News Stories

[RandySyler]

Originally Posted by Xellos-_^

What does either issue has to do with Buddhism?

Oh sorry I meant Sri Lanka not Taiwan.

[Ithekro]

I wonder if this will actually have a long reaching effect in Europe as a whole (rather than just Norway). There have been a bunch of alarmist press in the last decade or so about the increased muslim population's chances of simply outbreeding the native populations and effectively taking over just by weight of numbers at the polls, and then just by outnumbering the natives.

The man might have had a point...but he lost it when he started blowing up building and shooting people.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Tom Bombadil

Not this rail, I think it is like an overall figure or something.

Someone joked that since they are burying the locomotive in the soil, maybe they can harvest 2 next year.

What I heard from a relative with business connections in China, is that they are planning to grow a locomotive tree so they could continually harvest it in the future.

The compensation is already starting to be handed out. Maybe only to the 39 people they listed, comparing the less than 200 that rumor has. I believe by tomorrow night, you won't even see the news about this disaster anymore. What a government?!

If I didn't read anything wrong from your link in the next post, the agreement was that if they sign, they would be paid 500,000 yuan (around 77k USD). But the statement in the third paragraph said that according to the 2007/9 "Train Incidents Emergency and Investigation Guidelines" (铁路交通事故应急救援和调查处理条例), 172,000 yuan (26.7k USD) will be paid to the victims, 200,000 yuan (31k USD) will be additionally paid by the insurance (?), totalling up to 372,000 yuan (57.7k USD), with other payouts the overall compensation will not exceed 450,000yuan (69.8k USD). I supposed that it is the signing of the "Terms and Conditions" that bagged the victims up to 500,000 yuan?

If so, that is certainly an interesting way to muzzle the folks from spreading their "personal experiences" and "ruining the official statements". Bastards.

Nonetheless, I wonder if this commentor is serious or being sarcastic :

死后还被奖励。稀罕

TL : Rewarded/Compensated after death. Accepted.

[ganbaru]

Boehner delays vote on his debt-ceiling measure
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...07-26-23-09-45
Is that guy still even pretending to try...

[Mr Hat and Clogs]

Rolling back a few days, an Australian journalists take on Murdoch, and some things to come.

[Tiberium Wolf]

Originally Posted by RandySyler

But, it is important to keep in mind that almost always, religion doesn't give command to kill people, it is who people kill people. Kinda like guns.

It's more like God said it's ok to kill ppl of other religions. Actually it's more like a voice in their head that present themself as God that tell them to kill.

[Tom Bombadil]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Nonetheless, I wonder if this commentor is serious or being sarcastic :

死后还被奖励。稀罕
TL : Rewarded/Compensated after death. Accepted.

稀罕 does not mean accepted. It means "rare, uncommon (and hence strange)". Both the choice of word and the meaning points to "being sarcastic".

They have since dug the train out. What's the point of burying them for 3 days and then dug them out? I guess we can use our imaginations. The whole thing just scream absurdity.

[synaesthetic]

Originally Posted by RandySyler

But, it is important to keep in mind that almost always, religion doesn't give command to kill people, it is who people kill people. Kinda like guns.

Actually, it does. Read the Bible, it explicitly commands that x people should be put to death for y reason, multiple times, in many places.

[Tsuyoshi]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

Boehner delays vote on his debt-ceiling measure
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...07-26-23-09-45
Is that guy still even pretending to try...

I wonder about that, considering he'll be one of the guy who pays heavily if the US defaults.

[don_Durandal]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

I wonder if this will actually have a long reaching effect in Europe as a whole (rather than just Norway). There have been a bunch of alarmist press in the last decade or so about the increased muslim population's chances of simply outbreeding the native populations and effectively taking over just by weight of numbers at the polls, and then just by outnumbering the natives.

The man might have had a point...but he lost it when he started blowing up building and shooting people.

"Alarmist" indeed. Actual statistics shows that second and third generations from immigrant families have close to the same average amount of child / couple than natives.
The reason why immigration is favoured is because of the ageing western population anyway.

[Kameruka]

Murderer of 92 people were only sentenced to prison for 30 years while they can hanged a drug trafficker to death? What a bullsh*t!

Sorry for being overly emotional but even a blind man can see how ridiculous the madman's punishment is. I really felt sorry for the victims because most of them are youths below age 20, which mean they even younger than I am.

EDIT: Maybe football fans need to hate Samir Nasri and Mesut Ozil if they used the same logic. Racism is bullsh*t and FIFA already told us that many many times.

[Zakoo]

Nordic countries are different to begin with, you can't judge them with your eyes.

The mayor of Oslo said that: "We will punish the culprit. The punishment will be more generosity, more tolerance and more democracy." Totally different from what the politician of my country would say.

they can hanged a drug trafficker to death?

Not sure of what you said, but there's no more death punishment in EU.

[ganbaru]

Originally Posted by Tiberium Wolf

It's more like God said it's ok to kill ppl of other religions. Actually it's more like a voice in their head that present themself as God that tell them to kill.

The voice is either in their head or comming from the local priest/messie/prophet.

[Bri]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

I wonder if this will actually have a long reaching effect in Europe as a whole (rather than just Norway). There have been a bunch of alarmist press in the last decade or so about the increased muslim population's chances of simply outbreeding the native populations and effectively taking over just by weight of numbers at the polls, and then just by outnumbering the natives.

Muslims in Europe have very diverse backgrounds, they are not one single ethnic group. There are people (or their decendants) who migrated from former colonies when those gained independence, who came as migrant workers or who were refugees. We're talking about dozens of countries of origin with vastly different cultures. The one thing they have in common is their religion. Only the far right claims that muslims will become a unified force in the future.

Populist politicians (both left and right) in Europe like to talk about Islam and muslims because it prevents them of being accused of discrimination or racism. Those are code words that can be safely used to point to people of ethnicity X and say they are over represented in crime figures, school drop out rates, unemployment etc. It's also convinient to use islam as an excuse for failed integration rather then discuss the more complex reality.

Originally Posted by don_Durandal

"Alarmist" indeed. Actual statistics shows that second and third generations from immigrant families have close to the same average amount of child / couple than natives.
The reason why immigration is favoured is because of the ageing western population anyway.

Indeed fertility rates of immigrants converges with those of the native population over time. However this is the reason why immigration policy is less and less favoured.

In most European countries the fertility rate lies well below the replacement rate, therefore a continous inflow of immigrants will be needed to prevent a decline in population (as they have the same amount of children as the natives over time). Also everyone wants the same kind of immigrants: young, well educated professionals. Those are in short supply and it causes brain drain issues in developing countries.

As a result there has been renewed interest in fertility policies to increase birthrates. There is a lot of research on that topic in Europe at the moment.

[Roger Rambo]

Originally Posted by RandySyler

I do believe that there is no religion innocent of blood, lest maybe the Native American religions and spirituals. And that could merely be because of lack of records.

I'm pretty sure tribal warfare between Native American tribes had lots of religious context behind it.

Originally Posted by Mr Hat and Clogs

I'd say Buddhism is pretty bloodless.

Japanese Buddhist Warrior Monks.

[Tiberium Wolf]

Originally Posted by Bri

In most European countries the fertility rate lies well below the replacement rate, therefore a continous inflow of immigrants will be needed to prevent a decline in population (as they have the same amount of children as the natives over time). Also everyone wants the same kind of immigrants: young, well educated professionals. Those are in short supply and it causes brain drain issues in developing countries.

As a result there has been renewed interest in fertility policies to increase birthrates. There is a lot of research on that topic in Europe at the moment.

Bullshit. Infertility is not the problem here. The problem here is the way of life and the child worship (by George Carlin) that we have here in the west. Too many rules to raise a kid and so ppl just tend not to have that many kids because it's just too exhausting to raise them. In the 3rd world countries is the natural selection rule. PPL have alot of kids and let them nature do it's job of weeding out the weak ones.

[Bri]

Originally Posted by Tiberium Wolf

Bullshit. Infertility is not the problem here. The problem here is the way of life and the child worship (by George Carlin) that we have here in the west. Too many rules to raise a kid and so ppl just tend not to have that many kids because it's just too exhausting to raise them. In the 3rd world countries is the natural selection rule. PPL have alot of kids and let them nature do it's job of weeding out the weak ones.

*Sigh* Fertility rates have nothing to do with infertility in a medical sense. The fertility rate is, basically, the number of children that the average woman will have in her lifetime, it says nothing about the how or why. It's a measure for long term population growth.

Fertility policy concerns things like child care subsidies, priority housing for families, maternity leave etc.

[Tiberium Wolf]

Originally Posted by Bri

*Sigh* Fertility rates have nothing to do with infertility in a medical sense. The fertility rate is, basically, the number of children that the average woman will have in her lifetime, it says nothing about the how or why. It's a measure for long term population growth.

Fertility policy concerns things like child care subsidies, priority housing for families, maternity leave etc.

Oops. I've read wrong. Too many "In" words and I just added it to fertility due to fast reading .
Anyway subsidies, priority housing for families, maternity leave etc doesn't help that much. Let's pick an example in Africa in a poor country. Couples have a lot of kids. What are their main concerns? Feed the kids. Do they worry about school, what do they wear, what disease will they have, etc? The countries with higher living standard couples get all these worries and they won't be able to handle them.

[Tom Bombadil]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-14305484

China fruit seller death sparks riot in Guizhou

You can see below for a few pictures about the fruit seller and his killer.

http://www.mitbbs.com/article_t/ChinaNews/32398765.html

[ganbaru]

China protests against U.S. spy flights near its coast: report
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...76Q3YK20110727
They might try to make another ''air collision'' as they did before , no ?