market value of these weapons, but an AK-47 should be cheaper than an RPG, yeah? Maybe they're cost cutting?

[andyjay729]

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/stor...pan/50482066/1

Man, this has not been a good year for Japan. I certainly hope this storm at least stays below the big right angle in the coast near Tokyo and doesn't go towards Fukushima. (Do Japanese typhoons usually just hug the southward-facing coastlines?)

[ganbaru]

Originally Posted by Decagon

I don't know much about the market value of these weapons, but an AK-47 should be cheaper than an RPG, yeah? Maybe they're cost cutting?

Cost cutting, maybe.
But munition for the AK should be easier to get than another roquette so it should be more usefull

[GundamFan0083]

China takes first step towards space station
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c863c828-e...#axzz1YYrCmin7

[Ithekro]

Can't access that piece. What is the jist of it?

[GundamFan0083]

That's odd, it redirects to the main page instead of the actual URL of the article.

Here's the complete URL:
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/c863c...#axzz1YYrCmin7
And I'll cut and paste the text here as well:

China is about to take the first step towards building its own space station with the launch of Tiangong 1, or Heavenly Palace, in a further sign of its race to catch up with the US and Russia.

State media on Tuesday reported that China would next week launch an unmanned craft from the Chinese western Gobi desert that will be used for practising operations at a future space station. The launch comes as the US is cutting funding for its space programme, having retired its space shuttle fleet after a last flight of the Atlantis in July.

Although space experts warn of huge technological challenges ahead for the country’s space station plans, the programme would eventually make China the world’s only nation with a space station. The China Manned Space Engineering Office has said it plans to complete the space station in 2020, just as the International Space Station is scheduled to retire.

“Space flight is the concrete reflection of the overall strength of a great power,” said Jiao Weixin, a professor at the School of Earth and Space Sciences at Peking University.

While China’s foreign policy doctrine tries to avoid trumpeting the country’s “rise”, many citizens feel such technological prestige projects are part of a renaissance that will return the nation to its rightful place of a global power.

In July China joined a club of the select few nations’ deep-sea submersibles capable of diving deeper than 5,000 metres. Last October, it ousted the US as the maker of the world’s fastest supercomputer.

These achievements all contrast sharply with Beijing’s huge challenges in modernising a still poor and technologically weak country. The crash of two high-speed trains in July, which killed 40 people. triggered soul searching among many middle-class Chinese questioning their government’s relentless race for faster development.

The nine-metre long space capsule has become another symbol of how China, backed by the wealth accumulated in its three-decade economic boom, a state-led research push and a patriotic nation, is starting to close the gap on technologies once exclusive to the Cold War rivals.

According to the China Manned Space Engineering Office, the space station will focus on scientific purposes. However, it is part of a space programme largely controlled by the military which US experts say is helping China acquire advanced satellite, sensor and propulsion capabilities also useful for its missile programme.

If Tiangong 1 can successfully arrive and stay in space, China plans to practise docking at it. Later this year a first unmanned docking mission is scheduled, followed by two manned docking exercises next year. Later Tiangong versions will then go on longer missions to prepare the launch of the space station in parts.

Last month a Long March rocket similar to that earmarked to carry the Tiangong into space malfunctioned in a reminder of the huge challenges ahead. But a long delay was not an option; the launch had to happen ahead of October 1, China’s National Day.

Additional reporting by Chen Yuanni

[Ithekro]

So bascally they are playing fast catchup. They are in their 1970s period of manned space flight (even though they don't have many flights under their belt yet). They've skipped the moon landing for later and followed the Soviet path instead. The advantage they have (aside from advances in technology, which they may or may not have in their spacecraft) is that everything they are doing has been done before. They don't have to go through the massive amounts of trial and error, not multiple proofs of concept in space as the Soviets and Americans did that in the 1960s and 1970s. The Chinese already know it works, they just need proof that they got it right, thus single attempts to be sure they got it correct followed by the next things in the technology progression. No need for three or four missions to test things out....they just need one mission, then next phase. Unless something goes wrong, then they are forced to slow down to find their errors.

[Mr Hat and Clogs]

Heh, that reminds me of this quote from Jurrassic Park.

Dr. Ian Malcolm: I'll tell you the problem with the scientific power you're using here: it didn't require any discipline to attain it. You read what others had done, and you took the next step. You didn't earn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don't take any responsibility for it. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could, and before you even knew what you had, you, you've patented it, and packaged it, you've slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now
[pounds table with fists]
Dr. Ian Malcolm: you're selling it.
[pounds table again]
Dr. Ian Malcolm: You want to sell it, well...
John Hammond: I don't think you're giving us our due credit. Our scientists have done things which nobody's ever done before...
Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could that they didn't stop to think if they should.

[Tom Bombadil]

http://news.sina.com.cn/c/p/2011-09-...23189018.shtml

A Chinese article, but it has a few nice pictures of the rocket.

Finger crossed.

[ganbaru]

Greece to outline more austerity to secure loan
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...7KJ1NN20110921

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by MrTerrorist

Al-Shabab radio gives weapons prize to Somali children
A radio station run by Somalia's al-Shabab Islamist group has awarded weapons to children who won a Koran-reciting and general knowledge contest.

Okay that's just an insult and mockery of Koran-reciting contests. In Malaysia and Brunei, the Koran-reciting contests prizes are money, food or gifts. If those countries heard this story, they will not like it.

There shouldn't even be prizes given out for Koran reciting competitions - have you seen the kind of prizes handed out in the Malaysian reality show Young Imam?

The prize should be that at least part of the prize money will be given in the name of the winner to the Red Crescent or something to do more humanitarian work, I remember the kids' version of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" in Singapore had half of the prize money donated to charity in the name of the winner.

Originally Posted by Tom Bombadil

http://news.sina.com.cn/c/p/2011-09-...23189018.shtml

A Chinese article, but it has a few nice pictures of the rocket.

Finger crossed.

Is it a satellite launcher or astronaut carrier? Tiangong (or heavenly palace as translated) sounds like a space station module to me.

[Ithekro]

It is basically a version of Skylab or Salyut. Mostly Salyut....likely starting around the concept of Salyut 4, though an article mentions that the Tiangong design might be modified as a cargo ship for a future Chinese space station (a large Progress for their version of Mir or the ISS)

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by AnimeFan188

"After being spectacularly hacked multiple times earlier this year, Sony has
decided it’s tired of being sued for its security failures and other issues and is
requiring gamers on its Play Station Network to sign an agreement saying they
won’t join class-action lawsuits to take the tech giant to court in the future."

See:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/201...-service-hack/

If you are in UK or any country with a working legal system based on English law, you most likely go ahead and buy a PS3. That clause, under UCTA, is very likely considered unreasonable if there is SOGA in your country. Signing it does not constitute to fair trading at all.

That clause is a lame duck.