News Stories

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by MrTerrorist

Okay this is just horrible.

Warning, NSFW Video Shows Texas Judge Beating Disabled Daughter Over Computer Games, Music

Seriously, what kind of father does that to his own daughter who's disable, especially a Judge!?

A family judge form Texas.

[ganbaru]

Originally Posted by killer3000ad

North Korea bans citizens in Libya from returning home


Kim Jong il must have nightmares of the bloodied Gaddafi getting beaten by his own people.

It was probably that or putting them in work camp with the unfortunates football players...

[Kyuu]

Originally Posted by MrTerrorist

Okay this is just horrible.

Warning, NSFW Video Shows Texas Judge Beating Disabled Daughter Over Computer Games, Music

Seriously, what kind of father does that to his own daughter who's disable, especially a Judge!?

Abusive rednecks. They still exist.

[Yu Ominae]

News conference to foreign journalists on a backup capital in case Tokyo becomes unable to function.

[Ithekro]

Originally Posted by Jinto

It might cost them a Dolphin though... not that it made a difference.

Not with the way Europe needs money.

[Jinto]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

Not with the way Europe needs money.

I suppose, due to all the overrated bad news from europe you have quite the misconception about the financial situation in Germany.

[ganbaru]

Originally Posted by Jinto

I suppose, due to all the overrated bad news from europe you have quite the misconception about the financial situation in Germany.

And anyway, how much profit would represent the sale of a single submaine, even thought they are really expensive ?

[Tom Bombadil]

This just appears on BBC live report on the Euro zone crisis http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15570986

Tea Party Ewok

@TPEwok tweets: A large wooden horse has appeared outside the G-20 meeting at Cannes.

[sneaker]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

And anyway, how much profit would represent the sale of a single submaine, even thought they are really expensive ?

Not much if Germany pays for it fully or partly, like it has done in the past.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Is time running out for GMT?

London (Nov 3, Thu): Leading scientists from around the world are meeting here from today to consider a proposal that could eventually see Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) relegated to a footnote in history.

For more than 120 years, GMT has been the international standard for timekeeping, but it is now under threat from a new definition of time based not on the rotation of the Earth, but on atomic clocks.

In January next year, the International Telecommunication Union will meet in Geneva to vote on whether to adopt the new measure, despite protests from Britain.

GMT is based on the passage of the sun over the zero meridian line at the Greenwich Observatory in south-east London, and became the world standard for time at a conference in Washington in the United States in 1884.

But tiny variations between Earth speed and atomic speed have become a problem for the global positioning systems and mobile-phone networks on which the modern world relies. The meeting in London will look at the implications of abolishing the leap seconds and moving fully to atomic time.

That would see atomic time slowly diverge from GMT, by about one minute every 60 to 90 years, or by an hour every 600 years, and there would need to be "leap minutes" a couple of times a century to bring the two in line.

The proposal would be formally voted on in Geneva.

The potential loss of GMT has prompted soul searching in the British press. The Sunday Times said GMT had "symbolised Britain's role as a Victorian superpower" but that "just as that role has inexorably diminished, so GMT itself could in effect disappear".

AFP

[MrTerrorist]

[TinyRedLeaf]

Relief slow to reach Cambodia flood victims

Battambang, Cambodia (Nov 3, Thu): Wide swaths of Cambodia's countryside have become giant lakes, with villagers and livestock marooned on scattered islands of dry land.

The floods that have affected three quarters of the country's land area, by the United Nations' estimate, have been overshadowed by similar troubles in Cambodia's larger and wealthier neighbor, Thailand, where the government is scrambling to protect central Bangkok from inundation.

Here in Cambodia, though, aid workers describe a more Darwinian struggle and a generally higher degree of desperation among villagers.

"This is the worst I've seen in my career," said Dr Soen Seueng, a 58-year-old doctor who tended to a long line of flood victims yesterday, most of them women and children, who were camped on a strip of raised land accessible only by boat.

Dr Seueng grasped the limp arm of a six-year-old girl, Lor Chaneut, who received a diagnosis of dengue fever, the mosquito-borne disease that can be fatal without close medical attention. "You must take her to the hospital," he urged the girl's family.

The girl's mother, Ms Jeok Kimsan, said the family's savings had been wiped out by the floods. "We will go to the hospital when we get some money," she said, as her husband built a fish trap.

Flood victims were taking shelter here under plastic sheets, like refugees from a civil war. Cows, pigs and chickens shared the strip of dry land, which is covered with animal and human waste. "The toilet is everywhere," said Mr Henry Sophorn, a Cambodian-born American who represents a non-profit group, Disadvantaged Cambodians Organization, which is part of a syndicate delivering aid to flood victims.

With little or no government assistance, many villagers have been left to fend for themselves.

"The big impact is just starting," said Ms Sen Jeunsafy, a spokesman in Cambodia for Save the Children, an international aid organisation. "What we have done is to provide immediate relief. But, collectively, we have not been able to reach every family."

Aid workers say the full scope of the flood crisis in Cambodia is not yet known, because many affected areas are remote and out of communication. In all, the UN estimates that 1.2 million people out of a population of about 15 million may have been affected.

NYT

[Ithekro]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

Is time running out for GMT?

And so begins the "Stardate" system.

[ganbaru]

Greek leader signals he may ditch referendum plan
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...79U5PQ20111103

Is he comming to his sense, or it was some kind of political move ?

[Fahd]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

Is time running out for GMT?

I'm not too sure what the problem (amongst the British press) is? At the moment UTC = GMT ± 1 second (due to leap second corrections). All that will happen is that UTC will diverge a bit more from GMT than it currently does (i.e. UTC = GMT ± 60 seconds), presumably to lower the cost that 60 leap corrections entail. No one is suggesting that UTC will be based on another time zone.

Originally Posted by Ithekro

And so begins the "Stardate" system.

The international space station uses UTC, but I suspect if we were to ever colonise another habitable planet we would have a "stardate" time system and then use computers to calculate time differences. People already have enough trouble factoring the different dates when countries put their clocks forward/back (for daylight savings), or even if they do it at all. Now imagine that combined with the different rotations of each planet along with the different places on each planet both parties are located. Trying to work that out in your head risks waking someone up because you called them thinking they'd be awake .

Originally Posted by ganbaru

Greek leader signals he may ditch referendum plan
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...79U5PQ20111103

Is he comming to his sense, or it was some kind of political move ?

It would've helped if he'd mentioned this referendum idea at the European meeting last week, or even to his own cabinet colleagues. It kinda shook the markets a bit coming out of the blue like that. I have a feeling that the promise of a referendum (and then its demise) will increase the disconnect between the Greek people and their politicians. I.e. they've lost their chance to have some democratic way of venting their anger.

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

Greek leader signals he may ditch referendum plan
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...79U5PQ20111103

Is he comming to his sense, or it was some kind of political move ?

Personally i would like to see the referendum go through

A long day of mostly peaceful protest in Oakland descended into chaos after midnight. Masked vandals shattered windows, set fires and plastered downtown businesses with graffiti before police moved in, dispersing crowds with tear gas and flash-bang grenades and making dozens of arrests.
....
"These people would be extremely peaceful if the agitators - the police - didn't show up," said a 25-year-old man in a bandana who declined to give his name.
He said the protesters' late-night actions had been "tactical. In other words, it was to make it bigger. There's an awe factor."
...

"What does putting trash in the street accomplish?" asked the neighbor, 35-year-old Tarrell Gamble, as a crowd confronted him. "This is somebody's property."
Masked men shouted and swore at Gamble, and one protester briefly put him in a headlock. They accused him of being a police officer and said, "Let's give it up for the hall monitor."
"Everybody's so tough with a mask on," Gamble said as he continued to try to clear his street, without success.
After two women escorted him away, Gamble said, "The protest is supposed to be about corporate greed. It's not about trashing the streets of Oakland."
Nearby, a man in a mask said Gamble was wrong. "These are drastic measures, to make people listen," the 24-year-old said. "This is our block now."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...BANI1LQ2HO.DTL

guess who show up at the oakland protest and what happened next.

[killer3000ad]

Greek PM: No need for referendum if opposition backs austerity cuts

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said Thursday a controversial referendum on an international bailout for his country would not be necessary if the opposition supported the tough austerity measures that accompany it.

It was not immediately clear if that meant he was canceling the referendum, the surprise announcement of which sent European politics and markets into chaos this week.

But Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos appeared to rule it out, saying: "It is clear that we are not going ahead with a referendum."

[ganbaru]

Italy accepts IMF monitoring, EU looks for support
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...7A20E920111104

[SaintessHeart]

Israel, US and UK 'planning' attack on Iran nuclear facility

While :

David Morrision - Israel & Iran: Double standards on nuclear weapons

Though I agree with David on the double standard, I don't think that is the case argument.

Given that how Iran supplied the .50 anti-material rifle bought from Austria/Germany to the insurgents in Afghanistan, the NATO has a good deal of suspicion on Iran.

[killer3000ad]

Michigan anti-bullying law has exception for 'religious or moral reasons'

Known as Matt's Safe School Law, the bill effectively bans harassment in schools and requires every district to have an anti-bullying policy. The law was inspired by Matt Epling, a Michigan teen who committed suicide shortly after an anti-gay hazing incident.

But in a stinging floor speech, Senator Gretchen Whitmer expressed her dissatisfaction with the new law, which is said to create a special exception for bullies who have "a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction," as well as neglecting to protect to bullying against students based on sexual orientation or gender identity.