In today's news...

[Sinfulwolf]

Re: In today's news...

Yeah, I think that was a dumb move, but... who just starts pushing random buttons? I mean, how dumb are you?

 

[Courage Wolf]

Re: In today's news...

I've been known to push random buttons before, but only when they're small and red, and only in a flailing panic!


But yeah... that's fairly high on the herp derp scale. I miss natural selection, this world obviously needs more large carnivores imho. In other news, river here is about 2 inches from breaking it's banks. Promise to take pictures if i wind up canoing to thhe grocers hahaha.

 

[XSI]

Re: In today's news...

As if they couldn't mess up any more

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Monsanto cucumbers found as (likely) cause of genital baldness and immediately banned in Nova Scotia

Federal Minister of Health Leona Aglukkaq said a Canada-wide recall and ban will be issued within 24 hours

And this comes only days after Japan and South Korea ban US grain imports due to unidentified GM contamination and health risks.

Edit: Source may be satire. I really can't understand the Canadian-ness of it so it may be humour I don't get.
Still stands that US grain imports are banned in Japan and South Korea though

 

[XSI]

Re: In today's news...

Yeah, that last article was satire.

So here's some still unconfirmed but live news on the Istanbul riots

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Riot police started using Agent Orange (orange gas in shells) in Turkey protests, a chemical strictly banned by the U.N.

If this one is true, it means Turkey is using chemical weapons that were deemed a war crime to use on their own civilians. However, the comments seem to claim it's a translation error, and instead it's the cops launching cannisters of other toxins into the crowd. Then there are others who claim it actually is Agent Orange(Actually a liquid and not orange), and posting pictures.
Regardless of what it is, the law enforcement officers are using some form chemical warfare against their own civilians.

I would post more information and details, but I'm going to sleep

Either way, shit's going down in Istanbul.

 

[Caulder]

Re: In today's news...

Figure I should put this up for anyone who gives a damn.

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[dmronny]

Re: In today's news...

It has to be some kind of translation error, simply because it would seem odd that Turkey would use Agent Orange for riot dispersal. Agent Orange, along with the other rainbow herbicides used during Vietnam, are herbicidal defoliants. Very nasty herbicidal defoliants that are indeed banned by the UN. At least so far as I know, I'm pretty sure just about every chemical weapon is banned.

Hey, look at that the report got pulled by CNN just after I read it. Now all it says is that the Turkish police were using an orange colored substance against protesters and that it hasn't been confirmed by any of their correspondents on the ground.

In my personal experience tear gas, or CS gas as we called it in the army, can appear to be an orangish-brownish-yellowish color. Hopefully that's what they're using instead of some unknown chemical weapon.

 

[Sinfulwolf]

Re: In today's news...

I heard that they were using tear gas. Seems the most viable chemical compound to use during riots, and that's not been banned. Fairly effective stuff.

 

[XSI]

Re: In today's news...

Figure I should put this up for anyone who gives a damn.

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Shit, that's some bad luck on his part. I do hope his vision isn't lost because of it, he seemed to have some very good ideas.

In my personal experience tear gas, or CS gas as we called it in the army, can appear to be an orangish-brownish-yellowish color. Hopefully that's what they're using instead of some unknown chemical weapon.

This is likely to be the case, as Agent Orange is not actually orange gas, and reports show orange gas. Someone most likely just messed up translating or didn't know what Agent Orange was.
There were also pictures available of cannisters with "CS" marked on them with Turkish writing, so you are probably right.

In related news, however, there have been several casualties already and reports of cops using live ammo on the protesters(Contested by the state claiming to only use rubber bullets, and saying no casualties), along with firing gas cannisters directly into crowds and packed rooms, as well as nearby apartments.

 

[Mind Flayer]

Re: In today's news...

Just heard not too long ago that they released some of the names of the 9 people that were killed in the storms in Oklahoma on Friday. Storm chasers Tim Samaras, his son Paul Samaras, and a fellow storm chaser Carl Young were all killed while chasing one of the twisters out there. Loved the Storm Chasers show that they were all on, terrible loss. But of course that danger is a part of the job I suppose so the risk was always there and luck just wasn't on their side on this one.

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[dmronny]

Re: In today's news...

Rubber bullets can actually cause fatalities quite easily as can bean bag guns, though it still doesn't happen often. Especially if the police are not being as discriminant as the case seems to be from what I've read. It seems to be a rather harsh riot and an equally harsh crackdown for what apparently started as a protest against tearing down a park. Of course I might be missing something since I haven't been following Turkish politics.

 

[OAMP]

Re: In today's news...

There's a lot of pent up anger as the current Turkish leaders are a bit... idk, dickish? Basically like politicians, but more so than normal, and not very good at hiding it. They also have the world's highest rate of incarcerated journalists, so while not on the level of China, or even some place like Venezuela, they're not exactly the nicest people.

 

[XSI]

Re: In today's news...

The people I talked to about this say it's mostly because the current government there is against free speech and journalistic inquiry, very religion focussed/mandating morality for the people, and at some points plainly corrupt

Local media where I live has had 'Turkey experts' spend 20 minutes saying there's foul anarchists and hooligans trying to destroy the good and just government that has only brought good to the people.

I'm pretty sure one of these views is bullshit.

 

[OAMP]

Re: In today's news...

I'd argue the latter one is BS.

Oh, was that a rhetorical open ended statement?

 

[Scarlet_Periwinkle]

Re: In today's news...

If you don't mind me asking, where are you from XSI? I'm curious because I've been following your news articles and I'm intrigues by your "diffierent" perspective from my news outlets.



.... the above was written while very drunk. I cannot be held responsible for what McClelland Islay may force me to post

 

[XSI]

Re: In today's news...

If you don't mind me asking, where are you from XSI? I'm curious because I've been following your news articles and I'm intrigues by your "diffierent" perspective from my news outlets.



.... the above was written while very drunk. I cannot be held responsible for what McClelland Islay may force me to post

Netherlands in Europe, but physical location doesn't really matter these days since we've got the internet.

One thing I can tell you is that you should always try to find all sides to a story, and to be sceptical of all news. Especially mainstream news. Most mainstream news gets offered pre-packaged news by special interest groups and governments in exchange for the privilege of being the first(Or one of the first) to air the news. Very often, the only things that change in such a story across all news outlets is the wording. Of course such articles are just subtly biased to do what the people who give the articles want to achieve.

And of course they're not above making shit up when it's convenient.

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!

As for some news for today, a few small things. Nothing I could find that was really important.

So here's an educated guess on how much nukes Israel has.

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A 10 year old kid stops home invaders, steals one of their guns

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Monsanto just going "Sorry, we haven't got a clue what we're doing, your guess is as good as ours" on their modified wheat spreading and contamination other US wheat farms(Which earlier led to Japan and South Korea both halting wheat imports from the US)

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And a report on Turkey's government and their crowd control capabilities

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[OAMP]

Re: In today's news...

Eh, try not to take offense at this, it's just that some of the things you post, especially in regards to US news, seem about as likely as the world being flat from the point of view of someone actually living here. I think some of that might be because writers outside of the US are typically used to a parliamentary system and not a presidential one though.

 

[dmronny]

Re: In today's news...

Netherlands in Europe, but physical location doesn't really matter these days since we've got the internet.

As opposed to the Netherlands in Africa. I kid though, sadly there are probably way to many people who don't know their geography very well. I definitely agree with the being skeptical of all news thing. Sadly, if one wanted to really understand what's going on you would have to read a newspaper from every country and group of the world daily and still have to piece things together yourself.

I don't know if it's good or bad but the last estimate I saw on Israel's nuclear capability had them with more nukes than 80. Turkey is also apparently rather bonkers since I've been reading up on them lately. I guess I never noticed how crazy they were because I was distracted by the other middle eastern countries before.

Some of his stuff does seem pretty unlikely from our point of view but as you pointed out there are a lot of governmental differences. On the plus side you get to see an unusual point of view you wouldn't normally get. Plus XSI's not a dick about how he presents things so it's far easier to try to understand where he comes from.

 

[XSI]

Re: In today's news...

As opposed to the Netherlands in Africa. I kid though, sadly there are probably way to many people who don't know their geography very well.

I've actually had someone suggest it was in Asia before. I have no idea how they got to that conclusion

Eh, try not to take offense at this, it's just that some of the things you post, especially in regards to US news, seem about as likely as the world being flat from the point of view of someone actually living here. I think some of that might be because writers outside of the US are typically used to a parliamentary system and not a presidential one though.

None taken, it is true that Europeans have a hard time understanding the US system, but from most of the US people I've talked to, they can't seem to figure it all out either

I just get articles linked to me, and when there's something interesting or important(Generally just interesting, since only very rarely does something important happen) I post it here.
I also try to make sure every post has some sort of news in it, like this(On Syria)

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Syria regains control of strategic Qusayr
State TV says southwest city, which has been under siege for more than two weeks, is now in hands of government forces.

Edit: And here's a classic case of people who should have been kicked out of the country and back to where they came from

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Muslims want separate Muslim state in Oslo

A radical group of Norwegian Muslims warn of a new 22 July or 11th September on Norwegian soil.

 

[dmronny]

Re: In today's news...

Well I guess Asia is better than Antarctica, though not really much better.

That last article has me confused as all hell. They want Norway to create a separate Islamic state in Greenland, but last I checked Greenland was part of Denmark not Norway. Unless I'm missing something from the article in the part of the page that doesn't seem to want to load completely for me.

 

[OAMP]

Re: In today's news...

None taken, it is true that Europeans have a hard time understanding the US system, but from most of the US people I've talked to, they can't seem to figure it all out either

Heh, well I suppose I'm harder than most to please. I'm actually working towards a Political Science degree and am in the honors program, so on some level it's actually kind of my job to know these things that the rest of America is clueless about x.x