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For the Global Thinker

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Is the US Provoking a War between Japan and China?

Ex-Envoy Says U.S. Stirs China-Japan Tensions


Excerpt:

Mr. Chen accused the United States of encouraging the right wing in Japan, and fanning a rise of militarism. 

“The U.S. is urging Japan to play a greater role in the region in security terms, not just in economic terms,” he said during his speech at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Hong Kong. That “suits the purpose of the right wing in Japan more than perfectly — their long-held dream is now possible to be realized.”
The United States has said that, in the event of conflict, the disputed islands are covered by its mutual defense treaty with Japan, a position that China has severely criticized since the latest dispute flared last month. 

Mr. Chen described what he called the intervention of the United States in territorial disputes in the South China Sea — where China has been at odds with another American ally, the Philippines — as a way for the United States to expand its influence and restrain the influence of China. 

“Will these countries misjudge and draw China and the United States into a confrontation?” Mr. Chen asked. “The danger is apparent, and China needs to be aware of that.” 

READ MORE HERE...

Thursday, October 25, 2012

The CIA Burglar who went Rogue



Great article, real cloak and dagger stuff...
 
Excerpt:

"This unit was so secret that few people inside CIA headquarters knew it existed; it wasn’t even listed in the CIA's classified telephone book. Officially it was named the Special Operations Division, but the handful of agency officers selected for it called it the Shop.
In Doug Groat’s time there, in the 1980s and early ’90s, the Shop occupied a nondescript one-story building just south of a shopping mall in the Washington suburb of Springfield, Virginia. The building was part of a government complex surrounded by a chain-link fence; the pebbled glass in the windows let in light but allowed no view in or out. 

The men and women of the Shop made up a team of specialists: lock pickers, safecrackers, photographers, electronics wizards and code experts. One team member was a master at disabling alarm systems, another at flaps and seals. Their mission, put simply, was to travel the world and break into other countries’ embassies to steal codes, and it was extraordinarily dangerous. They did not have the protection of diplomatic cover; if caught, they might face imprisonment or execution. The CIA, they assumed, would claim it knew nothing about them."


READ MORE HERE...
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/The-CIA-Burglar-Who-Went-Rogue-169800816.html

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Japan Gets Phone Call Translator



An app offering real-time translations is to allow people in Japan to speak to foreigners over the phone with both parties using their native tongue.

Read More Here...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20004210

Saturday, October 13, 2012

The Story of Amanda Todd



A heartbreaking, yet amazing story of a Vancouver teen who is driven to suicide after experiencing years of bullying both on and offline.  Definitely, worth sharing...

The mother of a teenager who died Wednesday of suspected suicide wants her daughter’s anti-cyber-bullying video to be used to help other young people.

Fifteen-year-old Amanda Todd was found dead in a Port Coquitlam home at 6 p.m. Wednesday, five weeks after she posted a heartbreaking video on YouTube detailing how she was harassed online and bullied.
“I think the video should be shared and used as an anti-bullying tool. That is what my daughter would have wanted,” Carol Todd, Amanda’s mother, told The Vancouver Sun in a message on Twitter.

See full video and story here...
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Port+Coquitlam+teen+driven+death+cyberbullying+with+video/7375941/story.html

Or here... 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej7afkypUsc&feature=g-logo-xit 

Update...

The internet vigilantes: Anonymous hackers' group outs man, 32, 'who drove girl, 15, to suicide by spreading topless photos her...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2218532/Amanda-Todd-Anonymous-names-man-drove-teen-kill-spreading-nude-pictures.html?ICO=most_read_module

 

Monday, October 1, 2012

44% of Americans Support Domestic Drone Policing



This whole drone thing is getting way to scary.  You can kiss any freedom you thought you had in the first place goodbye if this program goes through...

Nearly half the public, 44 percent, supports allowing police forces inside the U.S. to use drones to assist police work, but a significant minority — 36 percent — say they “strongly oppose” or “somewhat oppose” police use of drones, according to a survey last month.

READ MORE HERE...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/a-third-of-the-public-fears-police-use-of-drones-for-surveillance-will-erode-their-privacy/2012/09/27/07657dd2-08d4-11e2-9eea-333857f6a7bd_story.html

A Dangerous New World of Drones

When President George W. Bush declared a "War on Terror" 11 years ago, the Pentagon had fewer than 50 drones.  Now, it has around 7,500.

READ MORE HERE...

http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/01/opinion/bergen-world-of-drones/index.html