News Stories

[Xellos-_^]

Yes, and i think he would probably do better declining the award at this stage then accepting it.

it is nice little trophy over the fire place but if he mess up on any of his wars/healthcare/nuclear disarmerment, well just say i can already hear SNL jokes.

[Kaioshin Sama]

Calling it right now, next year Marisa Tomei wins the Peace Prize.

[LynnieS]

Originally Posted by Yoko Takeo

I agree. Obama, up until now, hasn't achieved anything tangible. He intends to achieve certain things but he hasn't done anything just yet. Like I said, it looks to me like they gave the prize to him out of lack of anyone else to give it to.

There was a news article a couple of days ago about the possibility that the Nobel Peace Prize committee would award this year's prize to the Chinese dissidents in order to pressure the Chinese government into the start of more change as well. Given the 60th anniversary celebration just days ago, it'd be a bit embarrassing, IMHO, but is still possible.

Even if not, there were 200+ nominees, but the committee couldn't find someone else who actually did something? Ex-president Jimmy Carter was awarded the 2002 Peace Prize for his decades of work in promoting democracy, human rights and economic development, and the current president Barack Obama was awarded this year's for... making promises - and starting work on some - but not yet finishing those commitments? Would this mean that if, say, the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, puts out a press release that he's now promoting peace in the Middle East, he becomes the top contender for next year's Peace Prize?

Originally Posted by Xellos-_^

it is nice little trophy over the fire place but if he mess up on any of his wars/healthcare/nuclear disarmerment, well just say i can already hear SNL jokes.

Wasn't there already a skit about Barack Obama being a "done nothing" president so far? I wonder what this Saturday's main skit will be then.

[Hage-bai]

This nobel peace prize award was already devalued after 1994. Then came along 2001, 2002, 2005, 2007..2009...well you get the picture.

I still think the UNHRC is more of a joke.

And on the bright side, at least Obama wasn't begging for this tripe award from some Norweigan hacks like he was for Richard Daley and his Chicago cronies to the con-men at the IOC.

[Cipher]

Originally Posted by Xellos-_^

Yes, and i think he would probably do better declining the award at this stage then accepting it.

it is nice little trophy over the fire place but if he mess up on any of his wars/healthcare/nuclear disarmerment, well just say i can already hear SNL jokes.

I think he'd lose some political support if he rejected it. But who could reject such a valuable artifact? Meh, I guess he's also quite the opportunist

[Shadow Kira01]

Japan, China, S. Korea vow to achieve early resumption of 6-way talks

''We will make joint efforts with other parties for an early resumption of the six-party talks, so as to safeguard peace and stability in Northeast Asia,'' the leaders of the three countries said in a joint statement, pledging to work to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula through peaceful means.

In the same statement, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and South Korean President Lee Myung Bak said their countries remained committed to developing an East Asian community, a concept being spearheaded by Hatoyama, as a long-term goal.

The trilateral meeting, held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, commanded attention as it followed Wen's high-profile visit to North Korea earlier this week, where he met with the country's leader Kim Jong Il.

Wen told his Japanese and South Korean counterparts that during their meeting in Pyongyang on Monday, Kim said he hoped to hold multilateral talks, including the six-party talks, while watching developments related to a proposed direct dialogue between the United States and North Korea.

Kim also said he intends to improve his country's relations not just with the United States but also with Japan and South Korea, a Japanese official quoted Wen as saying. Japanese-North Korean relations have worsened due to differences over the North's past abductions of Japanese nationals.

''I want to trust those words,'' Hatoyama responded in the meeting. Later, the prime minister told reporters that thanks to Wen's briefing on the meeting with Kim, he was able to gain hope that ''things may begin moving in a good direction'' for the resumption of the six-party talks.

Lee welcomed Kim's overtures, saying, ''We can implement various forms of cooperation if North Korea's denuclearization is a precondition.''

If this go smoothly for a long period of time into the future, I wonder if there will be a day in which the East Asia Union will be formed with one currency and one flag, just like the European Union. However, I do not think this is going to be easy but it can be achieved if all 3 countries truly feel the same way on the ideals of an East Asian Community.

----
I think what Obama has achieved can pretty much be summed up to the following:

Obama's Nobel honors promise, not action

He and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev have set negotiators working toward an agreement to significantly reduce nuclear warheads and delivery vehicles. But getting to zero nuclear weapons across the globe — something Obama acknowledged “may not be completed in my lifetime” — means corralling both friend and foe abroad and lawmakers at home behind a mind-bendingly thorny web of treaties and agreements.

• Obama said he would end the Iraq war. But he launches deadly anti-terror strikes in Pakistan, Somalia and elsewhere and is running a second war, in Afghanistan, that he has already escalated once and is considering ramping up again while trying to persuade mostly reluctant NATO allies to contribute more.

• He has pushed for peace between the Israelis and Palestinians. But there’s been little cooperation so far from them.

• His administration is talking to U.S. foes, like Iran, North Korea and Cuba. But there’s not much to show from that, either.

• He pledged to take the lead against climate change. But the U.S. seems likely to head into December’s crucial international negotiations in Copenhagen with legislation still stalled in Congress and nations crucial to global agreement, including China and India, showing reluctance to come on board.

With many seeing the award as premature, there’s the chance it could provoke a small backlash that makes Obama’s work harder.

So, no doubt the news of the prize brought trepidation along with joy. As Obama’s former foe for the White House, Republican Sen John McCain, said: “He now has even more to live up to.”

Generally, the Nobel Peace Committee is trying to steer Obama in the right direction forcefully making the Nobel Peace Prize as more of an encouragement as opposed to being an award.

In other words, like Senator John McCain had said.. Having won the Nobel Peace Prize generally means that Barack Obama now must work extra hard to not disgrace the name of the Nobel Peace Prize as that it is an extremely rare artifact that only 3 American presidents had won so far in the hundreds of years of American history. More over, Obama is the first black American president to have won it. Thus, Obama now has no choice but to work toward those goals that is worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize whether he likes it or not..

If Obama chooses to reject the Nobel Peace Prize, bad things are bound to happen as that his approval rate will drop drastically and the world will have little hope when Obama speaks as that the guy feels that he is unworthy of the Nobel Peace Prize and will not be putting in effort to live up to such a name. Pitiful..

Barack Obama will definitely have a difficult 4 years starting now as a Nobel Peace Prize winner!

[mg1942]

man this game is as realistic as it gets!

"A new internet game is about to be launched which allows 'super snooper' players to plug into the nation's CCTV cameras and report on members of the public committing crimes. The 'Internet Eyes' service involves players scouring thousands of CCTV cameras installed in shops, businesses and town centres across Britain looking for law-breakers. Players who help catch the most criminals each month will win cash prizes up to £1,000."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-paradise.html

[Kamui4356]

Originally Posted by mg1942

man this game is as realistic as it gets!





http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-paradise.html

And now we know how big brother was able to monitor everyone even when realisticly the number of people required for monitoring eveyrone would be astronomical. The party made a game out of it for the proles, so they didn't have to pay people to monitor the network, people did it in their spare time, when they weren't celebrating that their chocolate rations were increased from 16 grams to 8 grams thanks to the omnibenovolent Big Brother.

[Irenicus]

^It's a classic game of people control. Make them paranoid, make them their own gaolers. Give them a little taste of power and authority and they're your loyal little dogs. The Qin mastered it, oh, more than two millenia ago.

And yes, you generally find such practices being encouraged by governments of a totalitarian bent. What do the Brits over there like to say? Lol, Labour?

[LynnieS]

Originally Posted by Kamui4356

And now we know how big brother was able to monitor everyone even when realisticly the number of people required for monitoring eveyrone would be astronomical. The party made a game out of it for the proles, so they didn't have to pay people to monitor the network, people did it in their spare time, when they weren't celebrating that their chocolate rations were increased from 16 grams to 8 grams thanks to the omnibenovolent Big Brother.

Hah. Wasn't there a recent case where one victim of a mugging/robbery managed to find a CCTV recording showing his being attacked and identifying his attackers that way?

Even the best technology today is not very good at things like pattern recognition once the "thing" being checked is too far away from the set norm, and if you allow the checking rules to be too wide, then you get a lot of false alerts. Whoever came up with this idea is smart. Using people's natural tendency to want to know what their neighbors are up to (i.e., pry and spy) in order to help in identifying crimes in progress or about to start. Not to mention making them feel good that they are contributing to society, which to be totally honest, they actually are.

[mg1942]

I wonder if anyone can get rich in that game... like this guy

Spoiler for :

I made £100,000 last year playing Internet Eyes! I quit my job, bought a nice Audi and now I vacation every year in the Middle East. I can even play whilst sunning on the beach in Dubai! What a great game! It changed my life! I used to be a common, everyday wanker...now I'm a RICH wanker!

[LynnieS]

Originally Posted by mg1942

I wonder if anyone can get rich in that game... like this guy

Spoiler for :

I made £100,000 last year playing Internet Eyes! I quit my job, bought a nice Audi and now I vacation every year in the Middle East. I can even play whilst sunning on the beach in Dubai! What a great game! It changed my life! I used to be a common, everyday wanker...now I'm a RICH wanker!

Only if you managed to get into the game right at the start, IMHO. When more "Average Joes" flood into it, the "pie" eventually gets smaller - not to mention having to worry about who actually deserves the money for having spotted the crime - and having it count to the guy's tally - first if there are more than 1 guy who sent in an alert.

If this grows, though, how bad will people's actual work productivity drop? For many types of jobs, you can't exactly snoop and work at the same time...

[Anh_Minh]

It's just means they either won't play while working, or lose their jobs. Just like any other internet game, really. And if it becomes a problem, enterprises can just block the site out of their network.

[Jinto]

Originally Posted by Kamui4356

And now we know how big brother was able to monitor everyone even when realisticly the number of people required for monitoring eveyrone would be astronomical. The party made a game out of it for the proles, so they didn't have to pay people to monitor the network, people did it in their spare time, when they weren't celebrating that their chocolate rations were increased from 16 grams to 8 grams thanks to the omnibenovolent Big Brother.

On one handsite this might give the chronically unemployed an opportunity to do something usefull and maybe even earn something at that.

Originally Posted by Irenicus

^It's a classic game of people control. Make them paranoid, make them their own gaolers. Give them a little taste of power and authority and they're your loyal little dogs. The Qin mastered it, oh, more than two millenia ago.

And yes, you generally find such practices being encouraged by governments of a totalitarian bent. What do the Brits over there like to say? Lol, Labour?

And on the other handsite it is very dangerous. And I totally agree with Irenicus, basically every totalitarian regime used/uses squealers/informers and backstabbers to keep the people under control. Now it is used to solve/handle crimes but there is great potential for misuse too.

[Shadow Kira01]

Okada meets Karzai on surprise visit to Kabul

After staying in Afghanistan, Okada is scheduled to move to Pakistan, and later on to Indonesia to visit quake-hit Sumatra Island. He is expected to return to Japan on Thursday.

The Foreign Ministry had not announced Okada's visit to Afghanistan until his arrival in Kabul because of security concerns. He entered Afghanistan via Dubai after visiting Beijing to attend a trilateral summit meeting involving the leaders of Japan, China and South Korea.

A surprise visit..

It seems the journey must had been a little risky, if not unsafe..

[mg1942]

ok you won't freakin believe this...

Spoiler for :

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_13530098

<embed src="http://blip.tv/play/AYGm10EC" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="480" height="388" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed>

[kayote]

Originally Posted by mg1942

ok you won't freakin believe this...

Spoiler for :

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_13530098

there relly just are no words. i wonder if this will help the Healthcare bill.

[LynnieS]

Originally Posted by mg1942

ok you won't freakin believe this...

... Shocked. Someone at the insurance company following a strict by-the-book definition again like that Wells Fargo bank branch rep who demanded a finger print ID from a customer without hands recently? Whatever happened to "kindness", "a caring attitude" and "considering a case on its own merits"? (Rhetorical question...)

Romanian government faces collapse

BUCHAREST, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Romania's parliament looks set to topple the minority government on Tuesday in a no-confidence vote ahead of a November presidential election and raises fresh concerns over the country's IMF aid.

The centrist and leftist opposition have called Tuesday's vote after Prime Minister Emil Boc's coalition cabinet split earlier this month, plunging the country into political crisis at a time when it is trying to fight against recession.

American is the first woman to win the Nobel Economic Prize

WASHINGTON – Elinor Ostrom became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in economics, honored along with fellow American Oliver Williamson on Monday for analyzing economic governance — the rules by which people exercise authority in companies and economic systems.

Yay!

Sarkozy's 23 yrs old son is the main candidate for EPAD's chairmanship

PARIS – President Nicolas Sarkozy's 23-year-old son is angling for a key job overseeing billions of euros in commerce at France's top business district — a job critics say he does not deserve.

A 23 years law student to head up EPAD... Hopefully, he doesn't make many mistakes if he gets the job.

[mg1942]

U.S. can't trace foreign visitors on expired visas

Accused Dallas bomb plotter puts focus on lack of ‘exit system’ for tourists

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/us...20visas&st=cse

[cyberprofit]

That is always the kind of news you hate to hear...may they rest in peace.