The "News" thread.

[Geo]

And she's right on all 3 accounts- the sharpshooters have been proven to be a third party now.


Also, on a side note the Crimean Attorney General is drop dead gorgeous...   

So, Berkut officers allow snipers to take position among them and shoot people just like that? Of course, the sniper I saw on the news was dressed like a Berkut.

Japanese manga fans share your opinion on this Natalia character.
Btw, can't view this vid ln my tablet. Who is she and where is she supposed to do what?

[JarlWolf]

Natalia is the Crimean Attorney General of the new Crimean government.

And BUncle- You also need to not let the propaganda fool you as well. I never said Putin was right or anything- but the EU is no innocent here either. If anything they are one of the main antagonists of the former Ukrainian gov't and the tensions within the country.

As for the Sniper controversy, more and more evidence is coming up they were planted by Timoshenko's party, hired hitmen, to create a pretext for making people angrier with Yanukovych's government. The people who lynched the officers as well as the people who shot the protestors require justice to be served on them- that's simply being lawful.

As for the current COUP party, which was chosen by the people in Kiev, not the whole country in a democratic election, is backed by the descendants of the Branden party, infamous SS sympathizers during the Great Patriotic War who had a worse record then many SS regiments...

They are legitimate fascists and that's scary.
What Ukraine needs is an honest election- devoid of any influence from my country or the EU and NATO...

[Buster's Uncle]

I wouldn't bet on that happening at ten-million-to-one-odds in my favor

[Impaler]

I think the best thing for everyone including Ukraine would be for it to be 'finlanized' aka to go back to Neutrality.  That was Ukraine's foreign policy position for most of the 90's until the recent period of rapid swings back and forth between highly pro-western and highly pro-Russian governments began, and none of these governments have been good for Ukraine.

Recent trade deals offered by both sides have effectively been giving Ukraine and ultimate to choose a side, and this needs to stop.  Some kind of special trade-deal needs to be worked out so Ukraine can trade with both sides equally while not being fully in either sides free-trade 'zone/union/alliance'.

As a neutral country Ukraine can play king-maker, always eliciting favors from both the Russians and the West, as soon as it commits to one side, it loses the favors from BOTH.  And frankly that's just where the domestic sentiment seems to be in Ukraine, any attempt to choose one side is going to just piss off way too many people, which is what has been happening under recent governments.  In other post Soviet independent republics we have seen examples of swift movement into the West (Baltic states) and near reunification with Russia (Belarus) when their was a decisive domestic opinion in that direction, that's not the case in Ukraine.

[Impaler]

Also with regard to some of the Rhetoric that's been coming out in the U.S.

We have people simultaneously throwing around the idea that the 'Cold War' is back, AND an insistence that the Ruskes can not be allowed to advance 1 inch and that we should expend all kinds of efforts to thwart them in Ukraine.  This is an absurd juxtaposition, If you truly believe that Putin is a Cold Warrior and the US needs to respond in a Cold War manor then the response is to, DO NOTHING, literally just YAWN.

Because Cold War rules clearly delineate Crimea and all of Ukraine for that matter as Russian sphere-of-influence (even after it massively shrank post 91).  If we as a Nation truly believe we are in an existential fight for the continuation of are very way of life in the face of an alien system and culture that is willing to annihilate us with ICBM's (and the Russians felt exactly the same way in the Cold War).  Then you don't sweat every little move the other side makes, you conserve your resources for the long game.

Making Crimea such a big deal is a sign of weakness, a sign that we don't have the confidence or brains to prioritize and are in some kind of control-freak mindset in which we fear that everything will spiral out of control if just one spinning plate falls.

[Buster's Uncle]

Jarl, the man makes a lot of sense...

[Geo]

Thanks for the viewpoints, Jarl and Impaler.

I accept its in the realm of possibilities the Berkut snipers were plants by Timoshenko's party/affiliates/sympathizers. I for sure share the view that extremists took a run with the Maiden protests.

[JarlWolf]

And my country (nor Putin) is going to try and invade Ukraine BUncle. The ramifications of such a movement would cost the political stability of the entire international community, and years worth of progress my country and the international community as a whole has been making in trying to stabilize after the 1980's corruption (of all world powers, Reagan, Thatcher, Gorbachev were all corrupt and you know it) and concurrent chaos of the 90's.

Crimea was ceded itself to my country because of historical ties: Crimea belonged to Russia at one point, we GIFTED it to Ukraine due to geographical ties and Political ties Kruschev had with Ukraine.

Also, the Tartar relocation isn't one of total forced resettlement, its encouragement of the Tartars to return to their HISTORIC lands. Much how Hebrews have been encouraged to return to Israel...

Of course, there is a whole load of mismanagement with whole process; and that is just the price we pay for being the world's largest nation.

What needs to happen, is close to what Impaler said- Ukraine needs to shift away from both the EU and Russia and it needs to focus on getting a proper election and getting rid of the extremist government in power right now, having right wing fascists in power that want to suck the teats of the EU is not going to be popular with the entirety of Ukraine. Especially when said fascists have BANNED Russian; which is spoken by at least half of the populace....

A moderate needs to take power. Otherwise its just going to continue to be unstable and justice won't be served.

Edit: Timoshenko needs to be tried for war crimes and Yanukovych needs to be dismissed from politics. Both of those men are known scum and a detriment to their country.

[Geo]

Crimea was ceded itself to my country because of historical ties: Crimea belonged to Russia at one point, we GIFTED it to Ukraine due to geographical ties and Political ties Kruschev had with Ukraine.

There was an interesting article here about historic precedences. For instance, there seems to be an old agreement signed between the Tsarist and Ottoman Empires to return Crimea to the Ottomans if it ever became independent, however briefly. And since Turkey is the direct successor of the Empire as is the Russian Federation the second-tier successor of the Tsarist Empire...
Oh well, just give the whole rimram back to the Swedes, who's predecessors, after all, started things in the larger area.

[JarlWolf]

By that context Ukraine should belong to the Polish and Lithuanians then 

[Geo]

 

And Crimea to the Tatars?

[Impaler]

This topic of who the Kiev snipers were smells a bit conspiratorial to me, obviously I don't have anything to refute any scenario or fact offered by a believer of such a event.  Even if we were sure the snipers were not Yanukovych's police/military forces operating under his direct orders their are many possibilities other then a false-flag attack perpetrated by the protesters themselves.

Other possibilities, in most to least likely in my opinion

*  Domestic Pro-Russian militia-men operating with the tacit blessing of Yanukovych, or even completely independently.  Their was and has been a LOT of these folks active in Ukraine and all kinds of governments are getting increasingly comfortable with periodically letting the leash slip to inflict damage or fear on opposition groups while maintaining plausible deniability.

*  Actual Russian military sent by Putin, again possibly with Yanukovych blessing or independently.  Fully independent Russian agents are very unlikely, Yanukovych would have had to accept these people and instruct his own forces to cooperate with them.  The outside forces then might have been more trigger happy then either Putin or Yanukovych desired.

*  CIA agents, obviously they would be locals recruited for this operation ideally ethnic Russians to direct the blame towards Yanukovych, the CIA would be very unlikely to reveal such a plot to the protest leaders as it would add risk with no increase in the chance success, the more shocking the event to the protesters the greater their anger and the greater the chance of toppling Yanukovych.


A protester/Timoshenko false-flag operation strikes me as least likely, they have the most to lose if it is uncovered, their inexperience compared to the above actors means they have the highest chance of failure.  And it is just so much easier for leaders to order that the opposition people get shot in the street then do the same to your own people.  To believe that leaders cynically sacrifice their own people this way is to believe them to be the most cartoonish of villains.  Believing ones opponents to be utter villains who will resort to anything is a very easy mental trap to fall into, it justifies ones own opposition and ego while morally justifying extreme acts against ones opponents 'before they do it first'.  The conspiracy theories around the September 11th attacks here in the U.S. are an excellent example, belief that the whole thing was a CIA plot justified extreme loathing for the Bush administration.  (Don't get me wrong here there were plenty of legit reasons to loath that administration without inventing conspiratorial ones).

Their are also reasons to believe that Yanukovych had some hand in the sniping either through the 'official' story or through some kind of involvement with or approval of the first and second scenario's I outlined.  First off the rapid collapse of his government and his flight from the country.  Flight generally looks guilty all else being equal, but recent Ukrainian history clearly shows that he could NOT expect fair and impartial treatment at the hands of a new government (particularly one with Timoshenko in it), so I tend to discount the actual flight as indicative of guilt.  It is rather the collapse of government that is indicative that his own inner circle thought he did it, they would naturally be the best informed about what was going to happen and the first to know if he had made any kind of denial so the government could have a unified position.  Second Yanukovych had already been using heavy handed tactics and was being urged to 'be tougher' publicly by Putin, regardless of if this was justified (I'm under no illusion thouse protesters were 'non-violent'), it made the sudden escalation being at his order CREDIBLE to everyone in Ukraine.

[gwillybj]

Scientists Say Destructive Solar Blasts Narrowly Missed Earth in 2012
by Laila Kearney
March 19, 2014 9:17pm

(Reuters) - Fierce solar blasts that could have badly damaged electrical grids and disabled satellites in space narrowly missed Earth in 2012, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.

The bursts would have wreaked havoc on the Earth's magnetic field, matching the severity of the 1859 Carrington event, the largest solar magnetic storm ever reported on the planet. That blast knocked out the telegraph system across the United States, according to University of California, Berkeley research physicist Janet Luhmann.

"Had it hit Earth, it probably would have been like the big one in 1859, but the effect today, with our modern technologies, would have been tremendous," Luhmann said in a statement.

A 2013 study estimated that a solar storm like the Carrington Event could take a $2.6 trillion bite out of the current global economy.

Massive bursts of solar wind and magnetic fields, shot into space on July 23, 2012, would have been aimed directly at Earth if they had happened nine days earlier, Luhmann said.

The bursts from the sun, called coronal mass ejections, carried southward magnetic fields and would have clashed with Earth's northward field, causing a shift in electrical currents that could have caused electrical transformers to burst into flames, Luhmann said. The fields also would have interfered with global positioning system satellites.

The event, detected by NASA's STEREO A spacecraft, is the focus of a paper that was released in the journal Nature Communications on Tuesday by Luhmann, China's State Key Laboratory of Space Weather professor Ying Liu and their colleagues.

Although coronal mass ejections can happen several times a day during the sun's most active 11-year cycle, the blasts are usually small or weak compared to the 2012 and 1859 events, she said.

Luhmann said that by studying images captured by the sun-observing spacecraft, scientists can better understand coronal mass ejections and predict solar magnetic storms in the future.

"We have the opportunity to really look closely at one of these events in all of its glory and look at why in this instance was so extreme," Luhmann said.


This image, captured by the Solar Dynamics Observatory, shows the M5.3 class solar flare that peaked on July 4, 2012, at 5:55 AM EDT and released on July 5, 2012. REUTERS/NASA/SDO/AIA/Helioviewer/Handout

http://news.yahoo.com/scientists-destructive-solar-blasts-narrowly-missed-earth-2012-010944584--sector.html

Now they tell us, nearly two years later.

[gwillybj]

Toilet Tech Fair Tackles Global Sanitation Woes
by Katy Daigle
March 22, 2014 11:14pm

NEW DELHI (AP) — Who would have expected a toilet to one day filter water, charge a cellphone or create charcoal to combat climate change?

These are lofty ambitions beyond what most of the world's 2.5 billion people with no access to modern sanitation would expect. Yet, scientists and toilet innovators around the world say these are exactly the sort of goals needed to improve global public health amid challenges such as poverty, water scarcity and urban growth.

Scientists who accepted the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's challenge to reinvent the toilet showcased their inventions in the Indian capital Saturday. The primary goal: to sanitize waste, use minimal water or electricity, and produce a usable product at low cost.

The World Bank estimates the annual global cost of poor sanitation at $260 billion, including loss of life, missed work, medical bills and other related factors. India alone accounts for $54 billion - more than the entire GDP of Kenya or Costa Rica.

India is by far the worst culprit, with more than 640 million people defecating in the open and producing a stunning 72,000 tons of human waste each day - the equivalent weight of almost 10 Eiffel Towers or 1,800 humpback whales.

Pooping in public is so acceptable that many Indians will do it on sidewalks or in open fields. Gaze out the window of any Indian train and face a line of bare bottoms doing their business on the tracks. Meanwhile, diarrheal diseases kill 700,000 children every year, most of which could have been prevented with better sanitation.

"In the West, such things are a nuisance, but people don't lose their lives," said Christopher Elias, president of global development at the Gates Foundation. "People don't immediately realize the damage done by infections coming from human waste."

India has been encouraging rural communities to build toilets, and last year launched a $1.6 billion program to help. But building sanitation systems in developing countries is not easy. Flush toilets are not always an option. Many poor communities live in water-stressed areas. Others lack links to sewage pipes or treatment plants.

To be successful, scientists said, the designs being exhibited at Saturday's Toilet Fair had to go beyond treating urine and feces as undesirable waste, and recognize them as profit-generating resources for electricity, fertilizer or fuel.

"Traditionally, people have gone into communities and said, 'Let's dig you a pit.' That's seen as condescension, a token that isn't very helpful. After all, who is going to clean that pit?" said M. Sohail, professor of sustainable infrastructure at Loughborough University in the U.K.

The designs are mostly funded by Gates Foundation grants and in various stages of development, though others not created as part of the Gates challenge were also exhibiting on Saturday.

Some toilets collapsed neatly for easy portability into music festivals, disaster zones or illegal slums. One emptied into pits populated by waste-munching cockroaches and worms.

One Washington-based company, Janicki Industries, designed a power plant that could feed off the waste from a small city to produce 150 kilowatts of electricity, enough to power thousands of homes.

The University of the West of England, Bristol, showcased a urine-powered fuel cell to charge cellphones overnight.

Another team from the University of Colorado, Boulder, brought a system concentrating solar power through fiber optic cables to heat waste to about 300 degrees Celsius. Aside from killing pathogens, the process creates a charcoal-like product called biochar useful as cooking fuel or fertilizer.

"At the core are really interesting scientific principles, so translating this into scientific advances that people can relate to is really exciting," said one of the project leaders, Karl Linden, professor of environmental engineering in Boulder. "Biochar is an important subject for scientists at the moment, since it can be used to sequester carbon in the soil for 1,000 years or more."

A team from Beijing Sunnybreeze Technologies Inc. also brought a solar-biochar system, but with the solar panels heating air that will dry sludgy human waste into nuggets that are then heated further under low-oxygen conditions to create biochar.

"We are trying to build a system simple enough to be fixed in the village," technical adviser John Keating said.

One company from the southern Indian state of Kerala was not as concerned with providing toilets as with cleaning them. Toilets are more common in Kerala than they are in much of the country, but no one wants to clean them, said Bincy Baby of Eram Scientific Solutions.

"There is a stigma. The lowest of the low are the ones who clean the toilets," Baby said. Eram's solution is a coin-operated eToilet with an electronic system that triggers an automated, self-cleaning mechanism. With 450 prototypes now looped into sewage systems across India, electrical engineers are lining up for jobs as toilet technicians. "Now, they're proud of their jobs."


In this Friday, March 21, 2014 photo, an exhibitor demonstrates the use of a toilet tap where water is recycled and reused, during Reinvent The Toilet Fair in New Delhi, India. (AP Photo/Tsering Topgyal)


In this Friday, March 21, 2014 photo, an exhibitor displays a Biochar, a charcoal-like product made from human waste, used as cooking fuel or fertilizer, at the Reinvent The Toilet Fair in New Delhi, India.

Scientists who accepted the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s challenge to reinvent the toilet showcased their inventions in the Indian capital Saturday. The primary goal: to sanitize waste, use minimal water or electricity, and produce a usable product at low cost. India is by far the worst culprit, with more than 640 million people defecating in the open and producing a stunning 72,000 tons of human waste each day - the equivalent weight of almost 10 Eiffel Towers or 1,800 humpback whales. (AP Photo/Tsering Topgyal)

http://news.yahoo.com/toilet-tech-fair-tackles-global-sanitation-woes-103212925.html

[gwillybj]

a little light reading

Thousands Make #nomakeupselfie Donation Error
By Dave Lee
Technology reporter, BBC News
24 March 2014 Last updated at 20:06 ET

Many people accidentally enquired about adopting a polar bear

Thousands of pounds donated as part of the "#nomakeupselfie" craze were sent to Unicef instead of Cancer Research UK by mistake, the BBC has learned.

More than £2m has been raised after the craze of taking a self-portrait with no make-up spread virally.

But those texting "DONATE" rather than "BEAT" found their money sent to the wrong charity.

Others accidentally enquired about adopting a polar bear from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

UN agency Unicef told the BBC that so far £18,625 has been identified as being accidentally pledged.

It said it was now working with Cancer Research UK to transfer the funds donated so they can be used as intended.

Mike Flynn, director of individual giving at Unicef UK, said it was a "genuine mix-up".

"Unicef believes this error has occurred due to those interested in donating to the #nomakeupselfie campaign sharing the text keyword 'DONATE' - rather than the keyword 'BEAT' - and the text number 70099, which has then been repeated across social media.

"'DONATE to 70099' is an SMS keyword and shortcode combination that Unicef have sole use of, specifically for any members of the public who contact us and wish to donate to us via SMS."

He added: "Unicef is not responsible for this error however we've been working hard to find a resolution to the situation for those affected.

"We contacted Cancer Research [UK] as soon as we became aware of what was happening. Unicef and Cancer Research [UK] have agreed that these donations will be received in full by Cancer Research [UK].

"We are now working closely with all parties involved to ensure that this doesn't happen again in the future."

Adopting polar bears

The #nomakeupselfie craze has taken social media by storm since flourishing last week. Its origins are unclear, but since going viral the trend has raised more than £2m for Cancer Research UK and other cancer charities.

But it has not been without mishaps for some well-meaning selfie takers.

As well as the Unicef mix-up, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) acknowledged that it too had accidentally received text messages due to the wrong keyword.

Some people's smartphones had autocorrected the word "BEAT" to instead read "BEAR".

"Thank you for choosing an adorable polar bear," the reply from the WWF said. "We will call you today to set up your adoption."

The autocorrect blunder surprised many who took to Twitter to joke about their adoption news.

"Just told Jamie to text 70007 for cancer and he accidentally sent bear," wrote Twitter user @ChrisKirk07. "Now he's got two polar bears."

The WWF said no money was taken from people who had sent the texts.

"Any texts sent to us instead of Cancer Research [UK] would not result in any donations going to help protect polar bears as WWF relies on human operators calling people back to confirm adoptions, so no money would have changed hands," said Kerry Blackstock, WWF's director of fundraising.

"When we realised there was a lot of interest in a campaign we weren't presently running we made sure our automatic text message response let the sender know their text had gone awry.

"We wish Cancer Research UK every success in their campaign and their goals, polar bear selfies are harder to come by, though, as far as we are aware, none wear make up."

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-26723457