News Stories

[Bri]

Originally Posted by sneaker

Define "European countries"? In the context of this discussion I have to assume you either mean EU countries or Euro countries and that would be wrong on both accounts.

Percentage of export to EU of total exports: 57%
Percentage of export to Euro countries of total exports: 36.9%

https://www.destatis.de/DE/ZahlenFak...len/09_AH.html

As you can see the trend of both numbers is to go down since the start of the statistic in 1991.

Europe as in the continent, not EU nor Euro zone. There is a number of important non-EU trading partners like Norway and Switzerland. https://www.destatis.de/DE/ZahlenFak...lspartner.html Add everything up and you should end up a little over 2/3 of total. If you are up for calculating the exact number, be my guest, the argument remains the same even with the EU figure.

[AmeNoJaku]

Since the Maastricht treaty, that started the austerity fad, EU is slowly dissolving, both from internal fiscal policies and from outside pressure. Thanks to the collapse of USSR, conservatives could support their policies abusing immigration, but now they are faced with the consequences of their fundamentally flawed policies and ideas, and unfortunately again they mitigate their responsibility to others, like Greece, Iceland, Italy, etc.

[ganbaru]

Kiev accuses Russia of sending more tanks to east Ukraine
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0LO13420150220

Venezuela opposition urges release of mayor accused of coup plot
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0LO1F820150220

U.N. investigators to publish Syria war crimes suspect names
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0LO1HB20150220

[AmeNoJaku]

And here is the massive success of Germany's fiscal policy on Greece:



EDIT: And after today's eurogroup, it seems that the first German blackmail was dodged. There is of course a long way to go to rebuild EU, after it was deconstructed over the past couple of decades, and unfortunately it required ex-communists... again

EDIT2: And of course that bitter German conservative still tries to stop even the tiny progress made against progress... Schäuble: "The Greeks certainly will have a difficult time explaining the deal to their voters." [TheGuardian@20:59] IMHO, that's is just the most miserable reaction after having for the first time to back away and not be able to humiliate again what he perceives as an opponent, be it Greeks, Irish, Cypriots, Die Linke, SPD, or the Greens.

EDIT3: And as the new Greek finance minister said, the most important thing that will make or break his country is: "Our big anxiety now is whether we can enforce these reforms. That is the big national bet," [TheGuardian@21:12]. This is what will improve the situation, instead of what Germany imposed to the previous governments for the past five years in direct control of their monumental failure by focusing on overtaxing instead of structural reforms of the previous "programs' executioners".

EDIT4: Even with the tiniest concessions by Schäuble sent all markets up instantly.

[Mentar]

Yes, sure. The old Greek story: It's been the German's fault, and if not, then it's the bankers' fault, and if not, then it's the evil Greek elites' fault. It's never Greece's. You are SO pathetic. Bah.

So let's see what Syriza will manage to do. The start was full of goodies for their electorate. The latest one: Greeks owe the country 76 billions of taxes. So what does Syriza do? Forfeit 67 billions of them as "unenforceable". Guess it's easier to make Europe pay instead.

PS: I strongly doubt that it's been "Schäuble's concessions" that helped the market, but rather the fact that after all the yakking and screaming and threatening, Greece saw the light and went along with the programme.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Mentar

Yes, sure. The old Greek story: It's been the German's fault, and if not, then it's the bankers' fault, and if not, then it's the evil Greek elites' fault. It's never Greece's. You are SO pathetic. Bah.

So let's see what Syriza will manage to do. The start was full of goodies for their electorate. The latest one: Greeks owe the country 76 billions of taxes. So what does Syriza do? Forfeit 67 billions of them as "unenforceable". Guess it's easier to make Europe pay instead.

PS: I strongly doubt that it's been "Schäuble's concessions" that helped the market, but rather the fact that after all the yakking and screaming and threatening, Greece saw the light and went along with the programme.

The thing is, HOW to tax them?

It is easy to say and point it out, but enforcement is a different issue.

[AmeNoJaku]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

The thing is, HOW to tax them?

It is easy to say and point it out, but enforcement is a different issue.

With the help of Germany, France and the UK, where they live

[SaintessHeart]

Fox News Reporter’s Phone Hacked by McAfee

Varney & Company host, Stuart Varney, on the Fox Business Network questioned John McAfee, a computer security expert and eccentric millionaire. In return, Varney was hacked by the owner of McAfee Securities.

Varney asked McAfee to show how the Sony hackers were able to break into such a secure company. So McAfee decided to give Varney a ‘live lesson’. From a remote location, McAfee hacked into Varney’s cell phone through the voice mail system, which allowed him to access contacts and then faked a call from one of those contacts. When he picked up his ringing phone, the call was coming from the headquarters of Fox News.

Then McAfee explained how he hacked the phone and that this was how Sony hackers were able to bypass their computer’s security systems. He further said that cyber criminals use ‘low’ technology and social engineering. They basically called someone at the management level, disguising themselves as the company’s IT specialist and telling them that this was a “system security check,” or something similar, to get the other person fall for it. Once they got a hold of administrative-level corporate usernames and passwords, they got access to all systems.

Defcon tweeted that John McAfee used a technique called ‘caller ID spoofing'; a common social engineering practice.

[Mentar]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

The thing is, HOW to tax them?

It is easy to say and point it out, but enforcement is a different issue.

Heh. Schäuble offered 500 German tax officers to help Greece set up a working tax system. Greece couldn't have acted more offended had he taken a dump on the head of a Greek Aphrodite sculpture.

If Greece was half as eager at cleaning up their own messes as they are demanding money from others, the country could have been turned around in 1 year.

[AmeNoJaku]

Originally Posted by Mentar

Heh. Schäuble offered 500 German tax officers to help Greece set up a working tax system. Greece couldn't have acted more offended had he taken a dump on the head of a Greek Aphrodite sculpture.

If Greece was half as eager at cleaning up their own messes as they are demanding money from others, the country could have been turned around in 1 year.

Or he could have expedited the tax-evaders that live there.

[ganbaru]

U.S. and allies discuss new sanctions on Russia over Ukraine: Kerry
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0LP0JW20150221

Hundreds evacuated after fire at Dubai skyscraper
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0LP00V20150221

The cracks in Islamic State’s business plan are starting to show
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debat...rting-to-show/

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Mentar

Heh. Schäuble offered 500 German tax officers to help Greece set up a working tax system. Greece couldn't have acted more offended had he taken a dump on the head of a Greek Aphrodite sculpture.

If Greece was half as eager at cleaning up their own messes as they are demanding money from others, the country could have been turned around in 1 year.

Exactly lol. When it comes to government service, individual countries have their own pride. Maybe Grexit will teach them.

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by AmeNoJaku

Or he could have expedited the tax-evaders that live there.

The Greeks would have to identify and indict them first.

[AmeNoJaku]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Exactly lol. When it comes to government service, individual countries have their own pride. Maybe Grexit will teach them.

reading comments here, I really wish they blown up your banking system back when the crisis started... but they decided to take all those bad choices as public debt, unfortunately. so you now can blame the people.

[Dextro]

Not directly related but given how I personally find the German apprenticeship system a model to follow it still makes for interesting reading:

Apprenticeships in Germany wrongly excludes minorities

[SaintessHeart]

Why the South China Sea is so crucial

For those of you who DON'T get the Asia arms race. I have been explaining this shit a few hundred times and been called "war monger" enough, people still don't get it.

[Ithekro]

Defence of trade route have been a job of navies and more recently air forces for a long time. Wars have been found over them as well as privateering and piracy.

[Mentar]

Originally Posted by Dextro

Not directly related but given how I personally find the German apprenticeship system a model to follow it still makes for interesting reading:

Apprenticeships in Germany wrongly excludes minorities

Read it, and could only shake my head. Essentially no hard data available, and many conclusions are truly harebrained. With this "logic" and methodical approach, you will realize that educational sciences are suffering from the most diabolic gender discrimination possible. Which is naturally nonsense.

But really scary were the comments. My my my...

[AmeNoJaku]

Originally Posted by Mentar

Read it, and could only shake my head. Essentially no hard data available, and many conclusions are truly harebrained. With this "logic" and methodical approach, you will realize that educational sciences are suffering from the most diabolic gender discrimination possible. Which is naturally nonsense.

You understand that because you disagree with the interpretation, you don't have to attack the credibility of the data or the ideology of the writer again.

On the topic of apprenticeships themselves, I agree with Dextro about Germany and other countries, like England and Japan have a similar systems. But all of them to a different degree have recently evolved accessibility issues, but this is based on personal experience, rather than research that is presented in the originally linked article.

[Mentar]

Originally Posted by AmeNoJaku

You understand that because you disagree with the interpretation, you don't have to attack the credibility of the data or the ideology of the writer again.

What am I pointing out is that both writer and the author of the study are using a methodology which has severe scientific deficits. It is pretty clear that they come from a preconceived opinion (the German apprenticeship system discriminates against immigrants) and then go on cherrypicking their statistics to suit their needs. Results that don't fit with their theory are openly discarded as "untrustworthy" (e.g. the fact that for their taste, too many companies report "no applications from immigrants").

The danger of such a "the end justifies the means" approach is clear. Because with the same logic, one could very easily extract from statistics that educational sciences massively discriminate on a sexual basis - there are way too many females in them. Which is complete and utter nonsense. It's simply that a much larger amount of females are interested in this field.

Could there be comparable factors which could explain the statistics without assuming that the reported data has NOT be subject to nefarious falsification by the participating companies? Absolutely. For example, that immigrant applicants tend to be predominantly male (several cultural circles with a patriarchial culture don't think that women should be working, but stay home). Ever received a haircut from a male turkish apprentice? I haven't. So can we deduce that hairdressers are discriminating liars? Just one of many examples.

At the same time, can we conclude that discrimination does _not_ exist? Of course not, either. Since apprenticeships are offered at the discretion of business owners, there will undoubtedly be people who do discriminate and simply don't want immigrant applicants at all. Or who will give a German the preference when multiple applicants of comparable quality exist. But this kind of discrimination is a general-cultural phenomenon which is not caused by or linked to the German apprenticeship system. Just like in the US there will be storeowners who will not hire blacks, or Japanese companies that will not hire gaijin.

In other words: Careful when trying to interpret statistics. And when you start cherrypicking the results you like and discard those you don't, your conclusions become to tend worthless quick. Which deserves criticism, especially when you report it to score political points.