News Stories

[Tom Bombadil]

Checking my computer clock, today is Dec. 22, 2011.

On unrelated things...

Finland impounds shipment of Patriot missiles, explosives in ship destined for Shanghai

上海行きの船から地対空ミサイル６９基…独出航

We caught them! We caught them! We caught them red-handed! Hahaha! The Chinese can't do anything except smuggle and steal! We have the proof!

Missiles listed as "fireworks" on ship manifest

According to Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen, the cargo manifest of the M/S Thor Liberty on which 69 Patriot ground-to-air missiles were found, listed the weapons as "fireworks". She said that documents associated with the containers holding the missiles carried the name of a South Korean individual.

Missile shipment confirmed aboard detained vessel

A cargo vessel detained at Kotka harbour has been found to be carrying a shipment of American-made Patriot missiles. According to information received by YLE, the missile shipment originated in Germany and is destined for South Korea.

There you have it, ladies and gentlemen.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Noctis Lucis

Malaysia already control what greenies consider the intermediate step to renewables: biofuels (or at least the most prominent, palm oil prices).

India outstrips their production ability. Also, their government isn't bright enough to take advantage of that (see 1Malaysia email for details)

Interesting stuff. Do the essay titles change annually?

I meant graded take home assignments. A number of JCs do that.

Tell me when the opposition can fill its side of the chamber.

They already did.

Spoiler for Well, I'm not surprised.:

I mean, this really takes the cake.

Don't be mean. At least she looks cute. Now she needs a pair of cat ears and people will take her home.

Originally Posted by Tom Bombadil

Checking my computer clock, today is Dec. 22, 2011.

On unrelated things...

Finland impounds shipment of Patriot missiles, explosives in ship destined for Shanghai

上海行きの船から地対空ミサイル６９基…独出航

We caught them! We caught them! We caught them red-handed! Hahaha! The Chinese can't do anything except smuggle and steal! We have the proof!

Missiles listed as "fireworks" on ship manifest

Missile shipment confirmed aboard detained vessel

There you have it, ladies and gentlemen.

I wish you are really sarcastic.

Though it looks like a CIA plot to me.

[ganbaru]

Originally Posted by Tom Bombadil

Checking my computer clock, today is Dec. 22, 2011.

On unrelated things...

Finland impounds shipment of Patriot missiles, explosives in ship destined for Shanghai

上海行きの船から地対空ミサイル６９基…独出航

We caught them! We caught them! We caught them red-handed! Hahaha! The Chinese can't do anything except smuggle and steal! We have the proof!

Missiles listed as "fireworks" on ship manifest



Missile shipment confirmed aboard detained vessel


There you have it, ladies and gentlemen.

You are a bit to fast to say than the missiles were for the chinese, no ?

[DonQuigleone]

Originally Posted by Noctis Lucis

Exactly my point. The UK has bigger problems now, and will always have. Today the Eurozone, tomorrow the Falklands. Can't count on them.

Not so, during WW2 it's military resources were stretched to their limit. They were forced to choose between Singapore and Britain, and of course in that case Britain won. They still had 80,000 troops and considerable artillery guns stationed in Singapore. It wasn't called the "Gibraltar of the East" for nothing. Now obviously britain doesn't own singapore anymore, so it would have much less motive to defend it, but in any possible conflict with it's neighbours Britain would not have to deal with problems on their homefront, so could respond with their full power. Would this be enough? I don't know. The Britain of today is not the Britain of the 1930s. Still, Britain could send it's entire fleet.

Originally Posted by Haak

For those of you who actually know about the Eurozone crisis, can anyone tell me how accurate this article is?:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16290598

Can't really say, but the BBC is generally reliable. It's not an academic article of course.

[sneaker]

Originally Posted by Tom Bombadil

Checking my computer clock, today is Dec. 22, 2011.

On unrelated things...

Finland impounds shipment of Patriot missiles, explosives in ship destined for Shanghai

上海行きの船から地対空ミサイル69基…独出航

We caught them! We caught them! We caught them red-handed! Hahaha! The Chinese can't do anything except smuggle and steal! We have the proof!

Missiles listed as "fireworks" on ship manifest



Missile shipment confirmed aboard detained vessel


There you have it, ladies and gentlemen.

German customs has said that the German Federal Office for Defense Technology and Procurement was the exporter, so this was likely an official shipment from Germany to South Korea. South Korea buying used Bundeswehr equipment is not that unusual, I heard. Though that does not yet explain why the cargo was declared "fireworks". Let's see what will come out of this.

[ganbaru]

The easiest ( and more stupid) way to explain the ''fireworks'' would be a stupid translation ,if the inscription are in english.

[Tom Bombadil]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

You are a bit to fast to say than the missiles were for the chinese, no ?

So where are the weapons going to?

The NYT says:

At this point, he said, it had not been determined “if the Thor Liberty planned a drop before its port of destination in China.”

Are the weapons legal? The article ends with

“Of course, there are legal transports of weapons or defense material, but in this case the cargo was marked as containing fireworks,” Ms. Rasanen told the national broadcaster YLE TV. “That is quite unusual.”

But of course, of course it was I who made the jump to conclusion. Besides, I fully expect that very soon that the respectable papers like NYT or Yomiuri will publish a front page news like "We had incomplete info, the missiles are actually for South Korea". News of weapons sales from one US ally to another sells very well, and people who read the above story will be delighted that they found the truth.

Originally Posted by ganbaru

The easiest ( and more stupid) way to explain the ''fireworks'' would be a stupid translation ,if the inscription are in english.

In a sense, they are fireworks. Quite larges ones, in fact.

[killer3000ad]

Lesbian sailor shares first kiss at USN ship's return

[Kamui4356]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Though it looks like a CIA plot to me.

What possible reason would the CIA have to do something like that? Most likely it's a poor choice in shipping methods for missiles to South Korea, with Chinese agents fraudulently diverting a shipment as the second most likely possibility.

[Tom Bombadil]

Well, it seems that I am on a roll today.


Army Charges 8 in Wake of Death of a Fellow G.I.

One night in October, an Army private named Danny Chen apparently angered his fellow soldiers by forgetting to turn off the water heater after taking a shower at his outpost in Afghanistan, his family said.

In the relatives’ account, the soldiers pulled Private Chen out of bed and dragged him across the floor; they forced him to crawl on the ground while they pelted him with rocks and taunted him with ethnic slurs. Finally, the family said, they ordered him to do pull-ups with a mouthful of water — while forbidding him from spitting it out.

An isolated incident. Most people were quite friendly in my University, and there were lots of foreign students.

However, China bashing is certainly in fashion in certain circles, and all you need to do is to look back a pages or two in this thread. The extreme cases produce such tragic results. RIP.

[GundamFan0083]

Dozens die as 14 bombs explode across Baghdad


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45762201...east_n_africa/

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Kamui4356

What possible reason would the CIA have to do something like that? Most likely it's a poor choice in shipping methods for missiles to South Korea, with Chinese agents fraudulently diverting a shipment as the second most likely possibility.

Frame China? WSJ stoked a fire with the accusation of China hacking the Chamber of Commerce. This is the second bash....there will probably a thrid to start another Red Scare.

[MrTerrorist]

[Kamui4356]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Frame China? WSJ stoked a fire with the accusation of China hacking the Chamber of Commerce. This is the second bash....there will probably a thrid to start another Red Scare.

China doesn't need to be framed for trying to acquire foreign military technology. Just ask Sukhoi about that.

[Mentar]

Originally Posted by Noctis Lucis

As usual from the BBC, somewhat skimpy on details but very accurate.

Mostly accurate, yes. What's kind of silly (but very popular in anti-Euro circles) is the "and then Germany became an export powerhouse" nonsense - as if this was the mere result of the Euro. It wasn't. Germany was an export powerhouse before, too. It only had to carry alot of the financial burdens in getting the former East Germany up to snuff.

It was Germany who profited from the Euro (the Deutschmark was getting really large and affected exports negatively) and the south were able, for once, to compete with China+India, and to afford German goods.

The Euro in itself was merely a stable currency, up to this very date, offering a level playing field. Germany simply worked harder and didn't let wages get out of control. This is where the diagrams were misleading, and the claim that the German unions held the wages "steady" is flat-out wrong. However, the gains in wages were modest, and usually close to the inflation rate, while they ballooned in other countries.

Now that the Euro's in the doldrums due to this conundrum, Germany should do something about it, rather than pulling in the non-Euro 10 EU members (UK, Sweden, Denmark, etc.) - Germany gained from the Euro, so it should also fix the mess.

Germany was _forced_ into the Euro as a demand for France's support for the German reunification. Former German chancellor Kohl said that it was too early, since the political integration wasn't far enough, but the Deutschmark had to be sacrificed for it.

This "Germany broke it, they should pay for it" bullsh*t is seriously getting on my nerves. The rules were clear, and Germany abided by it. I refuse to apologize for being successful here. The European debt mess was caused by the American housing and "subprime loan" bubble caused by the fed's completely irresponsible "provide liquidity for free" policy paired with the disastrous lack of regulation resulting in a total meltdown of the financial sector world wide. It forced several European countries to "nationalize" otherwise bankrupt banks, and THIS is what sent the cart into the ditch. Ireland was completely peachy before the crap hit the fan. Spain was fine before the crap hit the fan. And now they have critical debt levels because of it.

If you have to blame Germany to be happy, do it for our reluctance to allow the easy US way out: Printing money. Oh, excuse me, that's called "quantitative easing". Guess what, we STILL think that money should be EARNED before it's spent, at least a little bit. If we had said "screw it, let the ECB buy government bonds ad infinitum" (illegal! but advocated by 90% of the same "experts" who caused the financial meltdown in the first place), we possibly wouldn't have that much problems now. But then, economy would be meaningless, and it would result in even bigger problems down the road. Want to see which? Let's see how the US is dealing with their 1-trillion-per-year deficit. It's the same.

In fact, it can. Call off the Euro.

Solves no problem at all.

It's not something workable in the long run since the Catholic South have very different industries (tourism, service) compared to the Protestant North (manufacturing). Thus what's good for the North is ultimately harmful to the South & v.v.

Incredible, how popular this nonsense has become. So the "south" is supposed to compensate for a lack of competitiveness by continuously devaluing their own currencies, because they're "weaker"? THAT is supposed to be the solution? *lol*

Just for your information: In Germany, the catholic south is the economically strong part. The protestant northeast is economically weaker. Where does this leave your funny ideas?

No. Effectively it's going to be a form of transfer payments. Like we already have, for agricultural subsidies from the EU, etc.

Actually, Germany can just create two currencies - one for the North and one for the South. The South would then work to join the fiscal status of the North at their own pace.

Lord in heavens. I think you're actually serious.

Of course not. The German budget will have stronger and weaker contributors. As I said, "transfer payments" - it's called "Länderfinanzausgleich" in Germany. Richer states pay money to the poorer ones. Eventually it will be like that for Europe, too.

Multiple currencies are bad because of the overhead they incur. It would be STUPID to go for this solution. Better to address the underlying problem.

[sneaker]

Originally Posted by Mentar

Mostly accurate, yes. What's kind of silly (but very popular in anti-Euro circles) is the "and then Germany became an export powerhouse" nonsense - as if this was the mere result of the Euro. It wasn't. Germany was an export powerhouse before, too.

^ This.

The share of German exports going into the Euro zone in Germany's total exports has even been decreasing since the implementation of the Euro. It did not profit more than others. It is not Germany's fault that no one wants to lend Greece and the other southern countries any more money, but we are dragged down by it nonetheless. Germany is in no way more obligated to pay Greece's bills than say, the UK, the US or China. Be happy that it has given in to France's and the PIIGS's pressure to do so and that it can simply be overruled in the ECB.

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Mentar

The rules were clear, and Germany abided by it.

Hm, no. Almost nobody did, Germany included.

(Though I agree with you on the rest, especially the causes of the crisis.)

Originally Posted by sneaker

^ This.

The share of German exports going into the Euro zone in Germany's total exports has even been decreasing since the implementation of the Euro. It did not profit more than others. It is not Germany's fault that no one wants to lend Greece and the other southern countries any more money, but we are dragged down by it nonetheless. Germany is in no way more obligated to pay Greece's bills than say, the UK, the US or China. Be happy that it has given in to France's and the PIIGS's pressure to do so and that it can simply be overruled in the ECB.

Obligated? No. They're doing it for the same reason governments do anything: because they think it's in their interest. Right now, it means preserving the hope of a stable, prosperous EU. It also means paying through the nose for it.

[sneaker]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

Obligated? No. They're doing it for the same reason governments do anything: because they think it's in their interest. Right now, it means preserving the hope of a stable, prosperous EU. It also means paying through the nose for it.

You should consider a career in politics. A prosperous neighborhood is my interests, thus it's in my interest to pay my neighbor's bills.

Though you are correct: no one points a gun at Merkel, forcing her to sign the treaties. But the ECB measures (just a few days ago they pumped another 500 billion Euro into the market) can't be stopped by Germany, as it doesn't have any veto.

[Jinto]

Originally Posted by sneaker

German customs has said that the German Federal Office for Defense Technology and Procurement was the exporter, so this was likely an official shipment from Germany to South Korea. South Korea buying used Bundeswehr equipment is not that unusual, I heard. Though that does not yet explain why the cargo was declared "fireworks". Let's see what will come out of this.

Well, ground to air missile... its basically fireworks.

Originally Posted by Tom Bombadil

...
In a sense, they are fireworks. Quite larges ones, in fact.

Indeed. Still, the visual effects will be rather weak.

[Ithekro]

Entertained the Israelis during the First Gulf War.