Current Events Thread

Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

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Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

Check out here.

This is pretty important too.
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Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

See, I really do see investigative journalism as something that's on the way out. I'm aware there's an audience now, but even you've shown that the audience is dwindling. The result of that is the rise of much of what you've pointed out, and that's a culture problem as much as it is an economic issue for journalistic firms. I'm simply hoping that the new "everyone's a journalist" mantra isn't taken too seriously by journalists, because good investigative reporting is more than just putting up a shocking video on Youtube.
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Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

What would potentially be amusing is if the whole movement was turned on its head by the democratic party attempting to decrease personal income tax while increasing corporate income tax proportionally.
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Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

Anyone ever been to this site?

I rather like it.
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Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

Haven't watched the "news" for some time now. Don't even have a television. Am I really missing anything?

We already know that the constant misinformation that flows out from these organizations is intentional, and that everyone here knows that. Is there much point to reproving that fact over and over again? Seems like a tedious exercise to me.
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Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

I think America had machinations towards being an empire in the 1900s, up until roughly World War 1, but that's not really what they are now (well, arguably they are an empire in that Manifest Destiny provided them ample space to rape and pillage, extending and stopping at Hawaii in the late 1890s). They still have machinations towards it and are playing the part of retarded "peacekeeper" to protect their oil assets, but that's really about it in the modern day. America is more a lumbering ghoul than an efficient, murderous expander (they'll still murder you if they catch you in their back yard, but they're increasingly poor at catching people).
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Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

Since psiga won't post cool stuff, I will!

http://singularityhub.com/

Take that! HiyaaaaaAAaaaaAAAA!
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Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

If Slate's coverage of the whole debacle is to be believed, it's about the wealth of the rich is 5% higher than it was during the Great Depression.

http://www.slate.com/id/2266025/entry/2266512/

Really great series in general.
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Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

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Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

psiga, theoretical question, and I dunno if it's even fair to ask you this question. How much would it cost to retrofit cars with electrical engines?
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Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

Seoul incident via Reuters.
Via HP - has some pictures.
I certainly hope this doesn't turn out to be anything. Have a lot of friends in Seoul.
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Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2010/12/13/tokyo-anime-manga-ban-passes/

So... hmmmmmm....

My only question is, will this affect Catherine?
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Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

That's pretty crazy. I wonder how people put up with all the ads that are constantly thrown at them. I have to think that maybe there's just some other ad-blocking software that's advertised better.
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Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

Monopoly!
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Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

I love how the BBC treats these people with the same level of respect that animals get on Nature specials.
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Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

You'd probably be better off reading Chomsky's stuff on the five filters of news. Manufacturing Consent isn't bad, but it has a sort of meandering, half-on direction to it. This may be because Chomsky contributed so much to the field that attempting to report on all of it just quickly became a fruitless endeavor in editing, but I'm unsure.
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Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12344959
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Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/05/egypt-ruling-party-leader_n_819084.html
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Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

http://www.slate.com/id/2284346/

Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

Yeah, I think that refusing to be critical is what's most dangerous about modern institutions. At the same time, these institutions still create some really impressive stuff, so I have a hard time reconciling the two. Isn't there a necessary amount of indoctrination, for basic systems construction to exist though? I mean, when I think of being uncritical, it's more that I see all the things I could be critical of, yet cannot think of a way to do things in a manner that would provide for better construction. I could be very critical of Javascript or C++ and how it forces a certain mode of thinking, but to do so I would first have to have intricate knowledge of both the languages, plus enough "respect" in the programming trade to actually get a point across that someone may listen to. There are systems upon systems that are stacked on top of each other, and I feel that there's a complex value to some definition of indoctrination, and how it doesn't necessarily squash everything within its conceived ordering (and the orderings are always conceptual, programming has greatly changed over even the past few years--machine learning being a big part of that).
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Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

"The fighting has intensified and the tanks are shelling everything on their way. They have shelled houses. Now they are shelling a mosque where hundreds of people are hiding,"
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Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

Mass prayers in Libya
http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/
Giant earthquake followed by tsunami in Japan
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12307698
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Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

It went away at some point?
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Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

If I had to say what the problem of the world is today, it's actually that our lives are now brutal and long, instead of brutal and short. I'm a bit too tired to go on a spiel about this, but I'll qualify this later with more exposition.
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Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

http://www.hermangroup.com/alert/archive_4-13-2011.html

Article about videogame violence affecting children's ability to develop empathy and sympathy. Not sure what the slant of this article is (i.e. I have no idea who The Herman Group is), nor of the biases of Edward Vieira, the researcher who did the survey.
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Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

Also not sure how that's news.
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Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

Congress Wants To Make Streaming Any IP (Intellectual Property) Without License A Felony.
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Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

Strictly speaking, they can't. They could probably sue most anyone on the internet if such a law were to pass though.

More to the point, the law is far too broad, it covers too many things with vagaries in wording that could apply to almost anything, and as a result would almost definitely be thrown out in any court. Even so, big media lobbies love these types of laws, primarily because they can be twisted due to their vague nature.
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