There is lots of news everyday, all over the world, affecting many people. In some cases, news in one country will spill over to another, especially in terms of war, natural disasters and celebrities getting married/divorced/drunk.

To try and cover all of this, I hope that people will discuss the news within this thread to save clutter and to help those who may know little about a story find out more. If it is likely a story will lead to great debate, a debate topic may be a better idea, otherwise post what you think and know here so we may all know about the news from around the world.

Won't you feel so much better for that?

Silly stories may still go into the 'Crazy News' thread

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7032971.stm
Anyone got anyother news on this?

I heard about that this morning, all I knew at the time was that the gunman had reportedly been in a fight with his girlfriend, its horrific how insane people can go. Was the gun his own or given to him as part of being a part-time Sherriff?

Yesterday afternoon there's a tornado across the Bay (between San Francisco and Oakland) on rainy days...believe me.

Finnish School Shooting

Sod a Death Note, this natural selector prefers a gun and youtube.

I have a 14 year old sister who fails to see how people who post these kinds of comments are dangerous. She reluctantly agrees to ban them from her myspace friends lists and delete their inappropriate comments when I send her messages, but this kind of stuff worries me. I've explained the dangers many times and always send her these stories. It's a very scary world out there and there are just so many people who post those kinds of comments.

I suppose in many cases it is just people showing off, thinking they will win approval by sounding dangerous...I'm sure anyone who read the comments really didn't believe he was actually about to go kill people.

However it does highlight that while in most cases its an idiot, in rare cases it is a real pyscho

As usual, this tragedy has sparked the classic debate on TV where they blame these incidents on guns, video-games and the internet.

And in stead of trying to find out what drives a young man to such heinous actions, many politicians tries to ban everything they perceive to be harmful. It's always easier to find a scapegoat than to actually take a good hard look at ourselves and the society we live in.

Between the fanatic "Let's ban everything!" zealots and the people using these incidents to push their political own agendas, it's hard to find sensible individuals out there.

I agree with you, Rhynd. They've already created all of the rating systems and banned more than enough things in my opinion. They need to refocus their efforts.

I feel that it couldn't hurt for them to increase the education for parents and younger children about computers/internet safety. In the case of my sister she had her computer and was online a couple of years by the time they talked to her about the dangers of internet stalkers and the like at school. Our mother has never been on a computer and was under the assumption that since my sister is home, safe within the house, there was nothing to worry about. It wasn't until the phone bill had calls to Hawaii, California, and all over the country that the beacon lit up that there might be a problem.

Also, a lot of people look online to post how they feel and to escape real life problems. Sometimes someone will listen and help that person calm down, but there are others out there who would encourage the person to lash out. There are all kinds of telephone support systems set up that will counsel and listen for free and would be a safe source to call - I wonder if it might help to have some kind of internet based service that would do the same? If there already is something set up, it should be made a household name.

I heard a quote going with that theme today. "There is so much comedy on T.V. today why isn't there comedy on the streets?" (or something along the lines of that) "Making fun of There is so much violence on T.V. today and it causes violence on the streets." ( )

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7161590.stm
This isn't going to be pretty.

Bloody hell.

I never even heard of the woman up until today.

But indeed. We're/they're screwed.

~ 2010 Winter Olympics!! ~

Since we don't have "Sport" forum, anyone who would like to discuss about or post any comments on any of the events in 2010 Winter Olympics (begins Friday, Feb. 12, 2010, and concludes Sunday, Feb. 28, 2010) please post on this thread, and depending on the amount of posts (if any ^^) we may/may not find other venue, so to speak, such as opening a new thread dedicated for the topic, etc.


To start, sadly, the game already had a deathly accident, as a Luge competitor from Georgia flew off the Luge track and died today during the training run. You can read more about this accident here. Hope the rest of the competitions would go accident-free.


===================
(Merged posts)


ETA: Feb. 28, 2010 8.8 Earthquake in Chile, and possible Tsunami

There was an 8.8 earthquake in Chile this morning (U.S. time.) and Tsunami is expected to hit Hawaii & other islands & Australia, Eastern Asian countries, American West coast, & Alaska, etc., etc. sometime today, to a varying degree, from less than an inch to a couple of feet and above in some parts of Hawaii. If you are in the affected area, please take precautions.

<Double posting for justice... the posts will be merged later>

~ The 19th FIFA World Cup!! ~

With the ending of the FMA manga series/upcoming ending of FMA:Brotherhood series, I forgot this completely Xp but yes, the 19th FIFA World Cup is on (June 11–July 11, 2010) and since we don't have "Sport" section anywhere (we are considering opening some thread/section for sport, but it has been set aside, so... for now..) Temporarily assigning this thread for FIFA discussions (if any ^^)

England are playing right now. They were over confident against the USA and didn't shine. In the current game against Algeria they look as if they really aren't interested in playing and that a win should be handed to them on a plate. It is disappointing.

Some teams however have really surprised people this year.

I would just like to mention that the U.S. should of won against Slovenia. What a terrible unexplained call by the refs. Bah...

The ref who made that call may get removed from the rest of games.
I hope so.

USA! USA! USA!

Now that I got that out of my system, congrats to Germany, Ghana and England for moving on yesterday - alongside Team USA.

As for today... New Zealand, tough break but you guys played great and with heart. Hopefully next time well see you guys again. Slovakia, awesome game, especially since you knocked out ITALY. Good luck to you guys and Paraguay in the next round!

First France, now Italy...wonder which 'giant' will fall next.

I heared that the France team was sent back home in economy class as punishment for getting knocked out. Ahh, that's hilarious.

The World Cup is epic xD

Japan was hit by the biggest earthquake in Japan's recorded history (8th largest in the world's recorded history).
After-shocks are still coming (just hit by another one with 6.8 scale.) Also, the quake has generated Tsunami that killed many as well.

See some news on this: on BBC, on Yahoo News.


My thoughts go out to people in Japan, and everyone affected by this.

I heard about this a few hours ago; it still seems so surreal. I could never imagine what they're going through. They're a strong nation, so I hope they'll be able to draw on this during this terrible time. My heart and thoughts are with the whole of Japan.

I know I've said this a few times, but I can't keep them out of my thoughts.


ETA: March 13
Regarding Arakawa-sesnsei and her family in Japan: I took a look at Amber1003's journal again; I know there were a heck of a lot of people worrying about her. It says that someone asked a Square Enix executive on Twitter if Arakawa is safe, and he clearly answers that she is. And I agree with the above, she must be worrying about her family. As I say, my thoughts go out to her and her family --it surely must be painful for the country as a whole regardless of whether they were directly affected or not.

I'm also glad to hear that amber1003 and her family are safe.




..

Regarding Arakawa-sensei and her family, we know from Twitter that Arakawa-sensei (who was presumably in Tokyo area) is safe.

As for her family in Hokkaido, according to Arakawa-sensei's semi-biographic (kind of ^^) manga book "百姓貴族," her family is a dairy & potato farmer in Tokachi in Hokkaigo island in Northern part of Japan. I don't know how far inland her family's farm is. I hope it's not anywhere close to Tokachi harbor where they possibly had damage from Tsuname (scanning around the Japan news, but can't confirm this yet).

Here is map: Red star marks the epi-center of March 2011 earthquake, and I marked Tokachi in Blue letters.

I do hope Arakawa sensei and her family rreally are ok, my thoughts are with them. (i think i wrote that sentence right)

Some people around me actually make jokes about this disaster... Maybe it's just because I feel more connected with Japan and its inhabitants that I can't understand how they are able to laugh with something terrible as this. They say that they don't know and therefore don't care about these people... Complete lack of emathy if you ask me!
I sincerely hope that those nuclear power plants don't do something stupid :s
And I'm happy to hear that at least Arakawa-sensei and - hopefully - her family are okay!

In all honestly I think it doesn't matter if you feel more connected to the country, everyone I know has been blown away and heartbroken by what's happened in Japan, regardless of whether they know anything about the country.

After everything that's happened, I sincerely hope that Japan doesn't suffer a nuclear disaster. At the moment it doesn't look promising, and I hope everyone there is able to stay as safe as they can.

(This is the first time I've been back in a while actually, I was curious to know if there was a special dedicated thread to it).

While some of the comments are certainly hateful and downright bigoted, this article/blog poses a great question: Why is there no looting in Japan?

Japan's solidarity in a time of such crisis is astounding, and I think we have a lot to learn from it.

I'm not at all trying to say that I think the rest of the world is severely lacking--from what I can see, most of the time, people certainly have a tendency to come together after a disaster, but disasters can also bring out he worst in people, and while I'm sure it's sensationalized in the media, it's still a problem when it people take advantage of a disaster.

ATTENTION ALL MEMBERS: Please go to this thread and if you'd like to participate, you may! I am currently going to start a project to send letters in a book to the Japanese Embassy addressed to Ichiro Fujisaki with letters from everyone with their thoughts and feelings about the tragedy that occurred in Japan.

^ Thank you so much, ScraMySoul for organizing this!

Everyone, please join us in sending our letters with caring words to people in Japan (to the Japanese Ambassador in US).


And, my two cents/yen on this topic:

QUOTE (jacksparrow589 @ Mar 15 2011, 02:22 PM)

While some of the comments are certainly hateful and downright bigoted, this article/blog poses a great question: Why is there no looting in Japan?

I'm not surprised at all on this, as I think that's how they are supposed to behave in time of crises like this.

Historically, Japan is a nation with tiny amount of land with large population with not much other natural resources, so, I think, maintaining the social order is very important to them, and even more so in time of crisis. Hence, I think it's deeply rooted in their culture that in time of a huge crises like this one, many of them seem to automatically go into "major social crises" mode in which they think "what's best for the whole" alongside "what's best for me" and often put the emphasis on "what's best for the whole," or suppress own needs to a degree, to the benefit of the good for the whole ... you know, like Mr. Spock in Star Trek.

Additionally, I think, making a social disruption is often frowned upon as a "bad behavior" in Japan, even in normal times, and doing so in crisis time is even worse and very much looked down. ...In time of crisis, if you can help, help any way you can, and if you don't have any skills to contribute, then the next best thing to do is stay out of their way and try NOT to disrupt... like that. ^^

...incidentally, every individual acting in good and cooperative behavior actually (supposedly) benefits them, as, this way works most economically and efficiently for "the whole", and in turn, benefits all of them, as the more cooperative the public is, then less efforts they need for the public control and hence they can divert more of available resources for other much needed efforts such as searching for survivors, and securing essential items for everyone, etc. ...hence it goes back to "disruption is bad" social culture, and so it goes in the [good] circle. And, Japanese people, be it from the tradition, culture, or whatnot, seem to know this, not necessarily in "academic" terms but more of "instinctively" and behave upon it.

But, that's not to say no people would take advantage of crisis and behave bad in Japan; I'm sure there are some looting and other bad behaviors going on there as well, but I'm not surprised to see many of them behaving calm and orderly in this crisis there.

(There are other cultural cause for this also and actually one can write a whole thesis on this, but this is just some of the reasons that just came to my mind. ^^ )


ETA: Some follow-up info that reinforces this view:
........................ ↓ ↓
Honest Japanese return $78million in cash found in earthquake rubble

QUOTE

...
Japanese citizens have shown incredible honesty in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami that brought the country to its knees. The Japanese Police reported yesterday that the Japanese returned almost $78million in cash found in the quake rubble.

In the five months since the disaster struck, people have turned in thousands of wallets and purses found in the debris, containing nearly $30 million in cash.



(Amidst the rubble: Police officers in protective suits searching for victims after the tsunami hit Fukushima Prefecture in Minamisoma City in March)


More than 5,700 safes that washed ashore along the coastline have also been hauled to police stations by volunteers and rescue crews.

Inside the safes officials found about $30million in cash. In one safe alone, there was the equivalent of $1,000,000.

Other contained gold bars, antiques and other valuables.

Japan’s National Police Agency said nearly all the money found in the areas worst hit by the tsunami has been returned to its owners.

Most people kept bankbooks or land rights documents with their names and addresses in their safes.

At one point, there were so many safes handed in to police that they had difficulty finding room to store them.

Even now, Koetsu Saiki, of the Miyagi Prefectural Police, said a handful of safes are handed in every week.
Tsunami victims: This was one of the hundreds of shelters in Sendai, Japan, were those who lost their homes took shelter in March



(Tsunami victims: This was one of the hundreds of shelters in Sendai, Japan, were those who lost their homes took shelter in March)


It is not unusual for the Japanese to keep large amounts of money at home and at offices, particularly in the coastal regions where fisheries companies prefer to deal with cash transactions.

From early April to late July, Ofunato Police Station hired three safe specialists to help open the safes it had recovered.

‘In most cases, the keyholes on these safes were filled with mud," said Mr Saiki.

‘We had to start by cutting apart the metal doors with grinders and other tools.

‘The fact that these safes were washed away, meant the homes were washed away too.

'We had to first determine if the owners were alive, then find where they had evacuated to.’

‘There must be some safes that were stolen after the quake.

'But the fact that a hefty 2.3 billion yen in cash has been returned to its owners shows the high level of ethical awareness in the Japanese people,’ said Ryuji Ito, professor emeritus at Yokohama City University.
...

(Source:DailyMail)

It already is a nuclear disaster, actually. But, fortunatelly, it'll be hard to turn into something worse than it already is. The nuclear technology nowadays is a lot better, so it won't become like a 2nd Chernobyl or something, thank god. Not that's not a big deal, but it's also not something we should panic about.
The good thing is that, since the Japanese are a very cautious people, they are taking all measures to avoid any bigger problems, but, in the other hand, since they have a history with nuclear contamination, they're also very sensitive on the matter and tend to have worse reactions to the possibility of it.


And I'll write my letter as soon as possible... thank you for organizing and giving the opportunity to send our sentiments to Japan. ^^

Also to touch on what Tombow said in regards to the looting, you have to think, there's nothing really left to loot, Tokyo wasn't really affected that much to cause looting, but Sendai, there's NOTHING left... but I too agree with the aspect of culture... they're very respectable people and take that to a whole new level compared to most.

This whole thing in Japan is so depressing. I've been kind of messed up about it ever since it happened(my sleep pattern is so messed up since I've basically been on Japan time even though I live in Canada since I'm constantly following the news which seems to come out more when people in Japan are up during their daylight hours).

The reason is that my sister is over there. She works there(she's been there since August, only came home briefly for Christmas) and she's in Sendai which was hit really bad.

We heard from her a few hours after the disaster and have been in contact with her every so often but even though she survived the earthquake and tsunami we haven't been able to feel calm about her yet because of this whole nuclear thing going on now.

If people are worried about radiation getting to Tokyo...well Sendai is quite a bit closer to the nuclear plant than Tokyo is.

Also it's very hard to leave Sendai because their airport got totally messed up by the tsunami and a large area of that whole city is just in ruins and people being rescued still and stuff. The trains aren't running either and a lot of the roads are messed up. There is apparently only one bus that leaves the city right now and the line up for it is DAYS LONG. And my sister doesn't want to stay outside(risking radiation exposure further) waiting days for the bus. She also is really unsure about leaving because she of course doesn't want to leave her friends and co-workers. She has a job and doesn't just want to leave it unless she really has to.

One of her friends is in the hospital right now too.

It's all very sad.

I'm surprised by how calm my sister is about all of this. She's not Japanese and yet she is really just as calm and collected about the situation as they are.

She is the only sibling that I have.

EDIT:

@ ScarMySoul :

Actually there is stuff left in Sendai. The majority of what they show on TV are the destroyed areas....which was the section of the city near the ocean. Further into the city, there is quite a bit that the tsunami didn't reach(and most buildings withstood the earthquake). My sister was at school with her students when it hit and cabinets and everything flew around and went crazy but the building itself stood and the tsunami didn't reach them. That's why she survived. Her apartment was also far enough inland that it survived.

It's not over yet though, considering this nuclear drama. Sendai isn't exceedingly further away than the evacuation zone they have already extended around the nuclear plant and it's just getting really scary. They have already been through so much in that city.

My sister stood in line with a friend for 6 hours to get food and water. It's very hard to get that stuff there.

<Double posting with justice. This post will be merged later>

This probably has no major world-wide impact or anything of that sort, but any way...

R.I.P Detective Columbo (Hope the link works. ^^)

@Tombow Don't worry, the link works.

I read about this earlier, it's so depressing...

May he Rest in Peace.

Steve Jobs of Apple died. He was 56 years old.
The world lost a visionary today.
RIP Steve Jobs.