In the News
A thread for discussing things that are happening, as they happen.
Date: December 10, 2011
Categories: Non-Muse news, The Universe
Comments RSS TrackBack 40 comments
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Koko's Apprentice
in December 11th, 2011 @ 13:30This is like Hot Topics, except for really current events? Any more word of what happened at VT? I heard they thought the shooter was the student, but haven’t heard a confirmation or anything else recently…
First post?
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bookgirl_me
in December 14th, 2011 @ 15:13New fail thread? Four days with just two posts.
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Piggy
in December 14th, 2011 @ 15:46I think this thread is more of a “use when necessary” thread. We’ve had a lot of discussions in the past about real-time news, but they’ve all been scattered across various random threads; this thread will keep them all in one place for easier viewing in the future.
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Pseudonym
in December 14th, 2011 @ 15:50There haven’t been any humongous news events in the past four days that I can think of…
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Robert Coontz (Administrator)
in December 14th, 2011 @ 16:16Among other things, there are important protests going on in Russia, Syria, and Egypt. There’s what looks like a secret war, or at least sabotage campaign, in Iran. And no one sure what the Occupy movement is going to do next. On the whole, I’d say there’s no shortage of news.
While waiting for a topic to catch fire, though, we could post links to news-as-it-happens discussions in the past: Iran, Egypt (last time), the Virginia Tech shooting (last time), several landmark space launches and landings, etc. You’d have to find them first.
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Cat's Eye
in December 14th, 2011 @ 16:49What the Occupy movement is apparently going to do next is occupy a house in my neighborhood. O.O My school district is tiny and full of rich people, and one particular family happens to be really, really rich, and I’ve been hearing rumors all day that the Occupiers are going to march onto their street! I’m freaked out.
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Pseudonym
in December 14th, 2011 @ 17:06It seems like Occupy Harvard is still going strong. A few days ago I was in Harvard Square and there were little clusters of tourists gaping into Harvard Yard and sticking their cameras through the gates (it was closed because no one is allowed into Harvard Yard without a Harvard ID right now, I think) to take pictures.
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Oobatooba
in December 14th, 2011 @ 19:49I’m really opposed to the whole shutting off the yard thing. It seems completely unfair, considering that they let people without Harvard IDs into dorms, but for some reason they don’t let them in the yard because there are a few tents there. It really seems to me like they’re just looking for an excuse to take the yard back from the public.
I think that the protesters should go somewhere where people without Harvard IDs can see them. What’s the point of a protest that only certain people are allowed to participate in?
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Adeliae
in December 14th, 2011 @ 20:36THISTHISTHIS.
Harvard has been pushing to limiting access to the yard for a while, so I feel like they are grabbing the opportunity right now.
I think the Occupy Harvard movement was well meant, and don’t hold them responsible at all. It’s Harvard, as an institution, that this is reflecting badly on.
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Oobatooba
in December 15th, 2011 @ 19:45I agree with you on the first point completely.
I also agree that they were originally well meant, but I think that they should move their protest to somewhere Harvard can’t close off now. I’m not blaming them for Harvard closing off the yard though.
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KaiYves
in December 14th, 2011 @ 17:33How do we post links to specific comments on past threads?
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Castle
in December 14th, 2011 @ 21:12Right click on “reply” and click “copy link address”.
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Rosebud2
in December 15th, 2011 @ 09:19And if the thread is closed, you can presumably find the links in the source code.
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Castle
in December 15th, 2011 @ 09:33Which you can access by hitting F12 on Chrome and by right clicking to “View page source” on Firefox.
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Choklit Orange
in December 14th, 2011 @ 23:27Occupy [my city] consists of two tents pitched outside a Starbucks with cardboard signs. We are the apathetic 99%.
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Selenium the Quafflebird
in December 15th, 2011 @ 02:16Occupy Hong Kong is pretty much similar, consisting of several tents (more than two, though, I think) pitched under the HSBC building.
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Zinc
in December 15th, 2011 @ 09:50In other news, up in LA there has been a rash of sousaphone (marching tuba) thefts. These things cost $6000 right now, and the schools they were stolen from are from the poorer areas. One poor school lost 13. The theory about why people stole them is this: mariachi bands. As it wouldn’t generate a lot of revenue to melt them down, the thieves would be selling them to people as these tuba players can earn up hundreds of dollars a day.
It’s scary, even down here in Orange County, and our band is kind of paranoid. It’s even made the LA Times front page.
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KaiYves
in December 15th, 2011 @ 12:09I find that rather Surrealist, although indisputably unfortunate.
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Jadestone
in December 15th, 2011 @ 21:06In the newspaper today… I saw Kiki the Great
At least in the online article, but it was in the paper version too. Very cool.
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oxlin
in December 19th, 2011 @ 23:09Oh cool! So there is!
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Piggy
in December 18th, 2011 @ 21:45So Kim Jong-il has officially died. My brain, having been hardwired for extemp, thoroughly asplode. This is either going to be enormous or miniscule. Will other countries take the opportunity for a military venture? Will the DPRK military stage a coup to make official what I think has been more or less true for at least a few years? What will Kim Jong-un do? How will the people of North Korea react? Will there be any attempt at uprising?
My mind is trying to think through a hundred things at once, and I keep getting tangled up. This is just flabbergasting.
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Robert Coontz (Administrator)
in December 18th, 2011 @ 22:00What other country might attack North Korea, and why?
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Piggy
in December 18th, 2011 @ 22:07I don’t think “attack” is the right word to use. Officially it would be more like an “intervention” or thereabouts. “Attack” implies that the desire is to negatively impact the country. Anyway, South Korea would be the most obvious country, but it’s possible China might try something as well. Whoever it would be, their motives would be the same as for any other military operation–control, in one form or another, whether good or bad. Military action is unlikely, but I think it definitely has to be considered as a possible event.
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muselover (who doesn't like username tags)
in December 18th, 2011 @ 22:23Huh. Piggy is the one who informs me about all of these things.
I agree with him on this. The real question is, what happens now?
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Castle
in December 18th, 2011 @ 22:40Well, Kim Jong Il’s son is going to be/has taken/taking over.
Kim Jong Il had more than one son, and only named this one his successor a year ago. It could be that he was keeping it quiet and teaching his son his ideals and the direction he felt the country should take after he died. His son could be a good thing for North Korea and the rest of the world, and he could be his father all over again. If he’s like his father, we may be in for it. He’s young and potentially ambitious, so he could make a dangerous enemy. That said, I don’t know much about him, so who knows what’s going to happen?
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Piggy
in December 18th, 2011 @ 23:18We don’t know a lot about Kim Jong-un, but: he’s in his late twenties (probably), he studied in Switzerland, and he’s extremely inexperienced. He’s expected to just follow in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps, due in no small part to the fact that the military seems to retain a fair amount of control in the government. I don’t anticipate much of a policy shift from the Kim dynasty. I imagine there might be some show of force in the next few months (missile tests seem to be a favorite technique) so that Jong-un can flex a bit, but I doubt there’ll be much more than that.
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Piggy
in December 18th, 2011 @ 23:21I should also mention that Kim Jong-un was not groomed for leadership by his father nearly as much as Kim Jong-il was by Kim Il-sung. This leads me to believe that the military will probably acquire more power, since Jong-un probably won’t be as effective a leader.
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Selenium the Quafflebird
in December 18th, 2011 @ 23:35China may also take this opportunity to intervene, since they prefer a stabler North Korea and didn’t really approve of Kim’s threats of war, attacks on the South etc.
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Castle
in December 19th, 2011 @ 14:55Ok, that’s what I was worried about. I don’t doubt the firing of blank/test missiles or some other show of force, though.
What you said is spot on.
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Choklit Orange
in December 18th, 2011 @ 23:50Jong-Un’s moniker, by the way, is “The Brilliant Comrade.” North Korea does have a propensity for awesome-sounding titles.
But yeah, wow, it is pretty shocking that he’s dead.
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Piggy
in December 19th, 2011 @ 02:01It’s not really shocking at all that he’s dead. His health’s been pretty poor for a few years now. Quite a few people theorized that he’s been dead for a while and a body double’s been making the occasional public appearance to cover it up.
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Choklit Orange
in December 19th, 2011 @ 16:45I have my doubts about the body-double thing, but the New York Times says that they covered up his death for two days before announcing it publicly.
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Cat's Meow
in December 19th, 2011 @ 18:17Hearing about his death was strange. Not to put them all in the same category, but it felt similar to when Michael Jackson and Steve Jobs died. All seemed like such immutable figureheads who wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon. And all of a sudden, they were gone.
I’m curious to know what will happen next.
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Rainbow*Storm
in December 20th, 2011 @ 19:34So the war in Iraq is officially over. I really know nothing about current wars and the like, but this seems hopeful.
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Unintended Pun
in December 22nd, 2011 @ 15:52This is something that has been a big deal locally, but I think everyone should know at least a little bit about it:
There is a company trying to move into my hometown in Ohio to take advantage of the Marcellus and Utica shales. By drilling here, they could get a new source of natural gas. Unfortunately, the process by which they would drill is hydraulic fracturing (fracking). This process uses hydraulic power to crack the shale and access the natural gas. The fracking causes minor earthquakes and contaminates water.There is already one plant here that participates in fracking. Over the last few months, my friend has been keeping track of the seismic activity in our area. In recent years, we have had an increasing number of minor earthquakes originating from this factory.
His friend who lives near the factory has been taking samples of his tap water soon after a lot of the earthquakes. Most of the time there is an excessive amount of sediment in the water corresponding with these events.
Fracking causes a lot of damage to the environment, but our thirst for oil and gas combined with the desperate desire for a source of jobs overrides a lot of our concern.This activity is occurring all over. I encourage you to learn about its effects on your town. Most people here don’t know about it, and it is difficult to get them to care about the environment when the economy is as tough as it is.
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Kittymine, OSW
in December 28th, 2011 @ 05:01Fracking is also a problem in Ithaca, NY, where my aunt lives. There have been companies who have been trying to introduce fracking there to get at natural gas, but there has been much resistance to the idea by inhabitants. My cousin lives about 15 minutes away from my aunt, right near a site where they want to do fracking. If that occured, their water would definitely be contaminated.
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Rosebud2
in December 23rd, 2011 @ 21:40For posterity, a few prior real-time discussion threads.
Swine Flu: https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=2251
Hurricane Katrina: https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=42
Virginia Tech (first time): https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=800
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Choklit Orange
in January 24th, 2012 @ 19:56I’m watching Congress applauding Gabrielle Giffords right now. It is the loveliest thing.
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KaiYves
in January 24th, 2012 @ 20:16Same!
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Rosebud2
in January 31st, 2012 @ 14:55https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=9145#comment-415244
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