by gofromjrocknyc
April 12, 2013 11:09 am· 2
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North Korea warns: Japan to be first target
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/04/12/north-korea-reportedly-warns-japan-to-be-first-target-over-order-to-destroy/#ixzz2QGIobwsJ
NPR: If the North Koreans launched even a limited artillery strike against the South, South Korean troops would fire back instantly. If North Korea were then to escalate, Presidents Obama in Washington and Park Geun-hye in the Republic of Korea would decide how to respond. That’s the escalation scenario, and it leads to all-out war. I just really really hope NK doesn’t take pot-shots at Japan. The quakes never scared me, but the fuckin’ Kim-Jungs being so close and so well armed, YIKES. UPDATE:  NYT: TOKYO — The Japanese Army set up a battery of interceptor missiles on the grounds of the Defense Ministry in central Tokyo on Tuesday, as the nation girded itself for a possible missile test by North Korea.
by gofromjrocknyc
April 8, 2013 05:36 pm · 4
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NPR:

If the North Koreans launched even a limited artillery strike against the South, South Korean troops would fire back instantly.

If North Korea were then to escalate, Presidents Obama in Washington and Park Geun-hye in the Republic of Korea would decide how to respond.

That’s the escalation scenario, and it leads to all-out war.

I just really really hope NK doesn’t take pot-shots at Japan. The quakes never scared me, but the fuckin’ Kim-Jungs being so close and so well armed, YIKES.

UPDATE: 

NYT:

TOKYO — The Japanese Army set up a battery of interceptor missiles on the grounds of the Defense Ministry in central Tokyo on Tuesday, as the nation girded itself for a possible missile test by North Korea.

The American Interest: Top Chinese leaders told us that they believe Japan is entering a period of right-wing militarist nationalism, and that the purchase of the islands was a deliberate effort by Japan to begin a process of eroding the settlement of World War II, including the Cairo and Potsdam declarations.Chinese leaders speak of China’s “peaceful development”, but some analysts believe that China cannot rise peacefully, and will seek a form of hegemony in East Asia that will lead to conflict with the United States and Japan. This will make a good Call of Duty someday.  I, of course, am rooting for Japan, since China takes american ideas and jobs  AND could give us a few beat-downs in a real war. Also there’s no good bands there.
by gofromjrocknyc
March 13, 2013 05:09 pm ·
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The American Interest:

Top Chinese leaders told us that they believe Japan is entering a period of right-wing militarist nationalism, and that the purchase of the islands was a deliberate effort by Japan to begin a process of eroding the settlement of World War II, including the Cairo and Potsdam declarations.

Chinese leaders speak of China’s “peaceful development”, but some analysts believe that China cannot rise peacefully, and will seek a form of hegemony in East Asia that will lead to conflict with the United States and Japan.


This will make a good Call of Duty someday. 

I, of course, am rooting for Japan, since China takes american ideas and jobs  AND could give us a few beat-downs in a real war. Also there’s no good bands there.

foreignaffairs.com: One of the cherished myths of American history is that plucky Yankees won independence from Great Britain by picking off befuddled redcoats too dense to deviate from ritualistic parade-ground warfare. That is an exaggeration. By the time the Revolution broke out, in 1775, the British were well versed in irregular warfare and were countering it in Europe, the Caribbean, and North America. Redcoats certainly knew enough to break ranks and seek cover in battle when possible, rather than, in the words of one historian, “remaining inert and vulnerable to enemy fire.” The spread of literacy and printed books allowed the American insurgents to appeal for popular support, thereby elevating the role of propaganda and psychological warfare. It is appropriate that the term “public opinion” first appeared in print in 1776, for the American rebels won independence in large part by appealing to the British electorate with documents such as Thomas Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense and the Declaration of Independence. In fact, the outcome of the Revolution was really decided in 1782, when the British House of Commons voted by a narrow margin to discontinue offensive operations. The British could have kept fighting after that date; they could have raised fresh armies even after the defeat at Yorktown in 1781. But not after they had lost the support of parliament. The pen is mightier than the sword! Huh!
by gofromjrocknyc
March 6, 2013 04:56 pm · 9
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foreignaffairs.com:

One of the cherished myths of American history is that plucky Yankees won independence from Great Britain by picking off befuddled redcoats too dense to deviate from ritualistic parade-ground warfare. That is an exaggeration.

By the time the Revolution broke out, in 1775, the British were well versed in irregular warfare and were countering it in Europe, the Caribbean, and North America. Redcoats certainly knew enough to break ranks and seek cover in battle when possible, rather than, in the words of one historian, “remaining inert and vulnerable to enemy fire.”

The spread of literacy and printed books allowed the American insurgents to appeal for popular support, thereby elevating the role of propaganda and psychological warfare. It is appropriate that the term “public opinion” first appeared in print in 1776, for the American rebels won independence in large part by appealing to the British electorate with documents such as Thomas Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense and the Declaration of Independence.

In fact, the outcome of the Revolution was really decided in 1782, when the British House of Commons voted by a narrow margin to discontinue offensive operations. The British could have kept fighting after that date; they could have raised fresh armies even after the defeat at Yorktown in 1781. But not after they had lost the support of parliament.


The pen is mightier than the sword! Huh!

Arctic Combat | Webzen (2012) Doesn’t automatically save your login, doesn’t autodetect your country region: you have to enter a password and select North America, East every single time you play. Disorienting “BUY SHIT NOW NOW NOW!” screens supercrammed full of unclear selections. Loading screens… is the game loading? Is it not? Did I click the right button? IS THIS A BUTTON? Did I do something wrong, did the internet fail me again? No indicator that something is loading, or registering, or HAPPE-FUCKING-NING at all. Good design work there. Misspellings on most pages. Oh you want to use your mousewheel to switch weapons? We don’t acknowledge the existence of mousewheels. We built this game in 1996. Have to switch from Dvorak to Qwerty keyboard in Windows OOPS BUT WE WONT LET YOU ALT-TAB OUT OF THE GAME TO DO THAT. Quit game, switch keyboard input layouts (in Windows, literally two easy clicks), RELOAD STUPID GAME. Ugh I see this WZLauncher.exe screen every time I load the game up!? How virusy! Aaaaaaaand: once in an actual game, the suckitude continues. I don’t know the gaming term for it (FOV maybe), but being in-game, it’s like changing from a lifelike 55mm lens to a 18mm lens. Distances are out out of whack, movement is like you’re dangling on a robot arm, visuals are plain and uninspired. Also, the first level was in THE DESERT. Next level? New York. “Arctic combat”! You get what you pay for.  :( 
by gofromjrocknyc
January 31, 2013 05:09 pm ·
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Arctic Combat | Webzen (2012)

  • Doesn’t automatically save your login, doesn’t autodetect your country region: you have to enter a password and select North America, East every single time you play.
  • Disorienting “BUY SHIT NOW NOW NOW!” screens supercrammed full of unclear selections.
  • Loading screens… is the game loading? Is it not? Did I click the right button? IS THIS A BUTTON? Did I do something wrong, did the internet fail me again? No indicator that something is loading, or registering, or HAPPE-FUCKING-NING at all. Good design work there.
  • Misspellings on most pages.
  • Oh you want to use your mousewheel to switch weapons? We don’t acknowledge the existence of mousewheels. We built this game in 1996.
  • Have to switch from Dvorak to Qwerty keyboard in Windows OOPS BUT WE WONT LET YOU ALT-TAB OUT OF THE GAME TO DO THAT. Quit game, switch keyboard input layouts (in Windows, literally two easy clicks), RELOAD STUPID GAME.
  • Ugh I see this WZLauncher.exe screen every time I load the game up!? How virusy!
  • Aaaaaaaand: once in an actual game, the suckitude continues. I don’t know the gaming term for it (FOV maybe), but being in-game, it’s like changing from a lifelike 55mm lens to a 18mm lens. Distances are out out of whack, movement is like you’re dangling on a robot arm, visuals are plain and uninspired.
  • Also, the first level was in THE DESERT. Next level? New York. “Arctic combat”!

You get what you pay for. 

:( 

by gofromjrocknyc
January 4, 2013 04:09 pm·
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The question is whether Mr Abe can keep the government on-message. In picking his 19-member cabinet he has given reason to doubt that, in the long run, he even wants to. Consider the following. Fourteen in the cabinet belong to the League for Going to Worship Together at Yasukuni, a controversial Tokyo shrine that honours leaders executed for war crimes. Thirteen support Nihon Kaigi, a nationalist think-tank that advocates a return to “traditional values” and rejects Japan’s “apology diplomacy” for its wartime misdeeds. Nine belong to a parliamentary association that wants the teaching of history in schools to give a better gloss to Japan’s militarist era. They deny most of Japan’s wartime atrocities.

The line-up includes Hakubun Shimomura, the new education minister, who wants to rescind not just the landmark 1995 “Murayama statement”, expressing remorse to Asia for Japan’s atrocities, but even annul the verdicts of the war-crimes trials in Tokyo in 1946-48. Mr Abe has made no secret of his wish to revise three of the country’s basic modern charters: the American-imposed constitution of 1946, committing Japan to pacifism; the education law, which Mr Abe thinks undervalues patriotism; and the security treaty with the United States, under which Japan plays a junior role. To describe the new government as “conservative” hardly captures its true character. This is a cabinet of radical nationalists.

http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21569046-shinzo-abes-appointment-scarily-right-wing-cabinet-bodes-ill-region-back-future

I wonder if it’s less about “denying” and more about “that shit was seventy fucking years ago and everyone who did it is dead, can we PLEASE move on.”

by gofromjrocknyc
December 21, 2012 07:25 am · 11
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Sugizo’s guitar picks — “STOP WARS: May the Peace with you” (Be motherfucker, Be with you!)

Collecting picks is a nice way to own something physical by a favorite band that doesn’t break the bank or take up a lot of space.