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First a correction.
The law I quoted above was changed in 1999, and the obligatory service is now 2 years, not 3-4.

Second... You are quoting a Wikipedia article(s) which fails to source its claim of "in practice - it's all volunteers".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...

Which is a claim, arising from some BS "is blue REALLY blue" philosophizing in a footnote in National Air and Space Intelligence Center's handbook on China's Airforce.
http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/aw...

Which goes on and on, describing the whole compulsory registration process, the numbers and stats of 400.000 conscripts EACH YEAR, how many come from urban and rural (mostly rural) areas, how the law states that there is a 2 year sentence for NOT REGISTERING - and then they decide to bullshit about it all MAYBE-SORTA-KINDA being voluntary recruitment cause almost no one goes to jail for not registering.
Riiiiiight.

That's like saying that you don't need a driver's license cause almost no one goes to jail on account of driving without a license.
The same report, few pages earlier, mentions the prior practice of "volunteering" for 16 years (quotation marks included) after serving the obligatory 3 or 4 years, prior to 1999 reforms.
And the same section asking "Hey? Is this REALLY conscription? Or perhaps happy-fun-volunteer recruiting for fun and profit?" goes on and on about the issues and actions taken to ACTUALLY recruit college graduates.

Because there are almost no college graduates in the army. Because that is one of the exceptions for NOT serving - being in school.
Urban kids represent only about 33% of conscripts. Cause they have more means to avoid service until "aging out". To bend the law.
Starving oneself into exemption if needed - like that Taiwanese kid.

China IS reforming its military and its recruiting policies, but they will probably never completely eliminate the conscription.
Too many young single males and too much rural population with too much free time on their hands and nothing to do.
And while for most people being conscripted into military service is the closest they'll get to serving a prison sentence for something they didn't do - some actually benefit from military discipline and routine.
And that population sample tends to intersect with the sample of young, poor and (in China) rural boys with little access to higher education.

we're worried about dying from Global Warming . . . getting hit by an asteroid . . . an Ebola epidemic . . . but nobody seems concerned that maybe the Earth could bust apart at its seems.

You're kidding, right?

Just after people's terror of word-ending asteroids wore off, the media was pushing the Yellowstone Supervolcano (very hard) as the thing we should all be pissing our pants about. And they really never gave-up on it, either:

http://www.inquisitr.com/10848...

http://www.bbc.com/news/scienc...

http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/30/...

http://news.nationalgeographic...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt04...

This just won the funniest joke award. So much for British humour.

If watching this video is a crime, why not arrest this men which must have seen it to be able to make this comment?

"monkeys are about the same as those found in sheep in some parts of the **UK** following the Chernobyl accident, i.e. extremely low .."

They measured cesium in the UK sheep, the levels were too high for 26 years after the Chernobyl disaster. I remember having to drink powdered milk because cows milk was radioactively contaminated. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-eng...

"in terms of damage to the animals themselves. I think it much more likely that the apparently low blood cell counts are caused by something other than radiation"

Such as? And why would you go for the non-obvious answer.

The Premier League / FA is a bunch of racists. The hitjob they did on Luis Suarez for the use of his non-offensive word negrito (ie blackie, a South American equivalent of calling someone Red) smacks of the worst of Jim Crow. England should and eventually will be ashamed of this.

The Premier League / FA should also be ashamed that they allow so much corrupt Russian money to go flowing into Chelsea. That football club was bought and paid for by the blood of the Russian people. They have allowed Abramovich, the good buddy of dictator Putin, to run riot with stolen money.

The word fake is not in the article.

Third paragraph, third sentence of the article:

Street performer Neil Stammer travelled to Nepal eight years ago using a fake passport under the name Kevin Hodges.

Yes, because at the time the scanning was done the FBI in fact did not have the photo. After the State department found the match against the publicly available wanted criminal information

It doesn't matter WHO had the picture. State department, FBI, whatever. Since the passport was fake, and clearly said so in the article as well as the summary, the state department wouldn't have the picture. You do not send your picture to the state department when you get a fake passport, you give it to the guy who makes the fakes. And he doesn't give it to the government.

How did they (whoever) get his picture to scan against his wanted photo?

and thus is perfectly reasonable for the FBI to obtain from the State Department after that.

I didn't ask if it was reasonable for the FBI to get the picture, I asked HOW they got it. And for that, you have no answer.

Sort of
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-...

They should look at this: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazi...

Too much crap in space research/science nowadays.
All the NASA scientists who are proposing one way trips to Mars should go on one way trips out of NASA. That'll improve NASA. One way trips to Mars are a waste of money, time and resources. NASA should just get with the real next step and build a space station with artificial gravity. Not talk about stupid one way trips to Mars.

Trying to go to Mars at this point of our "tech tree" is like trying to jump before being able to stand. Even if we succeed we will fall on our faces. And we won't learn that much for the effort expended.

I just came across this, which I think you might find useful.

Shachar

Indeed. http://www.bbc.com/news/102355... http://www.independent.co.uk/n...

Except none of your points applies to climate change.

The effect is robust: there was a whole independent project to determine if the thermodynamically meaningless "global average temperature" is increasing. It is: http://www.bbc.com/news/scienc...

The threshold of measurement is around 0.5 C for a single station, and we have an effect that is about 1 C over the past 100 years. Not as big a margin as one would like, but difficult to ignore. And growing.

No one has produced any results that show the instrumental temperature record in the past century is not real. There are debates about causes, but the reality of the phenomenon is not in doubt.

Everyone who has looked at the question agrees that there is about a 1.6 W/m**2 addition to the Earth's heat budget from anthropogenic CO2, so clearly when taking the "positive cases" there is still good agreement.

There are large and legitimate areas of disagreement with regard to climate change (far more than the moron, anti-science, "the science is settled crowd" would have you believe) but the basic phenomenon, unlike the EMDrive, is not just consistent with but actually required by the laws of physics.

Finally: the summary is terrible, even by /. standards. The article does not point out any errors in the experiments. Rather it points out that reporters have been lying about the experiments, pure and simple. That is not the fault of the scientists, who honestly reported their null results.

You know its become mainstream when CNBC is talking about Germ zapping robots with a headline of The war against EBOLA

Here is an article with 25 facts that the mainstream media is not always telling you. I found, No 15, interesting, a map showing the 20 CDC Quarantine Centers. They, the CDC, are/have been preparing for a very good reason just in case.

Almost each fact has links, facts number 1 thru 10 most will find disturbing. With links to multiple articles by different health organizations around to world, such as Doctor with out Boarders, who stated on June 21, 2014 EBOLA was out of control, and the World Health Organization (WHO)back in April said the Guinea Ebola outbreak was challenging. The infection killing 50%, the incubation period being as short as 2 days or as long as 21 days is a heck of a warning...imagine someone coming back from a mission trip to help others, walking around for 2-3 weeks before realizing they are infected.

For those falsely reporting that the virus requires physical contact, your wrong as the 2012 study proved (Fact No 11) article about animals in separate cages contracting the virus without physical contact. Worrisome is the doctor treating the two Americans (who quarratined themselves at the onset of symptoms) also became infected and you would have to be a moron to assume he (other 100 health workers Fact No 5) was (were all) exchanging bodily fluids with his (their)patients, other doctors treating patients. Perhaps one or two were exchanging bodily fluids, but all 100, no way, not in those circumstances as they understand the risks.

Full Disclosure:
The site may be a wee bit alarmist, however facts are facts.
The site with the 25 facts also tries to be a little political as if one president, Democrat or Republican, is solely responsible, pleeesse. So just ignore those facts with a political slant. See my political soapbox comment at the end.
The site also suggests military conspiracy, who knows, take those with a grain of salt as well. As a couple of family members who served had said, GI stands for Government Issue. Its not like IF our men and women were being used as guinea pigs that they could say No, they can not. Or as my Flight Surgeon family member agreed, if the study is double blind, the Doctor does not know with 100% certainty what they are injecting the veterans with, in the immunization. So read and take at your own risk, but for GIs, you have no choice, you must partake...your Government Issue as soon as you sign on the dotted line and swear the oath. Just comes with the territory.

(stepping up on my shoebox) Now YOU POLITICIANS....

I just wish those that focus on the political, would stop electing politicians that say they support our veterans, when the opposite is true based on VA funding, medical and phschological budgeting for treatment of our returning veterans. Let us start being as insistant that the people we elect to office budget for all the expenses associated with sending men and women to war. All our men and women who served (our veterans) SHALL get proper medical and mental treatment when they return from war, period, end of discussion.

To me it seems like the height of incompetance that politicans do not budget for the medical and psychological expenses associated with returning servicemen and women. How many wars have we been involved in? What do you mean you can not budget for this? I call BS on that crapola.

So POLITICANS, before sending more men and women to war, darn it, budget

You know its become mainstream when CNBC is talking about Germ zapping robots with a headline of The war against EBOLA

Here is an article with 25 facts that the mainstream media is not always telling you. I found, No 15, interesting, a map showing the 20 CDC Quarantine Centers. They, the CDC, are/have been preparing for a very good reason just in case.

Almost each fact has links, facts number 1 thru 10 most will find disturbing. With links to multiple articles by different health organizations around to world, such as Doctor with out Boarders, who stated on June 21, 2014 EBOLA was out of control, and the World Health Organization (WHO)back in April said the Guinea Ebola outbreak was challenging. The infection killing 50%, the incubation period being as short as 2 days or as long as 21 days is a heck of a warning...imagine someone coming back from a mission trip to help others, walking around for 2-3 weeks before realizing they are infected.

For those falsely reporting that the virus requires physical contact, your wrong as the 2012 study proved (Fact No 11) article about animals in separate cages contracting the virus without physical contact. Worrisome is the doctor treating the two Americans (who quarratined themselves at the onset of symptoms) also became infected and you would have to be a moron to assume he (other 100 health workers Fact No 5) was (were all) exchanging bodily fluids with his (their)patients, other doctors treating patients. Perhaps one or two were exchanging bodily fluids, but all 100, no way, not in those circumstances as they understand the risks.

Full Disclosure:
The site may be a wee bit alarmist, however facts are facts.
The site with the 25 facts also tries to be a little political as if one president, Democrat or Republican, is solely responsible, pleeesse. So just ignore those facts with a political slant. See my political soapbox comment at the end.
The site also suggests military conspiracy, who knows, take those with a grain of salt as well. As a couple of family members who served had said, GI stands for Government Issue. Its not like IF our men and women were being used as guinea pigs that they could say No, they can not. Or as my Flight Surgeon family member agreed, if the study is double blind, the Doctor does not know with 100% certainty what they are injecting the veterans with, in the immunization. So read and take at your own risk, but for GIs, you have no choice, you must partake...your Government Issue as soon as you sign on the dotted line and swear the oath. Just comes with the territory.

(stepping up on my shoebox) Now YOU POLITICIANS....

I just wish those that focus on the political, would stop electing politicians that say they support our veterans, when the opposite is true based on VA funding, medical and phschological budgeting for treatment of our returning veterans. Let us start being as insistant that the people we elect to office budget for all the expenses associated with sending men and women to war. All our men and women who served (our veterans) SHALL get proper medical and mental treatment when they return from war, period, end of discussion.

To me it seems like the height of incompetance that politicans do not budget for the medical and psychological expenses associated with returning servicemen and women. How many wars have we been involved in? What do you mean you can not budget for this? I call BS on that crapola.

So POLITICANS, before sending more men and women to war, darn it, budget

Pretty much that. Even Norway tossed it after trials

fyi, that bbc article was utter nonsense, just plain wrong in almost every aspect:
http://www.regjeringen.no/en/d...

Pretty much that. Even Norway tossed it after trials, we looked at it here in Ontario gave it a go at 33 municipalities, garbage. Same with phone voting, garbage.

And the government reaction to the protests? a series of laws condemning individual or group involvement in any activities that could be construed as remotely negative by the ruling party and eventually leading to the sniping of protesters by a special police team called "Berkut."

"Neither are the Kurds ... particular [sic] anti-female"
What a pile of absolute steaming kack.

Tell that to Bahnaz Mahmod. Oh wait, you can't, because she was strangled by her family in an "honour killing".

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-eng...

There is a serious problem of anti-women violence in Kurdish communities. This includes FGM, and there is plenty of evidence gathered by brave Kurds about how, when and where it happens.

See for example:
http://www.stopfgmkurdistan.or...

It really doesn't take long to avail yourself of facts, you know, even where they don't fit with your approved model of the world.

Hamas instructions to lie about casualties and claim all militants are civilians
http://www.memri.org/report/en...

Hamas faking casualty reports and claims
http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-...
http://www.ynetnews.com/articl...
http://www.haaretz.com/news/di...
http://honestreporting.com/sha...

Debunking claims about civilian deaths
http://www.camera.org/index.as...

Hamas using human shields
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
http://honestreporting.com/for...
http://www.algemeiner.com/2014...

But the mandate to convert to Islam in Iraq is not false

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-...

Convert or die (or pay a 'special' tax)

International law is pretty vague on whether you actually have to kill every member of an ethnic group in a territory for it to be called "genocide." The reason is pretty simple: if you insist everyone actually has to die for it to be genocide that creates a huge loophole. The bad guy simply has to kill enough of them that the rest know they damn well better run and it's not technically genocide because almost all of them successfully ran.

But since a lot of inter-ethnic conflict involves one asshole threatening to kill every member of another group, succeeding at some much less evil goal (ie: getting them evicted, beating up a couple hundred activists, maybe a mass rape campaign, etc.), which convinces everyone to run away rather then be killed, scholars have a continuum of evil, starting at ethnic cleansing and running up to actual genocide.

What actually happens in Israel is frequently on the low end of ethnic cleansing. There's a lot of unofficial, and officially deplored Jewish violence against Palestinians and suspected sympathizers that the authorities never seem to be able to stop. In '47 and '48 it was really bad. At Dier Yassam 107 civilians were massacred by the Israeli military, which released numerous press releases claiming that was evil, but never actually charged anyone with a crime for it. Similarly the first UN envoy to the region (Count Bernadotte af Wisborg) was murdered by Jews in the Lehi. Their military formation was disarmed, and a couple were charged with membership in a terrorist organization, but everyone was immediately pardoned and sent off to war. It created an atmosphere in which Arabs made the fairly logical assumption that some Jewish asshole would murder them and get away with it when the Israeli Army won, which in turn meant almost all Palestinians living within what is now the Green Line fled the Israeli War of Independence. That's textbook ethnic cleansing. You make an ethnic group feel unsafe, and they go away.

Today it's quite a bit better, but there's still a very influential section of Israeli society dedicated to ensuring that the Palestinian population knows they are non really wanted. Price tag attacks, the Israeli Courts total inability to protect the only Palestinian in the country with paperwork proving he owns land there, etc. prove it. Somebody in Israel wants Palestinians to think moving out is a real good option, the rest of the country ain't stopping them, and if they succeed it will be (by definition) ethnic cleansing.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not claiming that Hamas are wonderful saints, or freedom fighters, or that they would not do worse to Israeli Jews then the Israeli Jews are currently doing to the Palestinians, or even that they wouldn't end up treating Palestinians worse then the Israeli government does. Same with the PA. But none of that has any bearing on whether the Israelis are being honorable.

That's dumb. Pedestrians and bicyclists don't have the same requirements as automobiles, we should focus on keeping them separated. It's not as though they need to share the same space, except where no thought has been given to them.

Roads belonged to pedestrians and they had priority, not horse carriages, bicycles, or eventually automobiles.
The status quo, where you separate pedestrians and drivers, is entirely a concoction of the automotive industry.
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26073797

Roads were originally a shared space and the thinking is moving back towards that direction.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shared_space

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-...

Seriously? Twitter? Even if your link really lead to an accusation of a strike on hospital (which it does not), would it have been credible? How about a more reliable source? Oh, sorry, you can't use that, because that page begins with Israel's explanation: "The Israeli military said it had targeted a cache of anti-tank missiles in the hospital's "immediate vicinity".

And we know very well, from sources both impartial and even those biased towards the Arabs, that Hamas does use such civilian buildings for weapons-caches.

Rescue workers say they have recovered one of the plane's "black box" flight recorders, while pro-Russian separatists are said to have discovered the second black box.

But I see that has just been superseded by what appears to be a rebel handover of two flight recorders. Fog of war...

Amira Hass and Gideon Levy are by no means unbiased reporters.

Sure the demands to not seem unreasonable but what has Hamas offered? Nothing at all. Until Hamas changes their views on the existence of Israel there will be no peace.
I would also like to point out that you have no references for what you call the Hamas conditions. As far as I can tell you might be making them up and/or embellishing them to make them look better.. Lets assume they are true look at a couple of demands

allowing farmers to work their land up to the fence;

So tunneling can be done without discovery.

release of all prisoners from the Gilad Shalit swap who have been rearrested

The swap which should never have been done as it rewards kidnappers.

expansion of the fishing zone

So fishing vessels can meet ships at sea and return with a "catch" of missiles

an Israeli pledge to a 10-year cease-fire

No pledge of a 10 year Cease fire from Hamas. A one sided cease fire is no cease fire at all.

closure of Gaza’s air space to Israeli aircraft;

So Hamas can fire rickets without danger of air strikes.

Lets look at the next few statements

Go back a few months: the breakdown of negotiations by Israel;

Maybe the refusal to even talk about removing their insistence of the destruction od Israel might have something to do about it.

the war on Hamas in the West Bank following the murder of the three yeshiva students,

Did the Palestinian Authority or Palestinian people do anything to catch the criminals?

stopping payment of salaries to Hamas workers in Gaza

According to this it was Fatah that cut off the funds and not Israel.
As to the opposition to a Hamas/Fatah Unity Government, who is to know which faction will come into control. It is just as likely Hamas will gain control and start up attacks again. Would you trust a government where one faction wants the destruction of your country? Again, as long as Hamas holds to the objective of the destruction of Israel all violence in the conflict is on their heads.

What we know doesn't seem to amount to much yet, sadly, if we disregard the he said / she said.

However, US Secretary of State John Kerry has said there is overwhelming evidence of Russian complicity in the incident

Until evidence is presented, this is no more credible than the overwhelming evidence of WMD in Iraq and of Assad being behind the sarin attacks.

Russia denies the claims.

Likewise, not credible. They would say this anyway.

Ukrainian authorities earlier released a recording they claimed was a conversation between pro-Russian militants admitting to shooting down the plane.

And this is also quite meaningless, as of now, because of the accuser is basically at war with the accused.

Incidentally I wonder if these militants are less pro-Russian than they are anti-Kiev (post coup).

Meanwhile, though, there are at least some relatively positive developments:

Pro-Russian separatists say they have found the plane's "black box" flight recorders and have agreed to hand them over to Malaysian investigators who are in Ukraine.

Dutch forensic scientists have also arrived to start work on identifying bodies.

The US [...] in addition to having lost citizens in the crash.

Last I heard they hadn't.

BBC article:

        Netherlands: 189
        Malaysia: 44 (including 15 crew)
        Australian: 27
        Indonesia: 12
        UK: 9
        Germany: 4
        Belgium: 4
        Philippines: 3
        Canada: 1
        New Zealand: 1
        Unverified: 4

You're wrong on the US part. You're also wrong on the Netherlands part. http://www.bbc.com/news/magazi...

Your link to zik.ua is not a link to an official Tymchuk's info channel. There were numerous occasions where people would post some b.s. as if Tymchuk was the source. So let's stick to the sources and omit any intermediates.

The 2 planes which were shot down were AN-26 - support vehicles carrying food, etc. They were not attacking anybody, they were flying above 4km hight. Who am I not to trust BBC? http://www.bbc.com/news/world-...

So it's not C300, as you say. Must be BUK then?

.
19:00:

A tweet (in Russian) from a key Twitter account used by pro-Russian separatists, in which they claim to have captured a Buk surface-to-air missile system, has now been deleted, BBC Monitoring observes. Ukrainians say the Malaysian plane could have been downed with a Buk, but pro-Russian rebels have now denied they have it.

Indeed. the BBC coverage states that "There is no official closure of Ukraine airspace but Germany's Lufthansa has decided to divert four flights currently in the air which would overfly east Ukraine".

In turn, governments have it in their interest to pass laws that in general benefit society.

If you consider the very wealthy and corporations to be society then what you write is true for most governments. But if you consider the majority of the electorate being society, then not so. For an example of what I mean look at the recent study from Princeton University and Northwestern University that reached the conclusion that the USA is an oligarchy.

Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organised groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on US government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.

When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites and/or with organised interests, they generally lose. Moreover, because of the strong status quo bias built into the US political system, even when fairly large majorities of Americans favour policy change, they generally do not get it.

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-...

Those are low energy density devices. They will never supply enough energy, and in some cases consume much more than they supply. Innovative nuclear is the only way forward, and sadly I don't see much support for it.

People are not disappearing in the UK

David Kelly..

Campaign leader Dr Stephen Frost said: "The continuing cover-up of the truth of what happened is a national disgrace and should be of concern to all British citizens."

I'd recommend against using those and use ones that don't have such a large carbon footprint. For example:

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-sco...

or solar:

http://www.reuters.com/article...

so long as you realize that the myth that solar panels generate more CO2 lifetime than say coal (or even natural gas) has long ago been de-bunked. (max 72g vs 1.68lbs or 2lbs for coal) (http://www.edfenergy.com/energyfuture/energy-gap-climate-change/solar-and-the-energy-gap-climate-change and http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/...)

This is basic statistics learned by every doctor in medical school.

Or that they have learned, passed the test, and forgotten. There was quite an interesting read on exactly this subject on the BBC website this week, Do doctors understand test results?:

In one session, almost half the group of 160 gynaecologists responded that the woman's chance of having cancer was nine in 10. Only 21% said that the figure was one in 10 - which is the correct answer. That's a worse result than if the doctors had been answering at random.

Peston: 'Why Google removed my blog post'

Google removing BBC link was 'not a good judgement'

Peston: 'Why Google removed my blog post'

Google removing BBC link was 'not a good judgement'

For the physical analogy, it may not always be that simple. There was this case, but there were more details involved.

Dude, when has it ever been used?

Can be is not is and not does.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/3725654....

Cuban-Americans can trade, send money, etc., and trading food is permitted (although with heavy regulation by the US govt.): http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/Documents/cuba.txt. The article says nothing about how many current businesses there are, though.

http://www.thecanadianencyclop...

Maclean's January 15, 1996

Rrrright... Did you even read my previous post?

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/29/...

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-...

http://www.tradecommissioner.g...

These do not even talk about current businesses, which says a lot about your knowledge of Cuba... Tell me, how many businesses are trading with Cuba? Do they also trade with the US? If so, how are they permitted by the US govt.?

Furthermore:

Cuba is still designated a "State Sponsor of Terrorism" by the US, which complicates financial transactions with the island, and raising capital.

Do you know what this means?

The problem if any exists in Cuba lacking anything regarding trade is in their own corruption and government.

You do not know what you are talking about. A simple google search found those in the first two pages.

You, OTOH, seem to know a lot about Cuba... I guess you get your info from Fox News or CNN.

Dude, when has it ever been used?

Can be is not is and not does.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/3725654....

http://www.thecanadianencyclop...

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/29/...

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-...

http://www.tradecommissioner.g...

The problem if any exists in Cuba lacking anything regarding trade is in their own corruption and government.

You do not know what you are talking about. A simple google search found those in the first two pages.

This came out of a row in Britain over an investigation into schools in Birmingham. Unlike the US situation, what brought this about was a charge that Muslims were trying to take over schools in Birmingham and alter the lessons to support Islamic Ideals. The term you can search on to find this is Trojan Horse Investigation, along with Birmingham.

For example: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-eng...

For a more sensationalist view, we have the Daily Fail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...

One of (many) things charged was teaching creationism. Others were teaching in sex ed that wives weren't allowed to "say no" and must submit to their husbands.

How much of this is true depends on who you ask and, no surprise, it's quite a controversy.

But, to put it in context, this came up in response to charges of Islamic influence. Apparently any Christian state funded schools teaching creationism didn't raise this level of concern.

Watching one moderate regime after another in the middle east either falling completely, or having to fight a nasty civil war to survive, is pretty convincing evidence that this ain't no minor fluke. Even secular stalwart Turkey is has been swung hard towards becoming an Islamist state in recent years.

But you can keep telling yourself whatever you wish.

Except that 70% of Republicans in that district are in favor of immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship, so essentially what Cantor was proposing. If that's among the Republicans, I would expect people to the left of that to me more in favor of it. Where are those polls you talk about?
Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-...

I am from South Africa and I can tell you that the thing mentioned in TFA is but a fucking pipe dream

The corruption in South Africa is so fucking high that there are schools in South Africa that do not even get any fucking textbook !!

In fact, BBC did a program on its world service on this specific topic ---

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-...

I suggest you guys go read it and judge for yourself how fucking not-funny it is for a South African like me to read that fucking pipe-dream (one tablet per student) mention in Slashdot while students don't even get to have ordinary dead-tree based texbooks !!

I do not have mod point or I would mod parent up

What parent says is true - I am a South African as well, and I used to support ANC - no more !

They are so corrupted they are ruining the country !

I am from South Africa and I can tell you that the thing mentioned in TFA is but a fucking pipe dream

The corruption in South Africa is so fucking high that there are schools in South Africa that do not even get any fucking textbook !!

In fact, BBC did a program on its world service on this specific topic ---

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-...

I suggest you guys go read it and judge for yourself how fucking not-funny it is for a South African like me to read that fucking pipe-dream (one tablet per student) mention in Slashdot while students don't even get to have ordinary dead-tree based texbooks !!

It isn't an opinion. It's as scientific as it gets.

Your post is opinion, there's some pseudo-science within your post but ultimately it is a biased opinion. By following your statistical analysis above by considering only two factors: rise in gun ownership and falling violent crime figures, you are coming to a very short sighted conclusion. There are many other arguments out there which could have been a larger contributing factor than more gun ownership such as outreach programs, changes in judicial sentencing, changes in public perception to specific factors of violent crime, heck even the BBC published an article on how removing lead from petroleum/gasoline in our cars has a strong correlation with reduced figures in violent crime.

I'm not educated enough in social policy to comment on what changes in society would have had an impact on violent crime levels but you can't state that guns do not cause crime from the figures mentioned previously. Causation of crime comes in many forms, some that we understand and some we are yet to discover. For all we know other factors may have been more influential in reducing crime during that period than the impact of guns in circulation on increasing crime.

You also have to consider that many crimes wouldn't exist or wouldn't be so accessible if it weren't for gun ownership such as school shootings [1] , armed robberies [2] and homicide [3] .

I'm neither pro- nor anti- gun ownership, I live in a country without firearms and that's fine by me. I do see merit in firearm ownership when regulated properly to the extent where any person who has taken a test in firearm safety, is of a stable mind and hasn't committed a violent crime [4] in the last 5-10 years can own a firearm but this I will tolerate only with strong regulation.

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[1] How else would you go on a rampage in schools or other buildings? Sure you could use a knife, sword, axe or whatever else you choose but ultimately your attack range is gonna be a lot less allowing a lot more people to escape unharmed and a lot easier for people to overpower you if they so dare.
[2] I mean armed in the sense of being with a firearm. A quarter of robberies of commercial premises in the U.S. are committed with guns. Fatalities are three times as likely in robberies committed with guns than where other, or no, weapons are used.
[3] In the U.S. in 2011, 67% of homicide victims were killed by a gun. There is little doubt that many of these victims would have been murdered if there no were no guns about since those who have the intention to do so and have planned it will do it without firearms. However having ready access to a gun for an enraged, unstable individual wanting to harm another because of a form of dispute is definitely going to have an impact on crimes which weren't planned.
[4] Obviously murders, attempted murders, brutal assaults and the like will prevent them ever owning a firearm and the time frame can be varied depending on the severity of the crime.

Ocean currents and Prevailing winds push water around but,

According to a recent report from the UN Environment Programme, sea level is rising in the Pacific around the Marshall's at a much higher rate than elsewhere in the world. The rate of rise between 1993 and 2009 was 12mm per year, compared with the global average of 3.2mm. Climate change helps seas disturb Japanese war dead

the Marshal Islands (not realy Islands but coral atolls) are really unlikely to have graves washed away because the sea-level rose a half inch, more likely it was factors like increased water consumption due to population depleteing the ground water and causing subsistance, and paved roads reducing replenishment from rains.

Well, y'know, there's this thing called chewing gum. Although the flip-side is that the constant chewing can give really sore jaw muscles the following day.

The quality nowadays is generally better, the complaints are more from people buying $/€/£2 pills on the street & then acting surprised when all they get is a caffeine rush. If you only go shopping in the bargain bin, of course you'll only get shit.

From the BBC:

"Illegal drugs are now cheaper and purer globally than at any time over the last 20 years, a report has [praised]."