News Stories

[Ithekro]

Looks like a Romulan ship decloaking in the later parts of The Next Generation era Star Trek.

[ganbaru]

Haiti a year later.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle1865595/

[ZephyrLeanne]

Good news.

Arizona blocks funeral protests

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/47418.html

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed emergency legislation Tuesday establishing “funeral protection zones” to keep protesters away from the memorial services for the victims of Saturday’s shooting in Tucson.

Earlier in the day, the Arizona Legislature passed the bill unanimously.

The measure - aimed at the Rev. Fred Phelps and other members of the Westboro Baptist Church who announced plans to picket outside the Thursday funeral of 9-year-old victim Christina-Taylor Green - won bipartisan support. It will take effect immediately.

“Such despicable acts of emotional terrorism will not be tolerated in the State of Arizona. This legislation will assure that the victims of Saturday’s tragic shooting in Tucson will be laid to rest in peace with the full dignity and respect that they deserve,” the Republican governor said in a statement.

The law will establish a 300-foot perimeter around a funeral location beginning one hour before a service until one hour after a service.

“They want to protest at the grave site of a 9-year-old girl, and we want to stop him,” said state Sen. Paula Aboud (D-Tucson), referring to Phelps, who plans to picket outside Green’s funeral.

“I read Westboro’s press release and wanted to vomit I was so angry. It was sickening,” said state Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, a Phoenix Democrat and the bill’s primary sponsor. Sinema is a Tucson native and a friend of several of the shooting victims.

The church “has a national reputation for trying to denigrate funerals of people who have served this country bravely. When I found out they were coming to Arizona, I was like, ‘Oh no you’re not,’”

She added, “We can’t stop them from being hateful, but we can keep them away from people who are grieving.”

The legislation is based on an Ohio law, which recently survived a challenge in federal court from the Westboro group. Anyone found guilty of violating the Arizona law would face misdemeanor charges.

Information posted on the church’s website praises the gunman and says the killings were the result of God being angry because the country hasn’t repented its sins.

The Republican and Democratic parties in Pima County are asking people to gather Thursday to create a human barricade to protect Green’s family from protesters, The Arizona Republic reported

[cors8]

Originally Posted by Kamui4356

Maybe not, given the delays in the F-35 and China's new 5th gen jet making its first fight. More F-22s now are certainly a better investment than some F-35s later.

Aren't the F-22s a lot more expensive to maintain and are quite limited in where it can operate compared to the F-35?

[GundamFan0083]

Originally Posted by ZephyrLeanne

Good news.

Arizona blocks funeral protests

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/47418.html

Well good for Gov. Brewer.
I don't agree with much of what that woman has done in the past politically, but this I can get behind.
Westboro are opportunits that prey on the sorrow of others IMO, and it's high time someone puts a stop to it.

In related news.

The WSJ is reporting that Loughner was a "gamer"...I swear this is really getting annoying.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...LEFTTopStories

First Dupnik makes a baseless claim to blame the right and the "mainstream" media goes ape-shit with it (I have ended watching Keith Oberman because of him having that moron from the SPLC on, Davide Icke is NOT a right-winger, he's a new ager thank you very much).

Then Loughner's classmates (former, in particular Carie Parker) claim he was a radical leftist) and that blowharding fat-man Rush Limbaugh goes crazy with it (never listened to him before yesterday, and that was the last time for me, so no change for me now).

Then that idiot Caroline Macarthy pushes her own brand of hoplophobic-Macarthyism for more useless gun control.

Now Murdock's paper is apparently pointing the finger at "gamers" and "pot-heads" based on the stories I've read at the WSJ in the last 48 hours on this case.

Am I the only person who is getting sick of this bullshit?
This guy, Jared Loughner, was a straight up schizophrenic.
The Tuscon Sheriff's department had FIVE run ins with this guy, his school knew he was disturbed, and his family knew he had "issues" but NOBODY DID ANYTHING!!!
I saw some media hack on MSNBC trying to blame guns for this shit.
This beyotch from the Washington Post was asking stupid questions like "who needs a 30 round magazine?" or "why are semiautomatic pistols legal?"
Asking stupid questions like that is almost as crazy as this wackjob Loughner.

Loughner could just have easily taken a 12 guage sawed off pump-action shotgun loaded with five rounds of 00 buck with him and killed more people! A scattergun in a closely knit crowd is far more deadly than any handgun, and shotguns are exactly what Harris and Klebold used at Columbine. There are 8 rounds of .33 inch (8.4mm) diameter in each 00 buck shell. A 9mm bullet is .36 inches and weighs roughly the same as ONE 00 pellet. That means a person with five rounds of 00 buck in a shotgun has the equivalent (at short range) of 40 rounds of 9mm.
The only difference is that you can shoot 5 rounds a lot quicker than 30.

How about we ask the real question.
Why didn't anyone commit this guy when he was making threats, and clearly acting in a disturbed manner?
The 2009 DHS report labeled veterans, gun owners, constitutionalists, libertarians, and conservatives as potential terrorists, but nothing about actual threats like people with antisocial disorders such as schizophrenia or psychopathy.

The USA has become so paranoid about being non-PC or hurting anyone's feelings that the APA (American Psychiatric Association) has just taken Narcissism off of the list of mental disorders, and we wonder why this kind of tragedy takes place?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/he...ws/30mind.html

God help us.

Talk about getting egg on your face.
I hope you're happy Keith Oberman, because you certainly made an ass of yourself over this one.

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/...he-news_b48040

[Vexx]

Am I the only person who is getting sick of this bullshit?
This guy, Jared Loughner, was a straight up schizophrenic.
The Tuscon Sheriff's department had FIVE run ins with this guy, his school knew he was disturbed, and his family knew he had "issues" but NOBODY DID ANYTHING!!!

No one "did anything" because all of the tools to "do anything" have been systematically gutted in the US. The USA has been consistently dismantling its mental health care systems since the 1980s. The "big boys" don't want to pay for it (nor for any other health care) and if I wanted to be Big Brother-ish... it certainly DOES provide the fear and anxiety level on both left and right in the repercussions when someone who NEEDS help acts out. Its a perverse combination of asserting personal rights coupled with the bonanza of not having to pay for it. (except that the victims in the blast area pay for it....)

The problem isn't with "guns", the problem is symptomatic of the breakdown of community, infrastructure, and culture in the US as driven by people so rich that "left" or "right" no meaning other than to divide the peasants. I walk by schizophrenics, paranoids, etc every day on the street and ride with them on the bus/train ... they have limited access to treatment or medication and no place for them to be safe.

You are correct, in that situation, almost any shotgun would have been a deadlier tool than a self-loading pistol like Glock. So the rhetoric on several sides is "full of shit" for the most part. The so-called 'conservatives' don't want responsibility for the community they take advantage of and the so-called "liberals" keep screaming "duct tape the symptoms". I won't even dignify the "label and move on" infantile media coverage (I bet Loughner drove a car... wow, he's a "car driver" we know about "car drivers" and their tainted ways :P)

[Ithekro]

"Lebanon government falls after Hezbollah pulls out"
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41039437...ideastn_africa

Not sure if I'm surprised or not.

[flying ^]

tuscon shooter influenced by an online movie Zeitgeist?

http://www.youtube.com/v/Y7xLg2C2iI0

On Good Morning America today, Jared Lee Loughner's former close friend Zach Osler described how the accused shooter did not watch political news, but did admire a "a web-based documentary called Zeitgeist(!!!), that focused on currency based economics that 'poured gasoline on his fire...

The Zeitgeist documentary had a profound impact on Jared Loughner's mindset,'" according to Osler.

[Asuras]

Originally Posted by flying ^

tuscon shooter influenced by an online movie Zeitgeist?

http://www.youtube.com/v/Y7xLg2C2iI0

On Good Morning America today, Jared Lee Loughner's former close friend Zach Osler described how the accused shooter did not watch political news, but did admire a "a web-based documentary called Zeitgeist(!!!), that focused on currency based economics that 'poured gasoline on his fire...

The Zeitgeist documentary had a profound impact on Jared Loughner's mindset,'" according to Osler.

Hm...

http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?t=97980

[Kamui4356]

Originally Posted by cors8

Aren't the F-22s a lot more expensive to maintain and are quite limited in where it can operate compared to the F-35?

We don't know how much an F-35 will cost to maintain yet. The F-35 was supposed to be cheaper to buy, but with the way things are going, it's not certain anymore. Also, the F-22 is vastly more capable in air to air combat than an F-35, but deficient in a strike role so there's a trade off there. Plus, they're in production now, where as the F-35 was supposed to enter service next year, but has now been pushed back to at least 2016 thanks mainly to that damn vstol B model. Hell, if it wasn't for the F-35B, the thing would probably already be in service, and vastly more capable than the current design. A lot of compromises were made to maintain design commonality with the F-35B. The thing should have been a separate project from the start.

[Asuras]

The F-22 can probably be said with conviction that it is the best air combat vehicle across the globe. There is no other jet, plane, or UAV that can outperform it.
The F-35B did lose much of the functionality in return for a cheaper price, but the F-22 is already in service, so we shouldn't be to worried about losing dominance for a long time.

[ZephyrLeanne]

Originally Posted by GundamFan0083

Well good for Gov. Brewer.
I don't agree with much of what that woman has done in the past politically, but this I can get behind.
Westboro are opportunits that prey on the sorrow of others IMO, and it's high time someone puts a stop to it.

In related news.


... (redacted)

Look, Dept. of Education failed him, time for a shakeup in DoE.

Proof:


From: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/ed...tion.html?_r=1

Get Chinese officials, Finnish ones, HK ones, Korean ones, hell, even Singapore ones (with more math texts in hand). Whatever. It's time to change DoE.

[ganbaru]

At least 270 dead in Brazil floods
http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNew...70B5AM20110113

[Asuras]

Originally Posted by ZephyrLeanne

Look, Dept. of Education failed him, time for a shakeup in DoE.

From: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/ed...tion.html?_r=1

Get Chinese officials, Finnish ones, HK ones, Korean ones, hell, even Singapore ones (with more math texts in hand). Whatever. It's time to change DoE.

Several Chinese professors themselves rebutted these findings with the simple fact:

Chinese children are trained for the test and only for the test. They are not allotted imagination or self-problem-solving. Robots, in essence. These findings mean nothing, because they don't test true intelligence, they test your knowledge of the curriculum.

[GundamFan0083]

Originally Posted by Vexx

No one "did anything" because all of the tools to "do anything" have been systematically gutted in the US. The USA has been consistently dismantling its mental health care systems since the 1980s. The "big boys" don't want to pay for it (nor for any other health care) and if I wanted to be Big Brother-ish... it certainly DOES provide the fear and anxiety level on both left and right in the repercussions when someone who NEEDS help acts out. Its a perverse combination of asserting personal rights coupled with the bonanza of not having to pay for it. (except that the victims in the blast area pay for it....)

The problem isn't with "guns", the problem is symptomatic of the breakdown of community, infrastructure, and culture in the US as driven by people so rich that "left" or "right" no meaning other than to divide the peasants. I walk by schizophrenics, paranoids, etc every day on the street and ride with them on the bus/train ... they have limited access to treatment or medication and no place for them to be safe.

You are correct, in that situation, almost any shotgun would have been a deadlier tool than a self-loading pistol like Glock. So the rhetoric on several sides is "full of shit" for the most part. The so-called 'conservatives' don't want responsibility for the community they take advantage of and the so-called "liberals" keep screaming "duct tape the symptoms". I won't even dignify the "label and move on" infantile media coverage (I bet Loughner drove a car... wow, he's a "car driver" we know about "car drivers" and their tainted ways :P)

I can't say it any better than that Vexx, thank you.
You've hit the proverbial nail on the head.

Originally Posted by ZephyrLeanne

Look, Dept. of Education failed him, time for a shakeup in DoE.

Proof:


From: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/ed...tion.html?_r=1

Get Chinese officials, Finnish ones, HK ones, Korean ones, hell, even Singapore ones (with more math texts in hand). Whatever. It's time to change DoE.

I concur, we need a total overhaul of our education system.

[iLney]

Originally Posted by Asuras

Several Chinese professors themselves rebutted these findings with the simple fact:

Chinese children are trained for the test and only for the test. They are not allotted imagination or self-problem-solving. Robots, in essence. These findings mean nothing, because they don't test true intelligence, they test your knowledge of the curriculum.

No wonder the most popular discipline for Chinese university's students is Reverse Engineering

Hey, US colleges should start offer that program, it'll sure bring in load of income

[yezhanquan]

Originally Posted by Asuras

Several Chinese professors themselves rebutted these findings with the simple fact:

Chinese children are trained for the test and only for the test. They are not allotted imagination or self-problem-solving. Robots, in essence. These findings mean nothing, because they don't test true intelligence, they test your knowledge of the curriculum.

While that is certainly true for the vast majority, a significant minority are good in both tests and creativity. When you have a significant minority out of a 1.3 billion population, it is... an issue.

More impressive are the Chinese students who have their foundations back home and then go overseas. Lord, this hybrid system is quite frankly scary in terms of results.

[ZephyrLeanne]

Originally Posted by yezhanquan

While that is certainly true for the vast majority, a significant minority are good in both tests and creativity. When you have a significant minority out of a 1.3 billion population, it is... an issue.

More impressive are the Chinese students who have their foundations back home and then go overseas. Lord, this hybrid system is quite frankly scary in terms of results.

But for the English teachers, we'll have to resort to Singapore.
Beats red-neck English.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by ZephyrLeanne

Get Chinese officials, Finnish ones, HK ones, Korean ones, hell, even Singapore ones (with more math texts in hand). Whatever. It's time to change DoE.

Though I agree that US really needs to overhaul their education system, I myself do find that those findings are pretty useless.

I have done the PISA, TEA (Times Education Assessment) and NSW tests before (never did Olympaid though because of my discipline record. ). The questions are assessment book types, do enough of it and you can score in these tests.

Try putting in application questions involving higher level thinking, like multiple-pulley systems with only one fixed value and the rest are variables. I can guarantee the students will complain about the questions being too "irrelevant".

Another thing : it factors in statistics. When you have more people, you have a larger "cream of the crop". The study isn't exactly fair with a numerical sample size.

[Ithekro]

From what I remember of standardized testing...usually they would give us the tests mid-year...with material that we had not even covered yet on that test.