Sounds like an interesting bunch of classes.

Heh, I got my diamond like 2 days ago, so you're not that late. Thanks.

In reply to this comment by JAPR:
This semester I'm taking fifth year Japanese (the highest level they offer here), a course where we read classic Chinese novels in English (stuff like "The Monkey King" and "The Water Margin"), an intro level Economics class (lol filler course), and a course on East Asian Humanities...whatever that one means. Looks like a decently busy semester, but hopefully I'll be able to be more active on here. Congrats on the diamond, by the way. I'm sorry I didn't give you props when it actually happened.

In reply to this comment by gwiz665:
Heh, it never was answered, so thanks.

I'm good. I got myself a shiny diamond now, so my procrastination levels are high as usual. How have you been? What are you studying now?

In reply to this comment by JAPR:
Late reply: I actually know who posted this, the silly freaking guy uploaded it not understanding what a self-link was, and it looks like from that first comment, he also thought it'd be a good idea to make multiple accounts to upvote and apparently even comment on it, and probably wasn't using proxies.

Don't know if that question ever got answered in the past, I just noticed it today lol.

How have you been, by the way? I feel like I've missed most of what's going on at the Sift lately (thanks, school ).

In reply to this comment by gwiz665:
Why is the submitter banned?

*nochannel *wtf *sports *happy *gay *terrible

This semester I'm taking fifth year Japanese (the highest level they offer here), a course where we read classic Chinese novels in English (stuff like "The Monkey King" and "The Water Margin"), an intro level Economics class (lol filler course), and a course on East Asian Humanities...whatever that one means. Looks like a decently busy semester, but hopefully I'll be able to be more active on here. Congrats on the diamond, by the way. I'm sorry I didn't give you props when it actually happened.

In reply to this comment by gwiz665:
Heh, it never was answered, so thanks.

I'm good. I got myself a shiny diamond now, so my procrastination levels are high as usual. How have you been? What are you studying now?

In reply to this comment by JAPR:
Late reply: I actually know who posted this, the silly freaking guy uploaded it not understanding what a self-link was, and it looks like from that first comment, he also thought it'd be a good idea to make multiple accounts to upvote and apparently even comment on it, and probably wasn't using proxies.

Don't know if that question ever got answered in the past, I just noticed it today lol.

How have you been, by the way? I feel like I've missed most of what's going on at the Sift lately (thanks, school ).

In reply to this comment by gwiz665:
Why is the submitter banned?

*nochannel *wtf *sports *happy *gay *terrible

I've actually never had a hangover, for some reason. I guess I'm just lucky so far, but I'm sure that in time I'll start to get them; I know several friends that didn't start getting them until about their third year of college, lol.

That sounds pretty neat! I mean, you are an architect, if I remember right, so that sounds like a relaxed way to put your skills to good use. I'm majoring in East Asian Studies, but realizing that I have to write a bunch of papers and that I have no clue what I'll do for a living when I graduate in another two years kind of makes me wish I had decided to go for Molecular Biology after all, haha.

I could never get TOO into real punk stuff, but every now and then I listen to something on the hard side. Mostly I go for stuff with moving melodies/harmonies. I guess as of late I've been back on a huge Death Cab for Cutie and the Smiths kick, sort of rediscovering how much I love both of those bands.

In reply to this comment by gorgonheap:
Lately I've been really into 88 Fingers Louie, and discovered The Casualties. Mostly just reintroducing myself to midwest punk. College eh, what are you studying? My side business is doing a lot of design consultant work. Basically if people need an interior designer, carpenter, blueprints, or would like a remodel, my company is there. They can also hire me to do estimates, teach do-it-yourself classes, and submit construction permits.

It's mostly residential work which is a nice break from a lot of the commercial and institutional work I do with my other job.

Don't party too hard, you gotta remember how much fun you had in the morning.

In reply to this comment by JAPR:
Nothing new that's been super impressive to me, though there have been a few good ones here and there. One of my favorite bands, Plus-Minus, dropped a new album on October 21st though, and I was very impressed with that. Other than that, I've gotten a bit more into stuff like Braid and Hey Mercedes. Pretty busy with school, but somehow I still make time to party harder than I should each weekend.

What sort of business is it? Doing two jobs sounds pretty exhausting.

In reply to this comment by gorgonheap:
Pretty good, how about you? I started my own company a couple months ago but kept my old job so I haven't had a whole lot of time to sift lately. Discover any kickass bands lately?

Err that can't be it. Are you sure it's Canadian? the only CBN I remember in Canada was the radio channel and Commonwealth Broadcasting Network but it was mostly full of content for South East Asians...

There is a severe misconception when it comes to discussing the World Trade Organization. Very briefly I will try to clear some things about what the WTO does...

The WTO negotiates trade agreements on the global level between governments for trade standards, it succeeded the General Agreement on Trades and Tarrifs (GATT).

Trade is one of the most important factors of economic development, if one country is good at producing one specific item it would trade with another nation that is good at producing something else, both parties benefit in a fruitful trade environment. This is important because trade creates what is called comparative advantages, e.g. Germany is good at producing beer, Russia is good at producing vodka, the both trade to gain benefits. Basically some countries are better at producing goods A and others at goods B, both trade and both expand and benefit as such.

Before the great depression and both World Wars, trade between nations was fairly open, nations would freely allow the movement of goods from one point to another. However post these economic shocks protectionism entered, countries started to close borders and introducing tariffs, import restrictions, quotas and variable import restrictions. This is problematic, some countries would not say have the infrastructure for heavy industry so cannot efficiently produce cars, other countries don't have the labor for cost efficient agricultural development. So there is a economic opportunity cost when investment takes place in industries that the benefit has no basis or advantage in, for example in my country they opened a computer factory during soviet times even though we were so far behind in development and software. There is a waste of scare economic resources then.

With GATT and WTO afterwards it, many of the trade restrictions have fallen the world over, leading to the cases we see of economic development in areas like South East Asia (China, India and the Asian Tiger economies).

However there are problems.

- Both WTO and IMF represent private corporate interests, siding with larger economies over smaller ones, so private interests in Western Nations can dictate the terms to smaller ones.

- Larger players possess the legalese and knowledge to push charges against smaller players, e.g. in the form of dumping charges (country A is dumping goods at below cost of production to penetrate the market to country B). For example the South East Asian economies are commonly accused of dumping their goods to the western world, when in fact its simply comparative advantages such as larger labor poll and such.

- Since trade barriers were existent already, large areas were already protected via political interests, the biggest being agriculture between 1st world and the 3rd world or smaller ones like timber trade between US and Canada.

An organization like the WTO is needed in that its a common form for discussing trade on a global scale, but it does not represent the interests of all fairly or provide a platform for such, one glance of their website will show you how many nations the US accuses of unfair trade advantages because its protections local interests.

However this is illogical, no nation can possess all production assets, due to scarcity, and the global economy is tightening year on year and becoming interdependent, which is a good thing, its very hard to bomb someone if your and theirs economies are connected through trade, this is happening between the US and China.

Its also presentative of the different rearrangement of economies over the long term, take the case of the UK a country that has went from primary industry, secondary and now is almost purely a services economy. China is now the worlds producer of simple secondary goods, the US is now a bigger R&D developer. The third world if it was allowed could feed the whole world and so on and so forth.

The economies are now interdependent as well, take your average laptop, the technology was probably developed in the US and Japan, the semiconductors were made in Malaysia and South Korea, and it was all put together in China.

Its not a perfect system by a long shot, however looking over the ages, economics is far better at leveling the playing field and brining together nations then idealistic statements and or anarchy which is common seen at WTO/IMF/G8 meets.

Of course there is a million other issues to consider... but I said this was a *cough* very brief description.

It happens lol I actually got interested in Japanese as a result of a friend of mine showing me a Japanese rock band (the pillows) several years back, and now I'm majoring in East Asian Studies because the language/culture/food are so fun/interesting/delicious.

In reply to this comment by legacy0100:
Weeaboo! Weeaboo!

In reply to this comment by JAPR:
Oh, I added another video by Art-School. It's a little more laid back than the other one, but it includes translated lyrics!!111!!111one!! (done by me lol)
http://www.videosift.com/video/ART-SCHOOL-Swan-Song-PV-Japanese-music-video

That's pretty wild. I've got to Google that Blondeau chap. I didn't think he'd have a chance in hell.

Kind of culture shock to watch east Asian television shows. I've only seen glimpses of a few, but I noticed that they have the tendency of physically punishing the participants and the audience members who made the wrong choice.

Anyone reminded of this?:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKnloiM-0Ns

East Asian parents won't even stand for a B+!

UmberGryphon is right in most places, expect that while the EV would cost more then a tradition gasoline car, the actual electrical cost to refuel it is 1/3 to 1/2 the cost of equivalent gas. The 80,000 dollar figure is taking into account the costs of R&D. And this is the firs time I have ever heard of any heating issues, as far as I know the lease program was implemented in places where there was ready areas to supply the electrical power.

My main problem is that the EV-1 was never marketed well at all, the people who leased them weren't even allowed to buy their leased vehicle. GM basically confiscated everything, shut up and went on to produce SUV and suburbans. Finding it self in the same position as the other Big 3, lagging behind innovative technologies from east Asian companies like Toyota.

The fact is that any new technology that comes out is imperfect and requires refinement, remember the first cars? Hell the first MP3 players? This is where economics of scale come in. GM had a golden opportunity, especially with emission laws California was pushing at the time and has started to only implement now.

The question should really be "Is profit of a few companies, a good enough reason to squander our environment?"

Note this is not self promotion. Even if i was this good i could not take the shape of a east Asian person.

I posted this in response to something that happened to me today.

I was in a little grassy area about five paces from my apartment, and was practicing Hsing I Chaun. So i attract some attention, but most people just go on about their business. However today some one asked me if I was practicing "Ju Jitsu" and when I said that it was not he scoffed at the thought that some one might practice some other art than Ju Jutsu.

This attitude is wholly American, that martial arts is a test of testicular scale. "If one thinks that Kenjutsu is an art of banging sticks together does not know the true meaning of Kenjutsu." - Gaku Homma

This attitude taken by largely egotistical persons is that some one practicing a form is to be threatened and baited into a senseless fight. It clearly states in a translation of the samurai code, that one warrior should not engage in useless fights because said warrior could die, and that would be dishonorable to die over a cup of tea. This sort of thing happens to me all the time.

This attitude that states that Kung Fu or traditional martial arts will not work in a "real fight." I no longer believe that a fight can be fake, because you are still putting your life on the line. The difference between a one who knows the true meaning of Kung Fu, Wushu or any thing, is that they avoid all useless fights, meaning that the run away if they can. The American stereo type of martial arts is that grappling, judo, jiu justsu, and the such will always prevail over traditional martial arts, this is not the case. When a trained grappler is put against a trained person (lets say an actor) bruce lee, jet li, chan, Donny Yen, I would put my money on no one, because both skilled fighters will put up a good fight. So to say that one art, or countries art will win over another is foolish. This sterotype comes from Tae Kwan Do dojo that give you a belt after a couple weeks of training.

Until the practitioner can successfully solve conflict with out violence they are not a true master, even petty conflict.

幼稚園保護者求道者教会だより各部紹介ਰ
5;本基督教団日本基督教団幼稚園保護者求$
947;者教会だより各部紹介日本基督教団
"Japanophiles everywhere gathered to-day, to commemorate the 10 year aniversary of that east Asian island countrys', tragic
inundation and subsequent, "disappearance" from the world map, after the series of violent eruptions and earthquakes, known forever to the people of every race and country, (including the peninsula of the former country of Greenland) as "*** ******* *****", the name coined by the founder and high-prefect of the 1st Church Tokimeki-Joumyaku, Farhad Ooozbk"
幼稚園保護者求道者教会だより各部紹介ਰ
5;本基督教団日本基督教団幼稚園保護者求$
947;者教会だより各部紹介日本基督教団

button operated machines were invented and popularized in Japan. Today most of the far east Asian countries use this gizmo. You're guaranteed to see a thing like this in any normal household bathrooms, and sometimes even in public bathrooms.

Sensation is surprisingly gentle...

Main Entry: bi-det
Pronunciation: bi-'dA
Function: noun
: a bathroom fixture about the height of the seat of a chair used especially for bathing the external genitals and the posterior parts of the body.

[French, pony, bidet, probably from Old French bider, to trot.]

The American goverment has been playing puppet master with so many nations that eventually they will be targetted themselve.

Look at the level of paranoia displayed by the american administration during the cold war era, so fixated are they on assuring dominance that they go as far as intervening in other nations. Look at the Vietnam war, the administration thought that Hanoi would take Seoul, become a large communist state join with China and thus create a Iron Curtain in the east.

Yet had they investigated further they would realize that the East Asian rim is about as unified as Serbia, the Vietnamese were dominated by the Chinese and they would never ally themselves with them. Lack of local information cost them lives, money, and years tied up in a needless war. They werent fighting a communist war, the Vietnamese were fighting a war for freedom.

Then one brings up Bamdrew's point. Remember that Osama Bin Laden started a terrorist campaign against the US because of the military buildup in Saudia Arabia. Pick up a globe once in a while, look at the current spread of American military bases, it's astounding. The forces of the United States military are located in nearly 130 countries around the world. Some of these deployments have existed for nearly 50 years, as in Japan, Germany, and South Korea, while other deployments have more recent origins such as the current occupation of Iraq. This and unilateral actions that create these terrorists.

The videos provided on VideoSift clearly represent this, the documentary clips I posted, along with the defense budget displayed in Oreo cookies (LOL but very relevant really)

This is becoming almost cyclical now. The more pressure you apply in these and other regions the more you will beat the drums of war, its been nearly 5 years since 9/11 and what exactly has the administration achieved? Osama Bin Laden is loose, there is chaos in Iraq, the american economy went from a surplus to a huge deficit, the middle east is even more tense now with Iran.

At some point there comes a realization that maybe the policies adapted for the last 60 years do not benefit the american people or the world. Instead of creating allies, we have gone back to the days of pre-colonial isolationism.

They manufacture nothing? I bet the child slaves and poorly paid factory workers of various south east asian countries would beg to differ...