News Stories

[yezhanquan]

When reading the OP, I was reminded of the Sarah Conner Chronicles, when Sarah mentioned that she couldn't imagine how 3 billion people could possibly be killed. I go, "This is how you do it Sarah, 1 massacre at a time".

"Never again" is said by the leaders of the countries. Poll the ordinary citizens, and most can't even find the place on the world map.

[WONDERMIKE]

Originally Posted by Irenicus

The comments section below that article is really pathetic. Blame, blame, blame, thrown around everywhere. You can count the catchwords with just your fingers: Iraq, Oil, UN, America, Eurosocialists, etc. Don't go down that path, please.

I agree, it's pretty naive to blame the USA/UK for not intervening. The whole world(=UN) holds responsibility and has to make up a plan on how to get the situation under control, the fact the USA/UK entered the Iraq without permission of the UN and lied to the whole world doesn't change this fact.

Now that's the theory, in reality the UN is most of the time unable to do so and the USA/UK simply go ahead and do what they want to do when it is convenient and sit still and wait for the UN when there is unpleasant business on the to-do-list(Africa, Korea, Tibet, Burma). That's not something Bush has invented when it comes to unpleasant business, Clinton also did it the same way when he had to face the Rwanda genocide(he claims to regret it) and the UN did a bad job too, like most of the time.

So what can be done? There's no Oil and no Al Kaida in Zimbabwe which makes an unpopular war even more unpopular in the States/UK, so no "World Police" for Zimbabwe. The Europeans couldn't even deal with the situation in Chad, where the EUFOR under the leadership of the French sent their troops(iirc austrian/polish and some others) but they were quarreling and slow.. and their help wasn't always appreciated because of the French who are former colonial rulers and the general interference from outside.

So that's it with the first world countries, no hope in sight. The neighboring countries can't do much either on their own. So nobody is in the position to lay the blame on somebody..

[Mystique]

There was an interesting poll around saying:
what would the next major world war be fought over?
- food
- oil
- water
- religion

I initially picked 'food' since with the recent recession here, however with all the related news on britians poverty levels rising, esp on fuel poverty (utilitiy bills) it may be 'oil' after all.
fuel strikes

On one note, i swear the UK must be the worst (or best?) country for union striking, (remembers her lecturers striking in her final year of uni, to the point all final exams were delayed in terms of marking and classes cancelled) We're so used to tube strikes in London, we grumble shrug it off and move on, whereas in other countries (like japan) they can't even begin to imagine such a thing, lol.

On other note, seeing two petrol strikes/run out of petrol twice in my lifetime is concerning somewhat...

On a lighter note, on my way to work this morning, the bus had to stop for 5 mins to allow room for a procession of beautiful groomed horses, people in royal gear and like gleaming cannons and stuff to walk down the road by.
Kinda figured out what it was all for now...
queen 2nd birthday
if there are any aussies in here, confirm with me, you got a national holiday related to this correct?

[Vexx]

In the "Its About Damn Time" news department, the serial killer Miyazaki was hanged by the government in Japan today
(http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-b...0080618a1.html).

This was the guy who killed 4 little girls messily back in the late 1980s. The media painted him as an 'otaku' such that it smeared (and is still smearing) the entire anime subculture and its fans for decades.

He will not be missed. The four little girls on the other hand continue to be missed by their families and its a shame killers get more airplay than their victims.

[LiberLibri]

I remember clearly the case of Tsutomu Miyazaki, though it occured when I was a kid. It was the first time when people focused on otaku culture in a somehow anti-social context. The second-generation otakus (born in around 1970; now the leaders of creation) suffered severely from the bashing by the whole society. I myself am of the third generation, but our sempais have often told the affairs at that time. The crime left a grave influence, either directly or indirectly, on the ethics and style of otaku world.

His death provokes me into feeling like a finale of a long, long tragedy.

[Mystique]

But 7 years for a court case?
Man they sure got some sweet time to kill over there :\

Anyways, something a lil different for you all.
The two news stories in turn are:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7458304.stm
and
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7456588.stm

Now... typically you'll have 3 (main) responses to those news posts, either there'll be:
- those who'll trash it, regardless
- those who'll see it, weigh it in with other social, historical and scientific facts and form new opnions
- and others who'll accept no questions asked.

Now in America, seemingly one of the most 'liberal' countries on the planet, there's already a decision for this law to be reversed and ban back in place come November.
In addition, in Sweden + UK, we got contreversial new articles and findings on the chemical make up of a brain during pregnancy playing a key factor to sexual orientation.

With both news stories in mind now, how do you see attitudes of homosexuality evolving in another 5-10 years?
or
Has this changed your personal opinions in light of the articles?

PS: Do try to keep it simple and to the news posts rather than sliding off into religion or other related topics that ties in with sexual orientation.

[WanderingKnight]

I understand that Miyazaki was a person who certainly did not deserve to live, but killing him? Also, by hanging him? What is this, the 1500s?

I certainly did not know that capital punishment was legal in Japan, unless this is some sort of wild exception (and I still don't approve it, even in the latter case).

[Anh_Minh]

The death penalty is still legal in Japan. Why not? And I don't see why hanging would worse than some other method. I'd certainly prefer it to lethal injection or gassing.

[Kyuusai]

Originally Posted by WanderingKnight

I understand that Miyazaki was a person who certainly did not deserve to live, but killing him? Also, by hanging him? What is this, the 1500s?

I certainly did not know that capital punishment was legal in Japan, unless this is some sort of wild exception (and I still don't approve it, even in the latter case).

Capital punishment is actually not that unusual in Japan. It does seem unusual, considering Japan's public image, but that's really the case with many things in Japan. I was surprised to find that there's a Wikipedia article on it, as part of a larger series of articles on capital punishment.

I have to agree with Anh_Minh that, out of all available methods, I can't object too much to hanging (I'm not fond of the death penalty, mind you, I'm just evaluating methods). We really don't understand the effects of gassing or lethal injection. Hanging comes in second to decapitation for known-least-cruel forms of execution--assuming it's done right. Sure, it looks more dramatic than giving them a shot and waiting, but are we more concerned about the person being executed or our own emotional reaction?

[WanderingKnight]

The death penalty is still legal in Japan. Why not?

It's a moral issue. I don't feel that disposing of people is the way to solve a problem--since, in my mind, all conflicts are a consequence of the society itself and not of some sort of "bad weed" that randomly sprang up. It seems a bit curious since, in general, law as I know it in Japan is more or less aligned with my moral ideals--more or less.

Of course, since it's a moral issue, none of the two sides have a perfectly reasonable answer--it has more to do with emotional attachment to certain ideals.

[Vexx]

The system for capital punishment in Japan is "wacky" (in an unfunny way). The execution times are kept secret - even from the convicted who must wake up every day wondering if this is the day. The executions are announced *after* the fact. Given the recent cracks in their own system of obtaining convictions (interrogation processes), a review is the least I'd recommend.

Just from a medical standpoint - hanging, if computed properly, is just about as instantaneous as any form of killing.

As to the morality of capital punishment -- thats its own whole thread but my main beef with it (at least in the US) is that the justice system has gotten the *wrong* guy so many times as we've discovered through DNA testing that execution loses its merit simply on that basis. Frankly, true life imprisonment with required daily reflection on the crimes that sent you there is a much better form of hell to me but it also permits the possibility of mitigating mistakes made by the system.

[Anh_Minh]

The Chinese have an interesting way of naming their dishes:
http://www.reuters.com/article/oddly...ddlyEnoughNews

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by Vexx

The system for capital punishment in Japan is "wacky" (in an unfunny way). The execution times are kept secret - even from the convicted who must wake up every day wondering if this is the day. The executions are announced *after* the fact. Given the recent cracks in their own system of obtaining convictions (interrogation processes), a review is the least I'd recommend.

Just from a medical standpoint - hanging, if computed properly, is just about as instantaneous as any form of killing.

As to the morality of capital punishment -- thats its own whole thread but my main beef with it (at least in the US) is that the justice system has gotten the *wrong* guy so many times as we've discovered through DNA testing that execution loses its merit simply on that basis. Frankly, true life imprisonment with required daily reflection on the crimes that sent you there is a much better form of hell to me but it also permits the possibility of mitigating mistakes made by the system.

If it is life imprisonment i would go with the 10x10 cell solitary confinement with 1 hr a day of excerise in the yard. No windows and nothing but the toilet and a bed in the cell. No books, no tv, nothing.

[FateAnomaly]

Originally Posted by WanderingKnight

It's a moral issue. I don't feel that disposing of people is the way to solve a problem--since, in my mind, all conflicts are a consequence of the society itself and not of some sort of "bad weed" that randomly sprang up. It seems a bit curious since, in general, law as I know it in Japan is more or less aligned with my moral ideals--more or less.

Of course, since it's a moral issue, none of the two sides have a perfectly reasonable answer--it has more to do with emotional attachment to certain ideals.

So what do you suggest then? Feed him for the rest of his life? Sent him for counselling?

[WanderingKnight]

Well, as I said already, it's a moral issue. There is no rational choice, save only for the kind of model of how society works you follow. In my opinion, there is no such thing as a random massacrer, and as such, the way to do it is not by exemplary punishment. Isolating him and hoping for a recovery is the only thing that I can suggest--killing him means setting forth a different image of society. It's like denying that such a being can exist, that such a being can be the product of an otherwise perfect society. At least that's the impression I get.

Doing otherwise, however, means that you have a degree of understanding that society is, unfortunately, not perfect, and that there are reasons as to why these kinds of people spring up. And that's the first step towards solving these issues.

[TinyRedLeaf]

AP gets tough on copyright theft

By Bernhard Warner (18 Jun 08)

The issue of acceptable copying is raging in the blogosphere this week thanks to a showdown between the Associated Press and the publisher of a well-read blog-and-news-referral network, the Drudge Retort.

AP kicked off the debate last week when it issued Mr Rogers Cadenhead, the founder and publisher of the Drudge Retort, with demands that five stories and one user comment be taken down. Mr Cadenhead was incredulous, insisting that the bloggers merely paraphrased details of a few AP articles and repeated word-for-word a single quote.

"I have difficulty seeing how it violates copyright law for a blogger to link to a news story with a short snippet of the story in furtherance of public discussion,” said Mr Cadenhead.

In other words, Mr Cadenhead and many in the blogging community believe such a practice of paraphrasing and linking to the original article is perfectly acceptable under the concept of “fair use”.

The AP disagrees. As a not-for-profit news wire funded by American newspapers, AP serves its newspaper clients and, more recently, online publishers with news from around the world. That’s about it.

Even though it regards itself as “the bastion of the people’s right to know”, AP has no obligation to supply individual bloggers with the latest stock prices, photos from Baghdad or baseball scores. That news is reserved for paying clients, not those who promise to deliver a few eyeballs every week from their blogs.

But the troubling part of the AP’s logic is that bloggers aren’t the enemy. They have the power to help the wires win this credibility battle. A referral from an influential blogger can be a traffic bonanza for a news wire and its news clients.

One positive development in the AP’s copyright campaign with bloggers will come later this week when AP brass meets with the Media Bloggers Association to discuss ground rules for “fair use” of its content in the blogosphere. It’s a long overdue meeting.

You don’t have to search too deep into a blog to find examples of flagrant plagiarism. There is a generally accepted practice among bloggers to lift the majority of a story or even the entire text of an article from a news site and re-paste it on the blog. As long as there is a link to the original article, the thinking goes, it’s OK.

It’s not. That’s not “fair use”. That’s theft. Hopefully, after Thursday’s meeting between the AP and the Media Bloggers Association, others will (see the difference) too.

- Times Online

Interesting development. According to Mr Warner's logic, I'm guilty of copyright theft by posting the above excerpts of his article. What do you guys think?

[Anh_Minh]

That it's a fair point. After reading the excerpts, I didn't feel like clicking on the link. It didn't even look like it was excerpts instead of the whole article.

[Xellos-_^]

Could someone form Canada please explain this to me?

OTTAWA (AFP) - A Canadian court has lifted a 12-year-old girl's grounding, overturning her father's punishment for disobeying his orders to stay off the Internet, his lawyer said Wednesday.


The girl had taken her father to Quebec Superior Court after he refused to allow her to go on a school trip for chatting on websites he tried to block, and then posting "inappropriate" pictures of herself online using a friend's computer.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080618...t_080618180800

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

AP gets tough on copyright theft



Interesting development. According to Mr Warner's logic, I'm guilty of copyright theft by posting the above excerpts of his article. What do you guys think?

There's never going to be a totally clear answer on this -- just a continual pendulum shift. However, I think the AP people and Mr. Warner are wearing their panties a bit too tight. The purpose of supplying large excerpts or cut'n'paste is to mitigate the "Slashdot effect", which is having so many people try to visit an article that it brings the server down like a DDOS attack would.

The real reason they're whining and moaning is that when you don't actually visit the site --- your eyeballs do not cross the advertising on it. It has nothing to do with "protection of creative works".

What are their thoughts with all the "whole internet archival" caches?? They don't appear to "get the Internet" which is distinctly about robust survival of information.

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Vexx

There's never going to be a totally clear answer on this -- just a continual pendulum shift. However, I think the AP people and Mr. Warner are wearing their panties a bit too tight. The purpose of supplying large excerpts or cut'n'paste is to mitigate the "Slashdot effect", which is having so many people try to visit an article that it brings the server down like a DDOS attack would.

The real reason they're whining and moaning is that when you don't actually visit the site --- your eyeballs do not cross the advertising on it. It has nothing to do with "protection of creative works".

Well, yes. The whole concept of intellectual property is not to protect the work itself (nobody's threatening to destroy it. We're not talking about censorship) but its money making ability. What else would it be about?