News Stories

[Yu Ominae]

I salute her, despite some of the shortcomings her administration had in the old days.

[Shadow Kira01]

Trials Begin for Iranians Accused of Fomenting Post-Election Unrest

It appears that the ones involved in that protest will now be in deep trouble as that they are pretty much doomed.

[Xellos-_^]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle6736473.ece

Britain has accused Israel of allowing extremist Jewish settlers to disrupt attempts at relaunching the peace process after police evicted more than 50 Palestinians from their homes in Jerusalem.
As Jewish settlers moved into the Palestinian homes, the British consulate said it was appalled by the evictions, which took place a few hundred yards from the diplomatic mission, after an Israeli court decided in favour of the settlers.

The term ethnic cleansing has been variously defined. In the words of Andrew Bell-Fialkoff:
[E]thnic cleansing [...] defies easy definition. At one end it is virtually indistinguishable from forced emigration and population exchange while at the other it merges with deportation and genocide. At the most general level, however, ethnic cleansing can be understood as the expulsion of a population from a given territory.[3] The official United Nations definition of ethnic cleansing is "rendering an area ethnically homogeneous by using force or intimidation to remove from a given area persons of another ethnic or religious group"[4]

Is Israel conducting ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem?
Is Israel a Democracy or a Theocracy?

[Shadow Kira01]

Originally Posted by Xellos-_^

Is Israel conducting ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem?
Is Israel a Democracy or a Theocracy?

Nothing strange.. The relations between the Jews and the Palestianians had always been poor but now, Israel had made it worse. This is obviously ethnic cleansing...

Since when was Israel a democracy? I don't know about theocracy...

[TinyRedLeaf]

Living alone, in a 32-storey 'scary movie'

Fort Myers, Florida (July 30): The Vangelakos' south-west Florida condominium has marble floors, a large pool overlooking a river and modern furnishings that speak of affluence and luxury. What they don't have in the 32-story building is a single neighbour.

The New Jersey family of five purchased their unit four years ago, when Fort Myers was in the midst of a housing boom. Any hints of an impending financial crisis were buried in lofty dreams of expansion and development. They made a US$10,000 downpayment and eagerly watched as builders transformed an empty lot into an opulent high rise, one that now symbolises the foreclosure crisis.

"The future was going to be south-west Florida," said Mr Victor Vangelakos, 45, a fire captain who had planned to eventually retire and live permanently in the condo.

Most of the other tenants in the 200-unit condo didn't close their contracts, and the few that did have transferred to an adjacent building owned by the same company because more people live there. But the Vangelakos' mortgage lender would not allow them to do the same. That leaves them as the sole residents of Oasis Tower One.

"It's a beautiful building," said the family's lawyer, Mr John Ewing, who is representing 27 others who made deposits on units. "The problem is, it's a very lonely building."

The Vangelakos, who have another home in Weehawken, New Jersey, spend only a week or few days a month in their Florida home. They have exclusive use of the pool, game room and gymn, but they miss having a few tenants around.

"Being from the city, it's very eerie," Mr Vangelakos said. "It's almost like a scary movie."

A large, circular fountain in front of the building is dry. The automatic glass doors that lead to the front lobby are locked. On the front desk is a guest sign-in sheet. The last entry: Feb 13, 2009.

The lights on the pool and palm trees were off. The family's garbage chute was sealed, a trash bin placed in front of their unit instead.

Then there were security concerns. One night, someone pounded on their door at 11pm. They called the front desk at the next-door building, which contacted police. A search turned up no one, though a pool entrance was open.

The parents and their children sleep with their cell phones by their beds. "I'm not a chicken, but this is a big building," Mrs Cathy Vangelakos said.

The Cape Coral-Fort Myers metropolitan area in Lee County has some of the worst economic stress – a combination of foreclosures, unemployment and bankruptcies – in the country, according to the Associated Press' monthly analysis of more than 3,100 American counties.

Mr Vangelakos said his family doesn't want to move to the tower next door because they would still be paying the mortgage and maintenance costs on the condo they own. They paid US$430,000 for the unit and took out a US$336,000 mortgage – essentially spending their life savings.

On Friday evening, the pool area was dark as usual, with most of the doors locked. Mrs Vangelakos and her 19-year-old daughter, Amanda, stepped into a lift to head up to their unit. "Going up," an automated voice chimed.

"Going up," Mrs Vangelakos said. "That's all we hear."

- ASSOCIATED PRESS

First few thoughts that came immediately to mind: the Living Dead movies, Silent Hill 4: The Room, I Am Legend and Hideo Nakata's Dark Water. It sounds like fun, having an entire building to yourself but, hmm, yeah, it'll probably be a bit scary at night, especially if it's all dark.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

Living alone, in a 32-storey 'scary movie'


First few thoughts that came immediately to mind: the Living Dead movies, Silent Hill 4: The Room, I Am Legend and Hideo Nakata's Dark Water. It sounds like fun, having an entire building to yourself but, hmm, yeah, it'll probably be a bit scary at night, especially if it's all dark.

It is the same thing when my parents moved. I had no neighbours on my floor for a couple of months, and it is bloody damn fun.

Not a bad idea if you enjoy playing music at around 100 decibels, but in the long run you might freak out.

[yezhanquan]

Punggol/Sengkang, by any chance?

[Xellos-_^]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/...cans.detained/

Iran's state-run media reported that Iranian security forces arrested the three Americans on Friday on charges of illegally entering the country from Iraq's Kurdistan region and that the matter is under investigation.
Friends of the travelers said that the trio have spent time or have lived in Western Europe and the Middle East.
Sandy Close, executive director of the nonprofit Pacific News Service, described Bauer, a photographer whose material occasionally has been posted on her Web site, as a "gifted linguist and photographer with wanderlust for travel and a student of Arab cultures. He's a remarkably talented guy."
On a profile on a travel Web site, Shourd describes herself as a "teacher-activist-writer from California currently based in the Middle East."
Fattal shared his friends' love of travel and learning, and was described as "fiercely intellectual" by his friend, Chris Foraker, who spoke to CNN affiliate KVAL-TV in Eugene, Oregon.

So a couple of freelance journalist just happen to be taking a vacation in iraq and just happen to be hiking near the Iran border and just happen to get lost and cross over into Iranian territory.


I see major contenders for the 2009 Darwin Award.

[Anh_Minh]

Eh. Just doing their jobs. Of spies. (Except for the getting caught part. What were they thinking?)

[Thingle]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

Eh. Just doing their jobs. Of spies. (Except for the getting caught part. What were they thinking?)

Just doing their job. Capturing them. Detaining them, maybe for years.

[SeijiSensei]

Mobile Devices Boost Manga Revenues

“At present, cellphone comics is the only one roaring ahead in sales,” said Shinichi Yoshizawa, director of digital media business development at Kodansha, the largest Japanese publisher of books, manga and magazines.

Publishers would not reveal publicly what percentage of their revenue came from mobile manga, but privately, many said about 10 percent, with mobile sales fast gaining on paper sales. So far, it is unclear whether the mobile sales will make up for lost revenue.

Intriguingly the market for mobile manga is heavily female, with some commentators suggesting young women prefer to read manga with strong sexual content on a phone than carry a paper copy on the train.

“It’s a bit hard commenting publicly on this, but the most popular comics on the mobile are adult-oriented ones for women,” including love stories with sexually explicit content, Mr. Nakabayashi [of the Nomura Research Institute] said. Translation: Women who do not want to be seen reading these titles in public places like the train helped create the market for manga on the cellphone, which accords them privacy in ways that magazines and books do not.

[Shadow Kira01]

South Africa Reports First Swine Flu Death

It seems that the new flu had managed to cross the ocean and spread over to Africa. This could be quite serious as that a vaccine have yet to be made and even if it gets made, the new flu can always mutate itself, not mentioning that the general population of Africa is too poor to purchase the vaccine in the first place.

[yezhanquan]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Mobile Devices Boost Manga Revenues

Intriguingly the market for mobile manga is heavily female, with some commentators suggesting young women prefer to read manga with strong sexual content on a phone than carry a paper copy on the train.

I can see where those ladies are coming from. I'm a guy, and it does take guts for me to buy a Shinjo Mayu title without going red in the face. Imagine what a fujoshi josei manga could do.

[Claies]

Originally Posted by Shadow Kira01

Nothing strange.. The relations between the Jews and the Palestianians had always been poor but now, Israel had made it worse. This is obviously ethnic cleansing...

Since when was Israel a democracy? I don't know about theocracy...

Well... Israel basically grants citizenship to all Jews, or makes it easy for them. It's not as sunshiney when you realize that they're basically just Europeans and Americans.

[yezhanquan]

Originally Posted by Yu Ominae

I salute her, despite some of the shortcomings her administration had in the old days.

Mrs Aquino was thrust into the spotlight upon her husband's death. Some say her greatest legacy is to inspire the toppling of the Marcos regime. Unfortunately, her followers placed too much hope in her. The one thing which she, and every president since, had failed to do was to destroy the nepotism and corruption which Marcos had ushered in and solidified during his reign. But, I don't blame her. I see her as a wife and a mother first, followed by an ex-president.

[TinyRedLeaf]

Originally Posted by yezhanquan

I can see where those ladies are coming from. I'm a guy, and it does take guts for me to buy a Shinjo Mayu title without going red in the face. Imagine what a fujoshi josei manga could do.

One of the more startling things I observed in Japan was how salarymen would openly read pornographic manga or magazines — right in front of other female commuters.

You could either say that Tokyo is a remarkably "open-minded" society, or that Japanese men show an astounding disregard for female sensibilities.

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Mobile Devices Boost Manga Revenues

Intriguingly the market for mobile manga is heavily female, with some commentators suggesting young women prefer to read manga with strong sexual content on a phone than carry a paper copy on the train.

That's a very interesting story from the Gray Lady. It reminds me of what a colleague once told me about a popular tabloid here: People used to treat it like a favourite mistress that they would never want to be caught in public with. Readers apparently used to hide the tabloid behind a copy of the national English broadsheet, The Straits Times, so as to appear "respectable" while enjoying their daily dose of salacious news.

It's also interesting because of the few nuggets of details it reveals about the Japanese manga/anime industry. For example:

If the migration (from manga to mobile) is slow, it is the publishers themselves standing in its way, critics say. Publishers of leading titles like Kodansha, Shueisha and Shogakukan — who are also leading book publishers — have in most cases released content for mobile use that had already been published in magazines and books.

The longtime practice has been to serialise new titles in the weekly or monthly comic magazines first. If they prove popular, they are rolled into a single title. If the momentum continues, they might be turned into TV animation series and into video games.

“They are afraid of destroying the old business model,” said Mr Nakabayashi, of Nomura Research Institute.

That's an issue that happens to be very pertinent to my industry — newspapers — as well. Proprietors are caught between trying to defend an old but failing business model and trying to grow new businesses through emerging technologies.

Another thing I liked was how the article pointed this out:

"Manga strips are placed in sequence on the pages, creating a special visual effect," said Mr Rokuda, a manga professor. "It is one rare medium that allows readers to have a bird's-eye view on several strips and flow back and forth in time. That's lost when each strip is displayed on the screen one by one."

That's a great point that reinforces the need to treat manga differently from anime. Fans who constantly insist on having anime be 100% "faithful" to a manga often fail to realise that what works on paper doesn't necessarily work as well in animation.

[Thingle]

Originally Posted by yezhanquan

But, I don't blame her. I see her as a wife and a mother first, followed by an ex-president.

Yeah, when one approaches national problems like a wife and mother, one's response to a water crisis is to pray for rain.


It's true.


Never liked her. She prayed too much. Where did it land her? During her final years people talked shit about Cory Aquino for calling EDSA 2 (which I consider the right thing to do) a big mistake... No, she is THE big mistake.

[Shadow Kira01]

Ex-U.S. Pres. Clinton in N. Korea to seek release of journalists

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton arrived in Pyongyang on Tuesday to negotiate for the release of two U.S. journalists detained in North Korea.
South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported earlier that Clinton is likely to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

But North Korea appears poised to take advantage of Clinton's visit to launch bilateral negotiations with the United States, rather than using the six-party talks on denuclearizing Pyongyang, on its nuclear program.

This is pretty rare. Former American President Bill Clinton had went to North Korea for the sake of two journalists; usually, this sort of work will only require a diplomat with one or two agent escorts to ensure his/her safety. Perhaps, there are other reasons why Mr. Clinton is over there. It could be related to North Korea's aggressive attitudes, missiles and nuclear threats.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by yezhanquan

I can see where those ladies are coming from. I'm a guy, and it does take guts for me to buy a Shinjo Mayu title without going red in the face. Imagine what a fujoshi josei manga could do.

I wish we have it over here. I will go blind if I don't stop reading To-Loveru over my friend's Iphone.

Originally Posted by Shadow Kira01

Ex-U.S. Pres. Clinton in N. Korea to seek release of journalists

This is pretty rare. Former American President Bill Clinton had went to North Korea for the sake of two journalists; usually, this sort of work will only require a diplomat with one or two agent escorts to ensure his/her safety. Perhaps, there are other reasons why Mr. Clinton is over there. It could be related to North Korea's aggressive attitudes, missiles and nuclear threats.

Eh I have a bad feeling abou this. Clinton is going to be an excellent hostage for a "lift the sanctions or else".

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

I wish we have it over here. I will go blind if I don't stop reading To-Loveru over my friend's Iphone.



Eh I have a bad feeling abou this. Clinton is going to be an excellent hostage for a "lift the sanctions or else".

NK is greedy stupid, taking Clinton hostage would be consider a Act of War.

i really hope you are not serious with some of analysis.