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View Full Version : There are more to current events than Iraq and the Democrat/Republican spat


tony mitra
09-13-2007, 04:51 AM
Yeah.

There is a whole world out there. So here are issues that have little to do with Iraq, oil corporations, US presidential election, or the subprime groan (loan). My own list, on issues that makes me think.

1. Russia declares "sex day"
Russia is losing population through migration, falling birth rate and rising healthcare problems since the collapse of the Soviet Empire. So, the Governor of the Ulyanovsk region in Russia is encouraging folks to take a day off today, and have sex. He offers lots of prize money and goods such as Cars and other gadgets to any couple that produce a baby in nine months, on their national day.
Some folks predict that Russia might lose as much as 40 million of its population i another forty years - or a million a year. Russia having the largest landmass among all countries on earth, and having a huge amount of natural resources, manpower is of paramount importance if they are to improve their lot and their economy.

My guess is, some 20 million or more Chinese will move into Russia and become naturalized. They share a long border, and CHina has lots of people. The political danger is if China gets aggressive and decides to slwoly incroach into Russia with their people, rather then let them emmigrate.

Russia could also open its borders to large scale immigration of skilled people, competing with the US, Canada and Australia, all of whom depend a lot on immigration of skilled people from around the world.

2. Indonesia gets hit by strong earthquakes, again.
For two successive days, the archipelago was rocked by high earth quakes, sending fear of a tsunami which did not materialize. Last time that happened, over 200,000 people perished in regions as far away as Africa. Indonesian islands sit on top of one of the most dangerous regions three different continental plates are grinding against each other. These are the Australian plate, the Eurasian plate and the Pacific plate. The result is a very long history of cataclismic eruptions, earth quakes and rising or sinking of islands.

There is a theory going, called the Toba Eruption, around 75,000 years ago, which caused part of a huge island to literally explode into the air, which caused the planet to go into a four year continous winter cycle, deposited ash as thick as 18 ft as far away as India, and nearly killed off over 99 percent of all living humans, and nearly made us extinct.

3. Japanese Prime Minister Mr. Abe decides to resign, taking responsibility for the scandals that plagued his Government.

Hmmm, wonder if Mr. Bush might take a page out of Mr. Abe's book. Okay, I was just kidding. I don't believe Mr. Bush can read Japanese.

4. South Koreans were offered : convert or die.
Appaently the South Koreans taken hostage by Taleban were offered a gruesome choice, at gun point : convert to Islam, or die.

5. US plans to hold international forum to discuss Iran's nuclear plan, since Iran refuses to halt enrichment program.

Hmm - good idea. I wish the world would same time also decide to discuss Israel's nuclear plan. And while they are at it, discuss every other nuclear powered nation's nuclear plan. I do not buy the argument that some nations are inherectly more "deserving" to have nuclear bombs while some others are not. But if we are to talk only about the middle east and no other region, then Israel needs to get in the bus too.

6. 12 more Pakistani soldiers get abducted by pro-Taleban forces.
Since the incidence in the Red Mosque, Islamic fundamentals have taken the war to General Musharraf's Government, blowing up towns and cities, targetting soldiers in outlying tribal lands and conducting repeated assassination attempts on the Dictator.

On top of that, the judiciary is up in arms against Musharraf and the political leaders are screaming for him to resign as the army chief and to hold democratic elections. Lots of things happening there.
I hope the contry does not fall into hands of fanatic groups.

7. Oil price hits new high ; 80 dollars to a barrel.
Why am I not surprized?

8. US dollar hits new low against the Euro, $1.3914 to a Euro.
Wait - the game is just beginning, and is going to be a long one.

9. Gorillas heading for extinction.
For some reason, this message makes me more sad than other other man made and natural disasters one can read today. They are practically our cousins. The worse thing is, I have never seen a Gorilla in the wild. Perhaps I shall never get to see one.

10. Citizens offer new take on news.
According to BBC, news outlets driven by citizens would be radically different from that put together by journalists through so called main-stream media, as per a recent PEW research.
I am not surprized at all. Watching CNN or FOX or or most so called main stream media makes me so irritated that I tried to get my service provider to remove those channels so I could save some money from my cable TV bills.
Guess what, those are free channels. I gotta pay for the better ones. Smirks.

OK - thats it for today.
Have a nice evening.

Alonzo
09-13-2007, 05:08 AM
1. Russia declares "sex day"
Russia is losing population through migration, falling birth rate and rising healthcare problems since the collapse of the Soviet Empire. So, the Governor of the Ulyanovsk region in Russia is encouraging folks to take a day off today, and have sex. He offers lots of prize money and goods such as Cars and other gadgets to any couple that produce a baby in nine months, on their national day.

There they go and ruin all the fun. Sure, kids sound nice, but when you realize that they whine so much that you can't have sex again without wondering if anyone is listening till they're grown and on their own, they're not so nice anymore.

There is a theory going, called the Toba Eruption, around 75,000 years ago, which caused part of a huge island to literally explode into the air, which caused the planet to go into a four year continous winter cycle, deposited ash as thick as 18 ft as far away as India, and nearly killed off over 99 percent of all living humans, and nearly made us extinct.

Nature never catches a break.


7. Oil price hits new high ; 80 dollars to a barrel.
Why am I not surprized?

Good, maybe more people will ask themselves "Do I really want to waste all this gas on an SUV?"

9. Gorillas heading for extinction.
For some reason, this message makes me more sad than other other man made and natural disasters one can read today. They are practically our cousins. The worse thing is, I have never seen a Gorilla in the wild. Perhaps I shall never get to see one.

Make poaching punishable by death, and imprison anyone found destroying protected wildlife areas.

suedanim
09-13-2007, 06:11 PM
I guess I feel that if you don't like the topics posted, post those you feel are important and worthy for discussion. I DO like the ones you listed. Why not post them individually for discussion or for the record and see where it leads?

There they go and ruin all the fun. Sure, kids sound nice, but when you realize that they whine so much that you can't have sex again without wondering if anyone is listening till they're grown and on their own, they're not so nice anymore.

Plus, be prepared to wear their drool, vomit, snot and on occassion, poop and cost thousands upon thousands of dollars to raise!! Yippee! Sounds like fun huh? Lets have a baby!

I shouldn't talk I've had six of my own and adopting two. :lmao:

Make poaching punishable by death, and imprison anyone found destroying protected wildlife areas.

Agreed!

Buck Laser
09-13-2007, 07:01 PM
I'd just like to thank Tony for mentioning these topics. And there are a gazillion more like it. One of my good friends has as his cause in life the preservation of the family farm, which is rapidly disappearing in the global economy. For the last six weeks, I've watched dedicated volunteers cleaning up a city dog park--hundreds, even thousands of hours. We have a whole corps of people here in Austin called (I think) Loaves and Fishes, who devote many hours a week to helping homeless people survive.

And every one of the issues Tony mentions are critically important, too. There's a saying I like: "None of us can do everything, but each of us can do something."

exigent
09-13-2007, 07:15 PM
7. Oil price hits new high ; 80 dollars to a barrel.
Why am I not surprized?

Good, maybe more people will ask themselves "Do I really want to waste all this gas on an SUV?"


There will always be an SUV/Truck in my garage as long as they're available. But I actually use them for what they're made for. I go offroading/camping/to the desert, etc and need something that can handle mud, rocks, water, sand, etc.

If you're concerned about gas consumption, target crossover SUVs. They are worthless. Basically a Honda CRV is a slow Accord that gets crappy mileage and is less safe. Basically all the negatives of an SUV with none of the payoff, they arent 4X4s. Why do people buy front wheel drive SUVs? Cuz they dont wanna be seen in a station-wagon? Station wagons are safer, get better gas mileage and have the same cargo space as a crossover SUV.