Categories
Politics & government

[506] Of the UN permanent seats

By this September, a decision on the new structure of the Security Council, the most powerful body in the United Nations will be made known. Or at least, Kofi Annan wants a decision on it within the next six months.

Currently, two models have been presented. The first model includes six new permanent members. So far, it seems that should the members of the UN accept the first model, Germany, Brazil and India should have a great chance of getting their hands on the extra tickets for the seats. Two African nations and Japan would complete the quorum.

Model two is about tier membership of which, I have yet to understand. Whatever model two is, the former model has been talked about a lot and many favor it to the latter model.

For Germany, Brazil and India, there aren’t many obstacles for them. Germany in particular has a comfortable claim – France and Japan fully support the inclusion of Germany. Really, Germany and Japan are having a sort of you-back-me-and-I-back-you alliance, pretty much like, as I’d imagine China would imagine, in the last world war. China, if you haven’t notice, isn’t quite eager to meet a Japanese.

This has proven to be an headache to Japan. China and South Korea oppose the idea of giving Japan a seat. Both opposing countries have repeatedly mentioned that Japan hasn’t been apologetic enough for its past war crime. Japan or maybe it’s just Koizumi, despite needing support from China, has ignored China.

The war ended almost 60 years ago. Many of us on this planet don’t even remember seeing the war with our own two eyes. China and South Korea need to move on and quit whining for something that happened generations ago.

I’m just glad Japan has stopped apologizing. Else, China would have a too much fun bullying others.

Categories
Activism Environment

[505] Of Earth Week on campus

Earth Week is here baby. Below is the list of what’s going on, on campus.

Schedule of events:

MONDAY march 28
1.)fair trade coffee at residential dining services all week…

TUESDAY march 29
2.)the beehive collective “plan columbia” 7pm in wolverine room, union

Front

WEDNESDAY march 30
1.)Diag Day – music, info, freebies 11-4pm
2.)Dining Hall Sustainable Lunch – organic & local foods featured
3.)movie: “The Price of Health” – 7:30pm ERB institute, Ross B-school E1550
4.)Transformer’s green business tour – Leopold’s 7pm 523 s. main
5.)2nd annual hunger banquet – 6:00-8:30 in the wedge room, west quad. $1 dinner

THURSDAY march 31
1.)!!keynote address by Winona LaDuke!!, 1996 & 2000 Green Party VP Candidate,
Native American author & activist – SNRE Dana Building 1040 7pm

FRIDAY April 1
1.)movie: �the take� 8pm fair trade apparel conference at school of social
work, education conference center

SATURDAY april 2
1.)The Detroit Project – service day! register www.umich.edu/~thedp
2.)North Campus Woods Conservation – Invasive Species Removal Project. contact
3.)PitE student organizer Tony Shourds tshourds@umich.edu

SUNDAY April 3
1.) Showing of “Oil on Ice” and “Being Caribou” at the Banff Film Festival

SATURDAY april 9
1.)Hands on the Planet – service day! register www.umich.edu/~mserve
2.)Environmental Justice Toxic Tour of Detroit – register tyogawa@umich.edu
3.)North Campus Woods Conservation – contact tshourds@umich.edu

On Wednesday, which is tomorrow, Environmental Justice along with other greenies will be camping at the Diag. If you are passing by the Diag tomorrow, make sure you go to the EJ table and put your signature down on a poster that says “Thank You RDS for serving Fair Trade Coffee!”

The poster is a way to thank the University’s dining services for serving fair trade coffee for the rest of the week in honor of Earth Week. The people in EJ (me included, ehem) made the posters.

On April 3rd, Oil on Ice will be shown. Oil on Ice is an award-winning documentary about Arctic Wildlife National Reserve. If you haven’t heard, the Senate is planning to pass a bill to drill AWNR soon. This is a good opportunity to be educated on the ANWR issue.

Happy Earth Week people.

Categories
ASEAN Environment

[504] Of here we go again, but pray not

I woke up, went to ReCom.org and read a thread about a new quake off Sumatra with 8.2 magnitude on Richter scale. As in right now, tsunami alert has been sounded. However, three hours after the quake was first discovered, no tsunami has been detected yet.

On the blogosphere, to show how strong the quake is, lots have reported that even Malaysians felt the tremor.

Categories
Personal Photography

[503] Of ira furor brevis est

I need to take a break. Else, what’s temporary might become permanent.

Life feels good without the glove.

Somehow, the photo reminds of me of Fido Dido. Does anybody remember Fido Dido?

Damn, can’t believe it has been so long.

Categories
Gaming Humor

[502] Of Thrall’s going to kick our collective ass

The reason why World of Warcraft is currently the best MMORPG of all time and why it is a bestselling game.

Though I was not in that successful raid of the filthy Orc’s capital as shown in the video, I did join another raid on the same city yesterday. Result?

That’s me. Dead. Another many others.
One problem with huge raid is leadership. Most of the times, while the voice of the mentats can easily be heard prior to an attack, as the time progresses and the target in sight, voice of the leader will usually lost among the noise. Once that happened, a few will rise up to try to take up the leadership. And if none stepped up, the raid is doomed to fail.

In yesterday raid, the initial leader failed to assert his control over time and thus, a few others took the initiative to lead. It was great but the raid was a failure despite the majority of us managed to get behind enemy line and be inside the throne room.

Reason for failure – the lack of obsessive-compulsive behavior. People just gave up.

The plan for the raid was impressive nonetheless. In total, in maximum estimate, 80 people were involved, with at most half were high level players. Two groups were form. One was the main driver while the other was a diversionary force.

It was too complex to be done with large number of people with too short a time. I had my doubt at first though I didn’t voice it. A paladin however did voice his doubt. But a person remark to the paladin, in all hilarity, “of all persons, it’s a paladin that’s having doubt”.

The push against the enemy line was hard. We were confronted from the north and after half an hour, from the south too, making any strategic retreat impossible. Luckily, we managed to break loose after a few tries thanks to the help of the diversionary force. Our back was covered by the secondary column and thus, we were able to concentrate on the major front.

A tribute to taurenslayer, the initiator of the raid and errik for taking up the torch. Also, to all Horde that died valiantly… in their own capital.

p/s – to modem users, don’t even think of clicking on that link. It’s 91 MB.