News Stories

[TheDoctor]

Originally Posted by ChainLegacy

Where do you get this incredibly bizarre line of thinking from? You believe that if the bomber is white, the media will defend him??? Did you watch any media coverage on any of those white mass shooters, like Lanza from Newtown, or Holmes from Aurora? There sure wasn't any sympathy, more like rage and condemnation.

Ah, let me elaborate that and the example I can use for now is Lanza, if the dude was brown, the national conversation would be about terrorism, not gun control.


Edit: But in any case, everyone will have different opinions on these events. I'm out.

[ganbaru]

Originally Posted by kyp275

everyone loves Canadians for some reason :3

Our participation in WW2 is for a big part of it, at least in Europe. BUt we di lose a lot of our sympathy capital since Harper became our Prime Minister.

Originally Posted by TheDoctor

"Being a Canadian is confusing because you sound like an American, write like a Brit and throw in just enough French words to freak everyone out."

The fact than there's maybe 6 or 7 millions of canadians than have french for first language many of use can thow more than afew french words

[ChainLegacy]

Originally Posted by TheDoctor

Ah, let me elaborate that and the example I can use for now is Lanza, if the dude was brown, the national conversation would be about terrorism, not gun control.


Edit: But in any case, everyone will have different opinions on these events. I'm out.

Well, that might be true. I don't disagree with that at all - but that's still a far cry from claiming a white killer will be defended. The perpetrator will be despised for their actions regardless of their race.

For the record, I don't really think our opinions are all that different. I just want a little restraint and realism to be involved in the expression of said opinions.

[ArchmageXin]

Originally Posted by TheDoctor

Ah, let me elaborate that and the example I can use for now is Lanza, if the dude was brown, the national conversation would be about terrorism, not gun control.


Edit: But in any case, everyone will have different opinions on these events. I'm out.

Agreed, anyone recall Virginia tech shooting? Once the words came down the shooter was asian, Korean/Chinese/Japanese communities all afraid they were going to suffer retaliation. Chinese were especially worried since earlier media report fingered a chinese guy who loved second amendment and had pics of holding a rifle with facebook. When the words came down it was a Korean, SK government instantly decided to apologize and Korean communities all went nuts.

Now imagine if it was a Iranian who did the deed @ Boston. Whispers of War would have started instantly.

Compared to someone like the Uno Bomber or the guy who did Oklahoma.

[kyp275]

Originally Posted by TheDoctor

let me tell you a story: Don't question my compassion in humanity without knowing if I have lost people in death (which I have by the cause of another human.)

Your other stuff aside, this does make it easier - are you actually saying you feel as bad about the death of some random people who you don't know as the one that were close to you?

If that's the case, I sure do feel bad for you, since you're obviously constantly stricken by overwhelming grief every single waking moment. After all, someone is always dying out there.

[Dhomochevsky]

Texas Fertilizer plant explodes

The plant went up in an extremely violent explosion.
Fertilizer is a prime ingredient to many homemade explosives. The effect it had on the area looks horrible.

The casualties may be high, but are currently unknown.

[RRW]

ATHENS — As an elementary-school principal, Leonidas Nikas is used to seeing children play, laugh and dream about the future. But recently he has seen something altogether different, something he thought was impossible in Greece: children picking through school trash cans for food; needy youngsters asking playmates for leftovers; and an 11-year-old boy, Pantelis Petrakis, bent over with hunger pains.
“He had eaten almost nothing at home,” Mr. Nikas said, sitting in his cramped school office near the port of Piraeus, a working-class suburb of Athens, as the sound of a jump rope skittered across the playground. He confronted Pantelis’s parents, who were ashamed and embarrassed but admitted that they had not been able to find work for months. Their savings were gone, and they were living on rations of pasta and ketchup.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/wo...f=greece&_r=1&

[kyp275]

Originally Posted by Dhomochevsky

Texas Fertilizer plant explodes

The plant went up in an extremely violent explosion.
Fertilizer is a prime ingredient to many homemade explosives. The effect it had on the area looks horrible.

The casualties may be high, but are currently unknown.

atm they're saying 5-15 dead, with 100+ injured, and it's likely to rise higher - that explosion was no joke, as it registered 2.1 magnitude on the Richter scale.

[JokerD]

Originally Posted by Dhomochevsky

Texas Fertilizer plant explodes

The plant went up in an extremely violent explosion.
Fertilizer is a prime ingredient to many homemade explosives. The effect it had on the area looks horrible.

The casualties may be high, but are currently unknown.

Not a good week for the USA. The explosive ingredient is anhydrous ammonia which combines with air to form explosive stuff

'Like a nuclear bomb': Deadly fertilizer plant blast devastates Texas town

What caused the explosion at the West Fertilizer Co. was not immediately known. But its location -- next to an apartment complex, a nursing home and a middle school -- did not help matters.

Ah c**p...

[ganbaru]

FBI arrests Mississippi man in ricin letter case
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...93G0T620130418

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by Dhomochevsky

Texas Fertilizer plant explodes

The plant went up in an extremely violent explosion.
Fertilizer is a prime ingredient to many homemade explosives. The effect it had on the area looks horrible.

The casualties may be high, but are currently unknown.

it has been reported the plant didn't pass a safety inspection back in 2006 and had lost their license.

there was also reports of ammonia smells near the plant

[kaito-kid]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

BUt we di lose a lot of our sympathy capital since Harper became our Prime Minister.

And Justin Bieber..

[flying ^]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

Senate rejects gun background checks in setback for Obama
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...93F00D20130417

If you're a democrat strategist planning ahead you should be sighing relief!

why?
(see below)





The most vulnerable Senate seats in 2014



For those who would like to exact electoral revenge... the easiest targets would be the vulnerable Senate candidates up for re-election in 2014 who voted against gun control. There are three such candidates who voted against the background check amendment. They're all Democrats. That means... if billionaire Bloomberg and other supporters of gun control want to exact punishment, they are likely to help Minority Leader Mitch McConnell get halfway to his goal of becoming Senate Majority Leader

[Ledgem]

Originally Posted by monsta666

I would argue the biggest problems will be faced with the nations with the increasing populations. In this sense - like many things - Japan is ahead of the curve on what should be done.

This is true as far as natural resources go. The problem is that human economies (and to a certain extent, societies) are built on the expectation of growth and expansion. Having the population contract will have some very negative effects, at least in the short term.

[monsta666]

Originally Posted by Ledgem

This is true as far as natural resources go. The problem is that human economies (and to a certain extent, societies) are built on the expectation of growth and expansion. Having the population contract will have some very negative effects, at least in the short term.

It sure will; there are no easy options here. I do think the Japanese culture along with their declining population will make things easier (or should I say less hard?) for them in the long run. People often knock the Japanese for their long-term problems and future outlook but I think they have more going for them than most realise. People should really worry about India/China which has close to 3 billion people, changing climates and declining AND deteriorating water supplies.

And on a related topic:

Global Food Prices Continue to Rise

Continuing a decade-long increase, global food prices rose 2.7 percent in 2012, reaching levels not seen since the 1960s and 1970s but still well below the price spike of 1974. Between 2000 and 2012, the World Bank global food price index increased 104.5 percent, at an average annual rate of 6.5 percent.

The price increases reverse a previous trend when real prices of food commodities declined at an average annual rate of 0.6 percent from 1960 to 1999, approaching historic lows. The sustained price decline can be attributed to farmers’ success in keeping crop yields ahead of rising worldwide food demand. Although the global population grew by 3.8 billion or 122.9 percent between 1961 and 2010, net per capita food production increased by 49 percent over this period. Advances in crop breeding and an expansion of agricultural land drove this rise in production, as farmers cultivated an additional 434 million hectares between 1961 and 2010.

Shouldn't be an issue for the first world but just imagine if you were living on $5 a day and the price of food were to double in a decade...

[flying ^]

CISPA clears the House 288-127... with MORE democrat votes this time around.
http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/18/one...nd-defy-obama/

[ganbaru]

Bahrainis protest ahead of F1 motor racing event
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...93H0ZO20130418

Hundreds of protesters waved banners and chanted against the Bahrain government on Thursday ahead of this weekend's Formula One race, which the opposition sees as a chance to attract international attention to its pro-democracy campaign.

[TheDoctor]

Don't expect to see this image in your local & national news

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[KiraYamatoFan]

Originally Posted by TheDoctor

Don't expect to see this image in your local & national news

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RESPECT!

Those are the kind of pictures that MUST be shown worldwide.

[speedyexpress48]

CISPA passes House despite warnings from White House
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology...-house-warning

Roll call, if you want it;
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2013/roll117.xml