Random News Stories

[Cain]

For everyone touting Switzerland as the ideal for Gun ownership:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21601323

Next: Justifications for keeping Switzerland heavily armed any why central secured armouries are a terrible idea.

You'll note street-based gun crime is extremely rare in Switzerland, as the article itself says.

[Pergamos]

http://rt.com/usa/six-strikes-program-begins-434/

Starting this week, Internet Service Providers will start throttling connection speeds for customers alleged to be pirating copyright-protected materials.

Months after a controversial "six-strike" program was slated to be rolled out by the biggest ISPs in the United States, the Copyright Alert System (CAS) confirmed on Monday that the initiative has gone live.

Absolutely nothing can go wrong with this.

Edit for emphasis. If I provide a service to you and arbitrarily choose to under preform because I suspect you of illegal activity, I help no-one. If you are doing illegal things I'm not stopping you. If you aren't I'm just being a dick.

We need to apply this model to more things.  If the electric company suspects you of powering grow lights for weed they should cut down your maximum electricity, same for the water company and water pressure.  Heck, if you are using your car to smuggle stuff the gas station should be able to water your fuel.

[P3nT4gR4m]

Joburg filth raise the bar again

I always said if the woodentops in this country ever get issued guns, I'll be getting one myself and I'll shoot them on sight, no questions asked. This is why. 

[Cain]

My god, a half-accurate and informative article in Foreign Affairs.

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/138823/peter-andreas/gangsters-paradise

There is no doubt that cross-border crime and illicit trade harm individuals and communities and pose challenges to governments, including the United States. But the panicked discourse and frenzied law enforcement policies that define Washington's current approach are an alarmist overreaction. Pundits and policymakers in the United States have grossly distorted the threat and have neglected to place modern crime in historical perspective.

Contrary to the conventional wisdom, much of today's cross-border crime problem is not new. In fact, states have struggled with this precise challenge for centuries. And far from being a passive victim, the United States has fostered as rich a tradition of illicit trade as any other country in the world. Since its founding, the United States has had an intimate relationship with clandestine commerce, and contraband capitalism was integral to the rise of the U.S. economy.

Recognizing this somewhat awkward truth should help cool down today's overheated debates about the phenomenon and how to respond to it. Americans ought to understand and acknowledge their country's own history of complicity in illicit trade. This is especially true of U.S. policymakers. A better understanding of the historical realities of cross-border crime might even reduce the perverse and counterproductive consequences of government crackdowns and redress the chronic lack of attention to the demand side of illicit trade.

How'd this one slip by the CFR's thought police?

[Junkenstein]

Latest Israel lack of irony:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/03/03/israel_launches_palestinians_only_bus_lines_in_west_bank.html?wpisrc=most_viral

"Obviously, everyone will start screaming 'apartheid' and 'racism' now," one driver told Ynet. "This really doesn't feel right, and maybe [the ministry] should find a different solution, but the situation right now is impossible."

Well yes. Due to the actions looking quite like Apartheid.

[Cain]

Look, just because they have seperate buses, it doesn't imply inequality.  Just because the colored race, er, Palestinians put that construction on it does not make it so.

[Aucoq]

NRA title sponsor for NASCAR Cup race in Texas

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — The National Rifle Association is taking its relationship with racing to a new level as the title sponsor of a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.

The deal with Texas Motor Speedway comes at a time when the NRA is involved in a renewed debate on gun violence in the wake of the December shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

"It's not about politics. It's about sports marketing," TMS president Eddie Gossage said Monday after the announcement of the one-year agreement with the NRA that includes a renewal option.

God I hate this state.

[Junkenstein]

Veracity highly questionable:
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/03/04/south-korea-reportedly-confirms-kim-jong-uns-wife-gives-birth/

Claims of Kim Jong Spawn. Dennis Rodman somehow connected for some odd reason:

Kim Jong Un, who last week hung out with guest and former NBA star Dennis Rodman, has ratcheted up the saber-rattling his father was known for, with multiple tests of nuclear weapons and missiles, as well as the release of several provocative videos depicting the U.S. under attack. Rodman, who went to North Korea with the Harlem Globetrotters and an HBO camera crew, raved about the dictator, who lives in lavish luxury while most of the people in his nation are starving.
On Sunday, Rodman told ABC's George Stephanopoulos that the diminutive dictator who recently threatened Washington with "miserable destruction" wants President Obama to call him.
"He said, 'If you can, Dennis – I don't want [to] do war. I don't want to do war.' He said that to me," Rodman told the network.

[Junkenstein]

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/03/03/national/say-goodbye-to-the-buddha-of-the-yakuza/#.UTXDCDDQjcQ

Takahiko Inoue, yakuza boss and Buddhist priest, died Feb. 10 at age 65. The police determined that he fell from the seventh story of the building where his office was located. When the ambulance arrived, Inoue told the crew: "I'm fine. Just take me to the hospital. I'll walk to the car myself." Those were his last words. There was no protracted investigation.

Those who knew him, in the underworld and in normal society, referred to Inoue as "Hotoke" or "The Buddha." "Hotoke" is also police slang for "the dead." One of his friends sadly joked after his death, "Well, he finally became a real Buddha, after all."

It's not uncommon for a disgraced yakuza boss to seek refuge by becoming a priest after banishment; but it's usually just an exchange of Armani suits for robes and tax-exempt status. Sometimes, the robes double as a sort of bulletproof vest, because even in Japan, it's bad PR to kill a priest. However, bosses who are practicing Buddhist priests? Rare.

[Cain]

Buddhism + Yakuza + Japanese nationalism is, historically, a very nasty mix, though I can't say I know much about Inagawa-kai, except their involvement in the Japanese property bubble in the 1980s.

[Elder Iptuous]

NRA title sponsor for NASCAR Cup race in Texas

God I hate this state.

why is this hate inducing?  i'm slightly surprised that they weren't sponsors already.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/03/03/national/say-goodbye-to-the-buddha-of-the-yakuza/#.UTXDCDDQjcQ

SNIP
Sometimes, the robes double as a sort of bulletproof vest, because even in Japan, it's bad PR to kill a priest. However, bosses who are practicing Buddhist priests? Rare.

wait. WTF is that supposed to mean? 'even in Japan'?

[Junkenstein]

US correspondent living in Japan. I read it as humour due to "the west" having various perceptions of cultural norms in Japan.

I would suggest the more interesting aspect is the unspoken accord between Yakuza and Law enforcement. This guy was given a stamp of approval for having a moral code. This does seem typical of Japan to me, where crime figures and results are highly politicised it would make sense to have guys like this you can reliably go to and know that violent crime will be kept to the lowest level possible.


I really don't know why various crime syndicates and cartels are not recruited in law enforcement more often. The goals seems very similar at times.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Veracity highly questionable:
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/03/04/south-korea-reportedly-confirms-kim-jong-uns-wife-gives-birth/

Claims of Kim Jong Spawn. Dennis Rodman somehow connected for some odd reason:

Kim Jong Un, who last week hung out with guest and former NBA star Dennis Rodman, has ratcheted up the saber-rattling his father was known for, with multiple tests of nuclear weapons and missiles, as well as the release of several provocative videos depicting the U.S. under attack. Rodman, who went to North Korea with the Harlem Globetrotters and an HBO camera crew, raved about the dictator, who lives in lavish luxury while most of the people in his nation are starving.
On Sunday, Rodman told ABC's George Stephanopoulos that the diminutive dictator who recently threatened Washington with "miserable destruction" wants President Obama to call him.
"He said, 'If you can, Dennis – I don't want [to] do war. I don't want to do war.' He said that to me," Rodman told the network.

Dennis Rodman has the highly questionable distinction of having written the worst book I've ever seen in print. I mean, laughably, appallingly terrible.

I don't even know why his editor would let him do that to himself. I have often wondered whether he paid the publisher to take it.

[Junkenstein]

Vanity press is a growing industry. The vast majority of "celeb" auto/biographies are essentially deals with publishers to sell X amount of copies (Bought directly and sold through book tours) with various newspaper, magazine and promotional events tied in. Cross market the shit out of whatever else you happen to be promoting and every brain dead idiot with awful indistinct relatives will lap it up.

If you ever wonder about the publisher being paid to take some awful heap of shit, they probably got paid. A lot.

[Junkenstein]

Not really sure where to put this, but this strikes me as a really good take on DRM.

http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/drm-chair-self-destructs-after-8-sittings

I suspect there may be a whole unexploited field of art taking tech concepts and applying them to reality.