Early on the morning of July 23, a fisherman from Ningbo City in east China's Zhejiang Province was shocked by the sight of a huge creature lying dead beside the seawall near his home.
Liu, who lives in Yangshashan of Chunxiao Town in Beilun District and who has been a fisherman for over ten years, said âI have never seen such a monster; it was larger than a whale.â
It was first seen by villagers on July 20, according to Mei who breeds fish nearby, and is nearly 12 meters long and weighs around 2 tons, according to district sea and fishery bureau staff.
The animal reportedly has a long thin head and a snout nearly one meter long.
Partly rotten, with its spine exposed, it has been impossible to identify, but has been described as having some hair, and orange stripes across a three to four-meter wide belly. The skull, which alone weighs over 100 kg, and coccyx of the creature have fallen from its body.
Mei said four young people took away a 100 kg piece of the corpse to study and many experts have come to inspect it, but all in vain.
From the degree of putrefaction, the animal may have been dead for a week and beached by Typhoon Haitang several days ago, said Hu from Beilunâs sea and fishery bureau.
He said its overall structure means itâs unlikely to be a fish, but the shape of its head is like a crocodileâs.
Local fishermen have their own ideas about what the animal is and where it came from.
One called Li said it must have lived in the sea, because the skin of its chest is very much like that of many large sea animals, as thick and hard as rubber.
According to another named Wang, it is very like an elephant seal, especially its mouth, and he said he once spotted elephant seals on a journey overseas five years ago.
Many experts said that, being seriously rotten and deprived of lower limbs and tail, the monster is unlikely to be identified or to be made into a specimen.
An expert from Ningbo University's sea creature research center who has not seen the animal said the possibility of it being a huge crocodile was slim, for they usually live in tropical freshwater.
He also doubted that it could be an elephant seal, saying it would be hard to explain how one got to the subtropical East China Sea from polar waters.
(Today Morning Express, translated by Yuan Fang for China.org.cn July 29, 2005)
I have been to Walt Disneyâs first theme park in China and I can report that it is the scariest place I have been since I visited North Korea a few years ago.
The US entertainment giant recently threw open the gates of Hong Kong Disneyland to the media, nearly two months ahead of its official opening. The tour, featuring free burgers and fries and a ride on Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, was presumably intended to convert cynical journalists to Disneyâs all-American entertainment philosophy. Instead, it created a slightly uneasy feeling of pervasive control.
From the phone calls the day before the visit (âPlease be prompt! The buses will leave for the park at 12:45pm promptly!â) to the marching orders of the impossibly cheerful Disney employees who greeted us at the park, Mickey directed my every move.
When I wandered off Main Street, lined with gingerbread-trim shops, a beaming Disney staffer stopped me, raising her arms like a policewoman at a crime scene. Elsewhere, grinning Disney employees formed human blockades to prevent journalists straying to off-limits attractions. It reminded me of being tailed by my minders in Pyongyang.
Disneyâs control extended even to language. There were no meals during our tour, only âfood experiencesâ. We did not ride the Astro Blasters, we had an âattraction experienceâ.
It was not a photo opportunity, but a âspecial momentâ when Bob Iger, Walt Disneyâs president, Jay Rasulo, president of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, and Angela To, Hong Kong Disneylandâs âambassadorâ, said a few words and posed for the cameras, surrounded by men and women dressed like cartoon characters.
That âspecial momentâ felt eerily similar to the cheerful authoritarianism displayed in certain aspects of communist propaganda. Chinaâs rulers know well the value of such staged events, the filmed handshake with an aggrieved peasant, the face-to-face chat with a group of laid-off workers. How far off, I wondered, was Disneyâs script?
I am not the first to chafe at Disneyâs rules. A French labour union took Euro Disney, 40 per cent owned by Walt Disney, to court in the early 1990s for requiring its staff to sign up to a dress code that banned beards and moustaches. Nor is Disney alone in its appropriation of language: Starbucks spokesmen in Hong Kong recently referred to âflavour profilesâ and the âbandwithâ of its menu.
Iâve got nothing personal against Disney: I wore my Mickey ears as a little girl. Perhaps the companyâs recent boardroom wrangles have made it more sensitive to media criticism. Queried about its heavy-handed approach, Disney insists the visit was ânot really that carefully managedâ and that its employees were only trying to move reporters through the park as efficiently as possible. That statement, however, suggests that Disneyâs new venture will fit in perfectly in China.
A stellar example of snide reporting.
Posted by: too true ||
07/30/2005 10:05 ||
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#1
I have been to Walt Disneyâs first theme park in China and I can report that it is the scariest place I have been since I visited North Korea a few years ago.
Oh, were the patrons eating bark off the trees?
Or was it all the giant images of the Great Leader Walt in every building [removed upon penalty of death]?
Classical trash which underplays the real suffering of millions of people in the left's alternate view of the universe. And the left accuses the non-left at the drop of a hat of being insensitive.
#2
A French labour union took Euro Disney, 40 per cent owned by Walt Disney, to court in the early 1990s for requiring its staff to sign up to a dress code that banned beards and moustaches.
God forbid anyone require the French to groom.
AFAICR, Hong Kong Disney staff are still being trained. At Disney World in early June, there was a group of trainees beginning their orientation -- I wouldn't have known what was going on, but a niece of mine is working there this summer and filled us in. It makes sense to me that, for a press preview, two months before official open, there'd be a smaller than normal staff and restricted access.
But, hey, I don't get paid to be an arrogant, snarky bastard. (It's only a hobby.)
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/30/2005 11:41 Comments ||
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#3
And a damned fine hobby it is, too, Robert! :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/30/2005 12:28 Comments ||
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#4
Barb.... getting a holding page on yur link there.
Things got ugly after Daryl R. Cook's neighbors turned against him. Really ugly.
Cook spray-painted his Dunwoody ranch house bright orange and blue. After all, he's a University of Florida graduate. But he wasn't done.
Next came the farm animals, some named after famous UF athletes and coaches. Three pigs â Spottie, Dottie and Sausage Patty â root through the dirt in the shade of the house. A trio of goats, known as Donovan and the Gatorettes, keep them company. Spurrier the rooster struts around crowing at all hours.
Blue-and-orange concrete alligators, Cook's version of lawn ornaments, dot the landscape. And finally, he put up a large "For Sale" sign right out front that proclaimed his property "the Swamp of Dunwoody."
All this nastiness stems from a rezoning case Cook lost in February. He wanted to tear down his house and build two large new ones on his Dunwoody Club Drive property. The road runs along the border between Fulton and DeKalb counties. His neighbors and another builder opposed him and won, leaving Cook stuck with land zoned for agricultural uses.
So Cook decided that if his neighbors wanted agriculture, he would give it to them. All the way.
"A lot of folks call it sour grapes, and maybe it is, but it is my property," said Cook, 45, the head of an Atlanta-based civil engineering firm and a member of Fulton County's Development Advisory Committee. "I see it as a bit of a civil protest at this point. I feel like I was wronged. I am stating my protest in a legal and civil way. But at 45, it could be a midlife crisis. Who knows?"
People just don't do things like this in Cook's affluent neighborhood. All around him, doctors and business executives live in mansions surrounded by expertly landscaped grounds. Bill Grant, a fellow builder, has cleared land next to Cook's property for houses that will start at $1.3 million.
Meanwhile, neighbors have complained to the county about Cook cutting down his trees, leaving the logs in his yard, and erecting illegal "Keep Out" and "Free Firewood" signs. They say his house is unsightly. They worry that it will drag down their property values. And they say Spurrier the rooster's racket wakes them up too early.
"Usually on Saturday mornings I put a pillow over my head," said Dara Nicholson, a real estate executive whose pool patio looks out onto the orange-and-blue house and the tangled mass of cut tree limbs in Cook's back yard.
"I'm a big supporter of my school," added Nicholson, a University of Florida alumna. "I just think it's a little overpowering for my neighborhood. I've lived in the area for about 23 years now, and that takes the cake."
Fulton County has written up Cook at least twice for code violations. One was for illegal signs, which he took down. The other was for an accumulation of tree debris, which a neighbor says is causing drainage problems in her back yard. That violation notice landed in Cook's orange mailbox last week. Cook said he planned to clean up the debris.
His house is not part of a subdivision with neighborhood rules for house colors. And county officials say they are powerless to do anything about the animals, since the land is still zoned for agriculture.
Homeowners like Cook have been retaliating against staider neighbors and government for ages. Some build tall barriers around their homes, nicknamed "spite fences." Others blare loud music. Still others get a little more creative. About two years ago, an Avondale Estates man had his house painted lime green with purple polka dots. He was protesting a city historic preservation panel's rejection of his plan to add a rounded stoop to his house. Eventually the small city in central DeKalb County reversed course and approved his plan, ending the standoff. Cook's case is the most extreme Fulton officials have seen.
His troubles started after he bought his 1.1-acre lot in September for $292,500. He hired an attorney and applied to the county that same month to rezone the land from agricultural to residential. He wanted to build two homes with a shared driveway and sell them for over $800,000 apiece. He said he spent about $10,000 in legal fees and other expenses.
The county's development staff recommended in favor of his rezoning. But Grant and surrounding neighbors â backed by the Dunwoody Homeowners Association â turned out against him. They pointed out that the county's land use plan calls for no more than one house per acre in that area. They didn't want the county to open the door to denser development.
"He is just a mad developer who didn't get his way," said Ken Wright, president of the homeowners association. "He hired a high-priced attorney. And we are just lowly volunteers on a homeowners group. And Fulton County agreed with us and denied him the zoning. ? One for the small guy. I love it. I wish it happened more."
At the rezoning hearings, Cook's lawyer pointed out that Fulton had approved plans for slightly more houses per acre in nearby areas, including Grant's property. But the county shot Cook down anyway, leaving his land zoned agricultural and sandwiched between one neighborhood and a developing one.
During a recent tour of his property with a visitor, Cook discovered one of the pigs had escaped her pen while he was at work. She had wandered into the garage and knocked over a metal garbage can full of pig feed.
"It's OK. Come on. You have to get back into your pen, honey," he told her sweetly. Then he pounced on her, grabbing her round the middle. But she wiggled away with an insistent snort. Watching from the other side of the fence, the other two pigs squealed with excitement. Finally, Cook caught the runaway, heaved her up, and gently placed her in her pen.
The Jacksonville native dreams of retiring one day and moving to the Georgia or North Carolina mountains. But for the foreseeable future, he says, he plans to stay at Dunwoody Swamp. He says it will remain the way it is until Grant and his neighbors reverse themselves and endorse his rezoning plans.
In the meantime, he has other ideas for the property. He wants to plant wax beans, beets, corn and squash. And maybe he will bring in some more animals. Perhaps a peacock. Something colorful. Something showy.
Posted by: fond of animals ||
07/30/2005 08:08 ||
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#1
LOL! Wish they talked about the two hi-po Blue & Orange Massey Fergusons..... Jeebus, likely fresh from Newberry.
#5
Peacocks are not only loud. They tend to be invasive, regarding the surrounding property as part of their own territory, perching on cars and in shrubbery, and pooping everywhere. Rather like very large geese, in fact.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, has effectively been banned in Australia because of hidden sex scenes. Shops have been ordered to stop selling the blockbuster game after the country's ratings board stripped it of its official classification.
The row is over graphic sexual content in the game which can be unlocked with software created by a fan.
Leading US stores stopped selling the game after it was rated as an adults only title due to the graphic scenes.
Hot fuss
San Andreas was originally classified as a MA15+ title, meaning it could only be sold to gamers aged over 15.
But the revelations about the hidden sexual content have led Australia's Office of Film and Literature Classification to revoke the game's rating. This means that the game can no longer be sold, hired or advertised in Australia.
"Businesses that sell or hire computer games should remove existing stocks of this game from their shelves immediately," said the director of the ratings board, Des Clark. "Parents are strongly advised to exercise caution in allowing children continued access to the game, particularly if they have might have access to the 'Hot Coffee' modification."
The Hot Coffee modification was created by a Dutch fan of the game, who found a way to unlock explicit sexual scenes in San Andreas.
US concerns
GTA's publisher, Take Two, initially denied the scenes were part of the game but later admitted they were contained in the retail version of San Andreas.
The case has caused an uproar in the US, where the game was re-classified as an adults only title, leading big retail chains to pull it from the shelves.
US politicians, such as Senator Hilary Clinton, have called for an investigation into the issue and a woman has filed a lawsuit over the game.
The team behind San Andreas, Rockstar Games, has stopped producing the current version of the game and is working on a version without the controversial content.
GTA: San Andreas was one of the best-selling games of 2004. The title already has an 18 age rating in the UK. Wonderful pointless bruhaha and political dustup. No matter what animated (it's just drawings, after all, nothing more) scenes there may be in the game, you can see the real thing with far far less trouble in a hundred different venues. Pooperific -- much ado about nada -- and typical vacuous MSM reaction.
#1
This just means the game pirates will be more popular
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
07/30/2005 3:10 Comments ||
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#2
It's a M rating people. That means that it's for adults. Thats what parents are for. BTW it's a legal product in the US. It's is still for sale in plenty of places.
#6
Oh, I really do think boys (and of course men) should be allowed to role-play beating people to death with baseball bats, raping prostitutes and then killing them when they're all finished. And hey, it's fun! and everybody does it!! This will have no affect on civilization at all.
/ sarcasm
I usually agree with you .com, but I think you are wrong on this one. I really believe the dark ages are descending on us very quickly because people can't determine right from wrong anymore. We are going back to the days of the barbarians and I really want no part of it. Please men, stand up for what is right and good or we and all our families will pay for it the hard way.
#7
Point taken, SE - I saw it, played around with it for about 30 minutes and tossed it. It was crap.
But that wasn't my point - or the point of the story. My point was that the "secret" titillating scenes exposed by the crack are of little significance -- the point of the story is about how these scenes are terrible, not the game itself, lol. I find that perfectly silly. Agreed that the rest of the game is shit. I thought it would be cool - given all the reviews, but it wasn't.
[soapbox - skip if uninterested]
You're not of the school that simple exposure to X makes one an X person, are you? It's clear that each of us chooses among a bazillion things everyday. Why do we choose this over that? Internal compass? Peer pressure? Social pressure? Gullibility? Repetition wears us down? Yes, to a degree - to all. When parents and peers and institutions have done a fair job of it, then we have a good solid compass and are not nearly so vulnerable to stupid decisions, such as the perverse scenario of GTA. In self-defense, smart people will chose to avoid the situations that force them to make uncomfortable choices. That first time, when it's unexpected, is probably the biggest danger. That's where screening their friends comes into play. You can't control your economic situation all the time, but you can keep your kid away from the screwups - mimicing their screwed up parents.
Recall a book called, "If You Meet The Buddha On The Road, Kill Him"? Lol - it's real. What that books (and title) really boils down to is external vs internal truths and values. If it's external, it's not worth warm spit - it won't hold up or guide you when the heat (peer pressure, etc) is on. It must be an internalized value to stand up to the pressure - wherever it comes from. Parents should protect their children from perversities, making the choices for them and shielding them from as much of the negativity as possible, until they are sufficiently armed with internal values to make their own choices. Incrementally works best, of course. If they then jump off the cliff after that, then the reason is they never really internalized the values - they were just playing "please the person with power" game they learned in the crib... not the same thing at all.
I made it a point, as a father, a single father for 10 yrs, BTW, not to teach my daughter what to think or believe, but how to think for herself and about how to detect the motives of others. I never talked down to her, never refused to tell her the truth (Santa Clause, etc, bit the dust early, lol), and listened to her with my full attention. To my surprise, it was a terrific experience.
I had one hard 'n fast rule - yep, only one:
The default answer to anything she wanted was "Yes". When it was "No" I explained why in language she understood, until she understood and agreed it made sense, and brooked no further argument.
Believe it or not, it worked great. She began to think about things before asking, and in short order the dumb requests disappeared. We only had two bad hiccups in a decade - and those were great lessons - for both of us. I made it a point, which cost me dearly in time and effort, to follow through on everything. I kept all of my promises, both good and bad. I made it a point to never be arbitrary. It was a real pain in the ass, sometimes, but it surprised the hell out of me how much fun it turned out to be. I became "one of the kids" to all her friends. They talked to me openly. I could drive, lol, that seemed to be what truly set me apart. I never had so much fun in my whole life. Just picture a gaggle of 13 yr old girls asking a Dad to come to the mall and hang out with them. Lol, they did - and sometimes I went along, heh. What a trip. Anyway - that's what worked for me and my great daughter. I tried, very hard, not to confuse her or screw her up with my flaws, which are many, yet protect her until she was ready to go it alone. I lucked out - she's really cool.
[/soapbox]
#8
raping prostitutes and then killing them when they're all finished.
Wow, I finished the game without coming across that little feature, I assume you have actually done/seen this?
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
07/30/2005 7:09 Comments ||
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#9
Heh, Paul - I didn't kill any hookers, either. I found it pretty much as it was reviewed on Something Awful - but it has aged off the list, it appears. Anyone who doesn't worship the GTA games is pretty much reviled by the spastic twits of X generation, lol.
#10
Well having just turned 23 and been playing video games all my life, albeit much less frequently now, I am reminded of the similar 'controversies' caused by violent games of my yoof, like Mortal Kombat and Doom. Of course all the controversy did was ensure that those games became 10 times as popular, which is what has happened with the GTA series too.
The ironic thing is that GTA is pretty much made specifically for those of us who played those games as yoofs, but are now in our twenties and have lots of disposable income, and yet we are still prevented from playing the game (in Oz at least).
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
07/30/2005 7:44 Comments ||
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#11
It is odd that the presence of ACTUAL SEX SCENES!!! is more shocking to these people than the plotline of GTA:SA -- a ghetto kid returns to the ghetto to find his gang and family under attack, so he turns to crime and violence to fight back. The cops are corrupt, the government corrupt, and the only people he can trust are the ones wearing his colors.
In the middle of the game, there's an all-out turf war. You gather up some gangbangers, head off into enemy territory, and shoot it out until you take control of that section of the city.
But it's some digitally modeled bump-and-grind that has them upset.
*sigh*
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/30/2005 7:58 Comments ||
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#12
I'm pretty libertarian in my political views. But I am also concerned about a certain desensitization to violence, including rape, that our popular culture creates. Games are part of that.
I'm not calling for banning it - although I think there's a good case to be made for keeping it out of the hands of children and teens. But I'm worried about the cummulative effects of this stuff.
Posted by: anon fem ||
07/30/2005 8:02 Comments ||
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#13
I loved the tech aspects of Doom, Quake, Wing Commander, UFO, even GTA, the graphics were stunning, realtive to the rest, but the gameplay was so repetitive that it bored me to tears very quickly. I could get them for next to nothing in Thailand - and just toss 'em if they failed to please. I actually went out an bought a comm'l copy of Civ II so I would have the book that explained the interdependence of advances, the big chart, and how it was designed. Pretty cool, IMO.
I guess I enjoyed Civilization II for longer than any other game I've ever played. Still have a copy and try to beat my best score every once in awhile. Civ III looked snazzier, but was less playable, IMHO. I'm still looking for a game that will keep my interest like Civ II did. Suggestions, knowing that's what pushed my buttons?
#14
I'll add one thing to .com's rant based on my own experience. Never, ever, reward bad behaviour, don't punish it either, just prove it doesn't produce results. OTOH reward and encourage cooperation. I did this at an early age with my daughter and now get on fine with her and have no 'control' problems.
#15
anon fem - Understood - completely. That's where shielding them, mainly by controlling who and where they hang out, is so important, IMHO. Just once I let my daughter hang around with a kid I recognized was likely a bad apple - I got to know most of them well since I coached every sport she played. When that kid tried to commit suicide (who knows if a legit attempt), I learned my lesson. The upside was that it scared the crap out of my daughter. Being a parent is a no-shit fulltime job. Being a good parent, anyway. My daughter does not need anyone's approval, including mine, lol, to feel okay or good about herself. And that turned out to be the key to resisting the BS.
#16
There are arguably 2 effects at work with violent computer games, one is they desensitize people to real violence and make them likely to perform real acts of violence. The other is it allows people to vicariously work out their violent tendencies.
Public policy should be (but is often not) concerned with aggregate effects. That is, does something produce more good than bad effects. Computer games many of them violent have exploded and many people play them. Yet at the same time violence offenses by especially young men has declined. The evidence would seem compelling that violent computer games do not produce an increase in violent acts and in fact results in the opposite, a decline.
#17
All the reputable (not agenda-driven) studies I've seen do not support the social engineer's favorite assertion: movies, TV, and games alter behavioral actions. When the homelife and classrooms are studied, the places the child spends the most time in, they see fairly faithful replication of the relationships in those settings. The time-killers and distractions are a drop in the bucket compared to the interplay they witness and participate in. If it's unambiguous and respectful, then that become the child's model. If it's demeaning, violent, hateful, etc - then that become the child's idea of the norm.
This may be where I part company with you, phil -- I think the key is to avoid arbitrary expectations. A clear unmoving line separating acceptable from unacceptable behavior works very very well. Punishment for bad behavior and rewards for good. Same standards every day. So I'm old-fashioned in that regard and it's pretty obvious stuff:
What is rewarded is replicated and what is punished is avoided - if they understand why, anyway.
A small variation, I think, on something you said fits here, too. I always answered my daughter's questions - no matter how wild or off the wall, not patronizing her, as I believe that making a topic out of bounds creates a mystery that makes it irresistable to most children. So it made sense to me to demystify things. When my daughter first started asking awkward questions, we would sit down, pop some popcorn, and talk. Usually, if either of us was embarrassed, it was me, lol. She was so matter-of-fact about some topics, due to our approach at home, that it freaked her friends and sometimes her teachers out, lol. I could tell you some doozies, lol. She would always be mildly bemused by those around her freaking out, heh.
#18
The crime here is that the company committed fraud against both the ratings board and the distributors. The company had to submit both a distribution disk and a complete narative of what was on the disk to the board. That version got an American M rating, restricting sells to those 17 and above. It 'somehow' failed to mention the material for the Hot Coffee modification, which some enterprising Geek was able to unlock. Now the company did that either through commission or ommission. However, anyone who's be in the software development/engineering side of the house knows that the discipline of Configuration Management [let alone just real adult leadership] would preclude the material being allowed into the production stream. That process has been around for thirty years, so there is really no excuse.
The stupidity involved here is that GTA is a series with an established base and reputation. The company didn't need to sell public and could have simply sold over the internet. It still would have been profitable, but not quite as profitable as using the traditional distribution network, which will not handle AO rated games.
Bottom line is that the Board has no reason to trust the company anylonger in its submissions, so it has no reasonable need to review anymore products, effectively making all future games basically unrated and therefore treated as AO which distributors will not touch. Likewise, distributors, now being burned, will probably not touch their products even if the board is stupid enough to put their integrity on the line and continue to issue ratings for them. Basically, the company is now a piece of property to be purchased by a semi-monopoly like Electronic Arts for its titles and copyrights. Market forces, to include suits from the board and distributors, are going to terminate Take Two more effectively than the government or individuals can do.
The lawsuit identified by the article involves a Grandmother who supplied her 14 year old grandson a copy of the game and is now sueing because of the 'content'. Well Grandma, since the box as clearly labeled 17+, you have now just admitted you, to buy your grandson's favor and pump up your ego, provided a minor inappropriate material even before the notification of ratings change. I think Grandma needs a visit from Child Protective Services.
#19
Phil_b, I've been dropping into the porn lists on USENET for years and don't think it's an accident that there has been an explosion of paedophiles attacking and often killing children right about the time that really graphic porn along these lines became common on the Net.
Posted by: too true ||
07/30/2005 9:11 Comments ||
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#20
"If You Meet The Buddha On The Road, Kill Him"
Roy Masters, right? My dad's a big fan, I'll see if he has a copy I can borrow.
#21
tt - How do you know there has been an explosion? Aren't you depending upon the press for that info, and that it wasn't winked at and swept under the carpet in times past? There may, indeed, be an explosion of prosecutions and the attendant news, but I doubt that people's behavior has drastically altered in recent years per your suggestion. Porn has ALWAYS been available - sure it's even moreso now, but it was always there and anyone with a penchant to act would have had no trouble acquiring it. You'll have to do more than just make an assertion.
I've read the stuff on this, too. I had a daughter to protect - and did. I even participated in shutting down two pedo sites in Louisiana after reporting them to the Fibbies. They didn't even know how to pick off the IP addy way back then, lol. It helps to have an agent as a friend to get their attention, of course. When we could guarantee we had the goods on them, then the local office chief would okay the action. He loved being on TV.
SU - Indeed, sounds like Granny's got some double-standards issues... I wouldn't mind if gangbanger crap was pulled off the shelves - in the computer shops, music stores, the worx. It's all about greed and power trips, nothing else I can see.
#22
docob - No, it was a shrink, here's the Amazon link. Actually, the best thing about it was the Appendix - called the Laundry List: 43 of the 927 Immutable Truths - you have to say this with your tongue firmly planted in you cheek, lol. A truly insightful and useful little list. I can prolly still rattle off 10 or 20 of 'em, lol!
The Universe is not necessarily just, being good often does not pay off, and there is no compensation for misfortune. Yet it is your responsibility to do your best, anyway.
Something like that - I'm sure I've mangled the last sentence somewhat. Swallowing and digesting that baby is a big step toward becoming an adult, heh.
#25
Phil B - "The evidence would seem compelling that violent computer games do not produce an increase in violent acts and in fact results in the opposite, a decline."
That's a huge assumption. I would suggest that most law enforcement would not agree that a reduction in violent acts was due to the explosion of violent video games. I believe that it is generally believed to be because of dramatically increased incarceration rates and the reduction of the crack cocaine epidemic and the aging of the population. Probably due to increased use of psychotropic prescription drugs on people and especially youth also.
My personal experience is that young men and women (and older people too) have become rude, provocative and increasingly aggressive and hard to deal with, with no thought as to any boundaries whatsoever other than "it's a free country and I can do what I want". In Southern California I believe a 13 year old baseball player just bludgeoned to death another player with a baseball bat as his first reaction to some taunting, I would certainly love to know if he played Grand Theft Auto and therefore his immediate reation was a learned violent response. I know what bet I would be placing. But then I live in California which is an increasingly difficult place to live and we are always at the forefront of things to come elsewhere, so watch out, the good times are probably coming your way too.
#26
I think the key is to avoid arbitrary expectations. I have no idea what you are talking about, but I can clarify what I mean by a hypothetical conversation.
Daughter: "Why should I cooperate with you?"
Me: "You don't have to cooperate with me. Here is the bus schedule to get to the video store, and this book will tell you how to cook the corned beef for dinner the way you like it."
Its the cause and effect thing we always go on about. And its fun to watch the lightbulb go on.
#27
However, anyone who's be in the software development/engineering side of the house knows that the discipline of Configuration Management [let alone just real adult leadership] would preclude the material being allowed into the production stream.
*snort*
How many years have you spent in software development? Disabled cruft, jokes, and miscellaneous slop make it into the production streams on every project. You've gotta ship what's been tested. Rock Star perhaps should have disclosed the existence of a scene that can be enabled in software, but I'll bet their contract with the ratings board specified only what's accessible in the normal process of play and through published cheat codes.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/30/2005 11:49 Comments ||
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#28
In Southern California I believe a 13 year old baseball player just bludgeoned to death another player with a baseball bat as his first reaction to some taunting, I would certainly love to know if he played Grand Theft Auto and therefore his immediate reation was a learned violent response. I know what bet I would be placing.
Or, maybe he was just immersed in the thug ethos, and had parents who never bothered to actually raise him. I mean, c'mon, GTA:SA isn't rated "Teen", it's rated "Mature 17+". The box lists:
Blood and Gore
Intense Violence
Strong Language
Strong Sexual Content
Use of Drugs
That's actually a longer list than GTA:VC, which only says "Violence" and doesn't list "Use of Drugs".
If that kid played GTA, it's because his parents didn't want to be bothered raising him. I'd put my money on that being infinitely more damaging than any video game, movie, music, or whatever.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/30/2005 11:56 Comments ||
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#29
How many years have you spent in software development? Disabled cruft, jokes, and miscellaneous slop make it into the production streams on every project.
Don't know about SU3734, but in my case it was 27 years before I moved into a related field. And I guarantee you there was no such stuff in the products we shipped - neither DOD nor the corporate customers we served would have tolerated it one bit.
And yes, they got source code - directly, in DOD's case and in escrow for our corp custs.
Posted by: too true ||
07/30/2005 11:58 Comments ||
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#30
EEK! I haven't played San Andreas yet. But I have GTA Vice City, it didin't rot my brain. But it's clearly labled mature. Kid's who play this game have poor parental supervision.
That is what this all comes down to Parenting. If you parent your child well, 99.9% of the time you end up with good results. Video Games or not.
#31
You are only 23, Paul? Wow! I had you pegged as having had much more life experience. Another Dan Darling-type youthful genius -- Rantburg does seem to attract y'all.
In my yoof the worriers had a thing about dungeons and dragons. In every generation they have to find something to worry about. The key is to make sure that you are rearing your children, not jest letting them grow.
#32
And I guarantee you there was no such stuff in the products we shipped - neither DOD nor the corporate customers we served would have tolerated it one bit.
Different market. Different requirements.
While lots of money depends on what I've worked on, no lives do. As a result, what matters is that it works as expected, not that the code is squeaky clean.
I have no doubt there's even less pressure for pristine code in the video game industry.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/30/2005 14:25 Comments ||
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#33
I wonder if Granny even *knew* the details of what was in GTA:San Andreas when she bought it, or was even paying attention, until she turned on the TV news and heard about the sex scandal.
As for getting all the gangbanger stuff off the market... I agree.
Unfortunately, doing that has been ruled unconstitutional. Just about the only limitations on free speech that isn't labeled unconstitutional are sexual in nature, and it's so unevenly enforced that if you try to start you look like a hypocrite.
(Well, there's also the McCain-Feingold laws, which heavily impact the main speech that the founders wrote the first amendment to protect.)
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
07/30/2005 16:28 Comments ||
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#34
If you ban the good games they'll be in the pool halls swillin down cheap beer and reading the Classix Comic Version of Tropic of Cancer.
DOZENS of Queensland islands including the Townsville suburb of Magnetic Island have effectively been removed from the list of official Australian territories under changes to the migration zone.
The changes, along with a detention centre to be built at Burpengary north of Brisbane, will place Queensland in the front line of the Federal Government's campaign to dissuade asylum-seekers.
Boatpeople will have to reach the mainland before being able to claim refugee status and before being able to apply for visas.
Islands including the Whitsundays, Lindeman Island, Hayman Island, Magnetic Island and Dunk Island are included in the latest list of land that will no longer be part of Australia for the purposes of people seeking asylum.
Every island north of the Tropic of Capricorn has been excised.
In Queensland, that includes islands north of Mackay, or in Western Australia, islands north of Exmouth.
The Federal Government has been trying to implement the migration zone changes since the rush of boatpeople to Australia in 2001, when 1544 people were intercepted en route to Australia in three months, and were processed in Papua New Guinea and Nauru.
That number has fallen considerably since border protection amendments were introduced after the Tampa incident.
Despite four attempts, there has been Senate opposition to making all islands outside the migration zone. But with the Government set to gain control of the Senate this month, Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone has asked the Governor-General to approve the new regulations.
Major settlements outside the list of official territories for migration purposes already include Thursday Island in far north Queensland and Groote, Melville, Barrow and the Tiwi islands in the Northern Territory. In 2001, the Labor Party voted with the Government to remove Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Ashmore Reef and Christmas Island.
The Government believes ruling islands out of the migration zone will deter asylum-seekers by boat because they are likely to be detected before reaching the mainland. Asylum-seekers cannot make a valid visa application outside the migration zone.
Refugee advocate Kate Gauthier from A Just Australia said the Government was tinkering with the edges of Australia itself.
Opposition immigration spokesman Tony Burke said: "This latest excision raises alarm bells about whether the Howard Government has any intention of changing the culture of the Immigration Department."
The new $2.8 million detention centre will hold low-risk illegal immigrants detained in Queensland.
The "lodge and motel-style accommodation" for up to 18 people is part of the Federal Government's so-called "flexible detention arrangements" aimed at keeping people out of correctional institutions. It comes just weeks after a damning report into the wrongful detention of Cornelia Rau, who was held in a Queensland prison for six months before being transferred to Baxter Detention Centre in South Australia.
To be called the Queensland Immigration Transit Accommodation Centre, it will hold people who have been refused entry at Queensland's international airports, or those overstaying their visas who have have been picked up during immigration raids.
There are four illegal immigrants in Queensland correctional facilities. A controversial 550-bed immigration detention centre earmarked for Pinkenba in Brisbane's northeast remains on hold.
Senator Vanstone said the new residential accommodation for short-term immigration detainees would be located at Shaftesbury Campus, about 40km north of Brisbane.
"In all cases, it is envisaged that people accommodated at QITA will be either removed, or considered for alternatives locally or interstate within a very short time, generally less than a week," Senator Vanstone said.
But the announcement has been attacked by state member for Murrumba Dean Wells, whose electorate takes in the centre.
Mr Well said Senator Vanstone had not considered the wishes of local residents before giving the green light for the new centre.
"My view of this is that it would have been really good if they'd consulted the community," Mr Wells said.
The facility will be privately run by GSL Australia, which has operated Australia's detention centres since February last year.
On Magnetic Island, the president of the community association and local tour bus operator, Lorna Hempstead, said the change did not make the locals feel less Australian.
"It's just an administrative title - it doesn't make us feel less like Australians," she said.
#3
From Tippers link - Australia's Refugee and Humanitarian Program offers protection to asylum seekers who have entered Australia, either without a visa or as temporary entrants, and who are found to be owed Australia's protection under the United Nations 1951 Convention and 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees (the Refugees Convention) and relevant Australian laws. Asylum seekers who are found to be owed Australia's protection under the Refugees Convention, and who satisfy health, character and security requirements, are granted a Protection Visa.
Applicants may be granted either a permanent Protection visa, for those who have entered Australia lawfully, or a three-year Temporary Protection visa in the first instance, for those who entered Australia in an unauthorised way.
It looks like a way to get around this UN Convention on asylum seekers.
A German company is looking to cash in on an expected boom in the sex trade during next year's soccer World Cup with a 60-room brothel a walk away from Berlin's Olympic Stadium, German media reported on Friday.
Named after the virgin huntress of Greek mythology, the "Artemis" complex is due to open for business in September with whirlpool, sauna, cinema, buffet restaurant and a staff of 100 prostitutes, mass circulation daily Bild reported.
"This is no flash rip-off joint where clients are taken for a ride," a spokesman for the Artemis GmbH investment company behind the project, told the newspaper.
Prostitution is legal in Germany in designated areas. Dortmund, one of 11 other cities to host World Cup matches, has said it will install drive-in wooden "sex garages" in time for the tournament in a bid to keep the trade off the streets.
But the Artemis project does not enjoy the backing of Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit. "We have no need for that," he told Bild.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/30/2005 15:15 ||
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Berlin mayor Klaus "hand job" Wowereit. Has no need for that. Well that understandable he is a full blown pinko. A significant number of Germans population does however fell the need for that. I suggest tehy enjoy it.
#3
"At three years old, Artemis asked her father, Zeus, while sitting on the god king's knee, to grant her several wishes. She asked for grant her perpetual virginity, lop-eared hounds, does to lead her chariot, and nymphs as her hunting companions. He granted her wishes. All of her companions remained virgins, and she guarded her chastity very closely."
On March 17, Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS), introduced S. 659, the Human Chimera Prohibition Act of 2005. The bill would prohibit any person from creating, or attempting to create a human chimera. A "human chimera" is broadly defined to include various methods of mixing non-human cells into human embryos. The bill includes both civil and criminal penalties. S. 659 has no cosponsors and was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Dr. Moreau: What is the law?
Sayer of the Law: Not to eat meat, that is the law. Are we not men?
Beasts (in unison): Are we not men?
Dr. Moreau: What is the law?
Sayer of the Law: Not to go on all fours, that is the law. Are we not men?
Beasts (in unison): Are we not men?
Dr. Moreau: What is the law?
Sayer of the Law: Not to spill blood, that is the law. Are we not men?
Beasts (in unison): Are we not men?
DAKAR, Senegal - In Niger, a desert country twice the size of Texas, most of the 11 million people live on a dollar a day. Forty percent of children are underfed, and one out of four dies before turning 5. And that's when things are normal. Throw in a plague of locusts, and a familiar spectacle emerges: skeletal babies, distended bellies, people too famished to brush the flies from their faces.
To the aid workers charged with saving the dying, the immediate challenge is to raise relief money and get supplies to the stricken areas. They leave it to the economists and politicians to come up with a lasting remedy.
One such economist is James Shikwati. He blames foreign aid.
"When aid money keeps coming, all our policy-makers do is strategize on how to get more," said the Kenya-based director of the Inter Region Economic Network, an African think tank.
"They forget about getting their own people working to solve these very basic problems. In Africa, we look to outsiders to solve our problems, making the victim not take responsibility to change."
Aid groups say Niger's catastrophe could have been averted â that early warning systems were in place, and the United Nations and other humanitarian agencies warned of imminent food shortages late last year. In November, Niger's government issued an emergency appeal for 78,000 tons of food. Donors, busy with higher-profile crises, barely responded.
The following month came the Indian Ocean tsunami that entirely eclipsed Africa's misery on the world's TV screens.
Aid workers say heading off famine needs long-term, steady funding. Some still don't get it.
At a feeding center in Mada Roufa, in eastern Niger, Mai Sali, a local employee of the international relief organization
Doctors Without Borders, praised those (aid) efforts, but agreed crisis aid was not the answer. "We need to find other long-term solutions. We can't just address emergencies," he said.
"Victims" everywhere are in the same boat. Give a victim a fish and feed him/her for a day. Teach a victim to fish, and feed her/him for life.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/30/2005 16:37 ||
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Foreign Aid Causes Famine
Well, yeah.
It props up dictators and causes dependency.
Pfui.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/30/2005 19:53 Comments ||
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#2
Well, yeah. It wasn't news to me! But fo rYahoo news to allow it in print? THAT was news, I thought!
And the parallel to 'victime' everywhere? That's mine.
Aid can cause dependency. Maybe even co-dependency.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/30/2005 22:24 Comments ||
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Technology that helps the military align targets and motorists find their way is being tapped to track some sex offenders forever.
Spurred by headlines of released sex offenders accused of murder, some states are mandating use of the Global Positioning System for tracking. Many lawmakers see electronic monitoring as a natural evolution of statutes that already require sex offenders to register their addresses with authorities.
At least four states _ Florida, Missouri, Ohio and Oklahoma _ passed laws this year requiring lifetime electronic monitoring for some sex offenders, even if their sentences would normally have expired. Similar bills have been proposed in Congress and other states, including North Dakota and Alabama, where lawmakers this week approved legislation and sent it to the governor.
But some civil-rights experts and defense attorneys contend such requirements are too onerous and attach the stigma and inconvenience of electronic anklets and GPS transmitters to those who may never commit a crime again.
GPS monitoring makes sense for a small group of high-risk offenders, evaluated case-by-case, said John La Fond, a law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and author of the recently published book "Preventing Sexual Violence."
"A law that requires that everyone who has committed a crime against a young child should be subject to lifetime locator technology is simply foolish," La Fond said.
After a registered sex offender was charged in March with killing 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, Florida legislators quickly mandated tougher prison sentences for people who commit sex offenses against children and required lifetime GPS monitoring after serving time.
Missouri Sen. Matt Bartle liked the Florida legislation so much that he copied and expanded it to include repeat sex offenders who commit crimes _ such as exposing oneself to a child _ that would otherwise be punishable by seven years or less of imprisonment.
Bartle said he intentionally cast a wide net.
"I think the general public is really not terribly confident that we're getting it right when it comes to pedophiles _ that this individual case-by-case approach is leading to some very horrific situations," he said.
A new Oklahoma law also requires habitual sex offenders to wear GPS monitoring devices for the rest of their lives. Ohio's budget funds lifetime GPS monitoring only for people classified as sexually violent predators.
Many other states use GPS monitoring for selected people on probation or parole but the monitoring ends with the sentence.
People on the tracking system must wear the electronic waterproof ankle bands at all times and stay within a certain distance from their separate GPS transmitters, which can be carried on belts, in purses or set down on desks and tables when at work or home. The transmitter is about 3 inches long and tall and 1 1/2 inches wide.
Part of what makes the technology attractive is the ability to trigger automatic alerts to law enforcement authorities _ by e-mail, cell phone text messages or faxes _ anytime sex offenders approach off-limits areas like a school or stray from their designated route between work and home.
Local authorities also have the ability to pinpoint a person's location at any moment _ shown as a dot on a computer map that contains street names and the offender's traveling direction and speed.
Pro Tech Monitoring Inc. already uses GPS technology to follow about 5,000 people on parole, probation and house arrest in 38 states, said Richard Nimer, its vice president for business development. He said inquiries about offender tracking services spiked nearly fourfold after Lunsford's death.
The GPS technology is not foolproof, however.
Authorities in Boise, Idaho, say paroled child-sex offender William Lightner cut off a GPS bracelet and fled on July 23. Near Tallahassee, Fla., Kenneth Lamberton was wearing a GPS monitor awaiting a child-molestation trial when authorities allege he tried to force one girl into a sex act in March and another to expose herself in April.
Both men had been assigned passive GPS devices that send information once a day. Florida is switching to the active GPS devices, which instantly alert authorities to any violations.
Florida's experience shows offenders on GPS tracking are less likely to get in trouble than those under traditional supervision. The state Department of Corrections followed about 16,000 offenders placed on community supervision in the 2001-2002 fiscal year, including more than 1,000 under GPS monitoring.
Two years later, the department had revoked the community release of 31 percent of those on GPS monitoring, compared with 44 percent of those under traditional supervision. Nearly 6 percent of GPS-monitored offenders had committed new felonies or misdemeanors, compared with 11 percent of those who were not electronically monitored.
Lifetime electronic monitoring may be preferable to lifelong stints in mental-health institutions, said Jack King of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. But rather than targeting entire categories of criminals, states should mandate it after individual hearings, he said.
Kansas City civil-rights attorney Arthur Benson already is challenging Missouri's lifetime sexual offender registry.
"While these laws are often couched in terms of protecting the public against repeat offenses, at heart they are vengeful, punishing acts," Benson said. What argument could be made against doing this to all repeat offenders not perpetually imprisoned with "three strikes" laws? What about first time felony offenders? Habitual misdemeanor offenders that are public nuisances? Non-Hispanic illegal aliens released on recognisance by the INS? All non-citizens residing or visiting the US? People under subpoena to appear in court? People on welfare and food stamps to insure that they meet the numerous government-required courses, classes, check-ins and meetings they must attend to continue receiving their support? Young men eligible for the draft? Minor age students to insure they attend school? All children to insure that they are not abducted or removed to places they shouldn't be?
#2
Kansas City civil-rights attorney Arthur Benson already is challenging Missouri's lifetime sexual offender registry.
"While these laws are often couched in terms of protecting the public against repeat offenses, at heart they are vengeful, punishing acts," Benson said.
I'm having a hard time seeing the problem with them being "vengeful, punishing acts". Aren't we supposed to punish criminals?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/30/2005 20:17 Comments ||
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#3
At what point do you stop punishing criminals? The way many sex laws are now prosecuted is almost random. A child molester might plea down to a misdemeanor; but a different prosecutor may brand a man who pats a stripper on the bottom as a lifetime sexual offender (I knew one). There is no rhyme or reason to it, and no justice when an evenly cruel punishment is the only standard. Irrational justice is no better than mob justice, just slower. Pandering to the sadism of the mob.
#4
Moose, it sounds like your problem is with the arbitrary application of the laws, not with the laws.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
07/30/2005 20:40 Comments ||
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#5
I would be leery unless they word it very tightly. At least one drunken barhopper who peed in the street was convicted of "exposing himself to a minor."
"While these laws are often couched in terms of protecting the public against repeat offenses, at heart they are vengeful, punishing acts," Benson said.
Well, yeah.
And your point....?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/30/2005 21:40 Comments ||
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#7
Robert Crawford: exactly right. When a law is so arbitrarily prosecuted that individuals common sense tells us are dangerous are let go, and unlucky fools who commit petty offenses are branded for life, what kind of punishment is merited? The public wants, the public deserves, to have awful criminals taken out of circulation. But do we really want the equivalent of the death penalty for spitting on the sidewalk, if some prosecuter has a bizarre agenda against sidewalk spitters? A good law, haphazardly applied, is injustice. And a good idea, perhaps, using GPS to track vicious sex offenders, can itself be perverted to awful ends. Will a precendent be established for the worst of the worst, that can then be extrapolated for far lesser offenses? I might remind that within a year of its passage, some of the anti-terrorist legislation was already being abused to prosecute drug cases. It may have been effective, but it was not the original intent, nor could it have passed in the first place for that purpose.
Found via Jeff Foust's Space Today, which is probably a good place to go for updates.
Astronomers Discover "10th Planet"
After 75 years of speculation and false leads, it finally seems to have happened. A team of astronomers using the 48-inch Samuel Oschin Telescope at Palomar Observatory and the 8-meter Gemini North telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, has discovered the largest Kuiper Belt object (KBO) ever.
It is bigger than Pluto, the 9th planet.
The object, designated 2003 UB313, is currently 97 astronomical units (Earth-Sun distances) away â more than twice Pluto's average distance from the Sun. It is a scattered-disk object, meaning that at some point in its history Neptune likely flung it into its highly inclined (44°) orbit. It's currently glowing at magnitude 18.9 in the constellation Cetus.
Discoverers Michael E. Brown (Caltech), Chad Trujillo (Gemini Observatory), and David Rabinowitz (Yale University) first imaged the object on October 21, 2003, but didn't see it move in the sky until reimaging the same area 15 months later on January 8, 2005.
"We tried looking at it with the Spitzer Space Telescope and didn't detect it. So we have an upper limit on the size. It can't be any more than 3,000 kilometers across," says Brown. But the lower limit derived from its brightness â even by assuming its surface is 100 percent reflective â still makes it larger than Pluto, which is 2,250 km (1,400 miles) across...
And Yet Another Big KBO
And on the planet discovery reported Friday AM:
A second big Kuiper Belt discovery also made news today: 2003 EL61. That body, located about 52 a.u. away, was discovered by Brown and his team and was also reported by astronomers at the Sierra Nevada Observatory in Spain. It appears to be the third-largest Kuiper Belt object known to date, with about 70 percent of Pluto's diameter â bested only by Pluto itself and 2003 UB313.
Moreover, by a great stroke of luck, 2003 EL61 has a tiny satellite revolving around it, at an apparent distance of about 1.5 arcseconds. According to Brown's group, the satellite completes an orbit every 49 days in a nearly circular orbit some 49,500 km (30,760 miles) from the main body. The satellite's orbit has allowed the team to determine the mass of 2003 EL61: about a quarter that of Pluto.
Brown and his team have also looked at 2003 EL61 with the Spitzer Space Telescope. Those observations are still being analyzed, but, Brown notes, "The spectra are dominated by water ice. It looks much like [Pluto's moon] Charon."
Well, at least it's made out of different stuff than Sedna. They still haven't figured it out. It's probably an isomer of Illudium Phosdex unknown to earth science.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
07/30/2005 00:46 ||
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#1
I'll place my bet on glistening vibrafoam. The albedo sounds about right.
#11
I'm for kicking Pluto out of the planetary count. If you can't stay in the plane of the other planets, you get disqualified. Sounds like these scientists are finding a lot of big snowballs.
Ah, Louis Wu. With all the craptaculars at the movies nowadays, when is someone finally going to give Ringworld big-screen treatment?
#12
Well, the scifi channel is doing Ringworld, and will probably do the same to it that they did to (for instance) Riverworld, U. K. Leguin, and the last three years or so of Stargate...
I'm less than thrilled.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
07/30/2005 18:27 Comments ||
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#13
Mizzou Mafia,
Are you one off the fine gents I talked with in the coffee house Sunday AM?
Enjoy this place.
I await the RingWorld movie. Think big! While at it the rest of Niven's "Known Space" is being denied the White Screen.
Niven and Jerry did a good job with Project Orion in one of their joint novel's: FootFall.
Oh, and should you ever be weighing my young son in Mizzou's journalism dept... Don't hold his old man's opinions against him. He is his own man.
>Are you one off the fine gents I talked with in the coffee house Sunday AM?
No, but AzCat might be familiar with my moniker. I live in Tallinn, Estonia.
3dc, I left Ol' Mizzou's j-school in 2003. As a PhD student, Missourian sports editor, and instructor (J-200, New Media class). Would I have known your son?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
