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Posts Tagged 'Democracy'
Finally, a bit of good news
Posted: October 22, 2019 in Catholicism, Evangelicals, Islam, Livin' in the USA, Politics
Tags: Agnostics, Atheists, Chris Mato Nunpa, Democracy, Editing, Fascism, Gerrymandering, Hillary Clinton, Nones, Pew Research Center, Polls, Religio-fascism, The Great Evil, Voter Suppression
(First, apologies for not yet delivering the promised Part 2 of the material on Hillary Clinton — I'll deliver it eventually. The severe insomnia continues, and I've been spending my energy finishing the first edit of Chris Mato Nunpa's very valuable Great Evil. I hope to finish that tomorrow and get on with the second edit. As an aside, I did the first edit on screen, but will print out the ms. after finishing that edit, as it's considerably slower to edit a printout, but I tend to spot a lot more than I do when doing all of the editing on screen.)
Anyway, here's the good news: The Pew Research Center just released a new poll on religious affiliation in the U.S., "In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace." The really good news is that the percentage of Americans who describe themselves as Christian declined by 12% over the last decade, but from 77% to 65%. That's still far too high for comfort, but it's a major improvement.
As well, self-identified Catholics declined from 23% to 20% of the population over the last decade, while "nones" (atheists, agnostics, spiritual but no religious, none of the above) increased from 17% to 26% since 2009 — and they (we) now considerably outnumber both Catholics and white evangelicals, who declined from 19% of the population a decade ago to16% today.
This is great news. Today, evangelical and conservative Catholics are doing their best to stifle democracy, prop up their utterly corrupt enabler Trump, and install a theocracy through whatever means at their disposal, no matter how foul (gerrymandering, voter suppression, foreign interference in elections). They probably won't succeed, and if they don't Christianity will continue its well-deserved downward spiral.
Once the authoritarian evangelists, Trump cultists, and other authoritarian religious fanatics are defeated (quite probably in 2020), we'll likely (well, could) make some progress on climate change and other real social and economic problems, and move on to creating a more fair, peaceful, and sustainable world.
If the Christian religio-fascists don't succeed in destroying democracy next year and cementing their rule, they're doomed.
(At the risk of sounding like a mean, vindictive s.o.b., I wish we could disarm them, put them all on an island along with all of the Islamist religio-fascists, lace the water with contraceptives, and hand out machetes.)
Definition of the Day 10-5-18 (Rectocracy)
Posted: October 5, 2018 in Christianity, Livin' in the USA, Politics
Tags: Democracy, Donald Trump, Government
RECTOCRACY, n. Government by assholes. The form of government that has replaced what once passed for democracy in the United States.
— (thanks to Dave Irish for this one) from The American Heretic's Dictionary (revised & expanded), the 21st-century successor to Ambrose Bierce's Devil's Dictionary. (The link goes to 50 sample definitions and illustrations.)
Review: How Democracies Die, by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt
Posted: February 15, 2018 in Book Reviews, Livin' in the USA, Politics
Tags: Authoritarianism, Democracy, Democrats, Donald Trump, How Democracies Die, Republicans
(How Democracies Die, by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt: Crown, 2018, 312 pp., $26.00)
It's often worthwhile to point out the obvious, as Levitsky and Ziblatt have done here: the U.S. is undergoing a stress test of its democratic institutions, the increasingly authoritarian Republican Party is primarily responsible for the stress, and the means used by authoritarian parties to destroy democracy tend to be quite similar across the world.
The authors do a good job of outlining the commonalities of would-be dictators:
Rejection of (or weak commitment to) democratic rules of the game;
Denial of the legitimacy of political opponents;
Toleration or encouragement of violence;
Readiness to curtail civil liberties of opponents, including media.
The authors cite several examples to illustrate these points, including the Erdogan regime in Turkey, the Chávez regime in Venezuela, and the Trump regime (more politely, the Trump Administration) in the U.S.
They also cite three common tactics employed by authoritarians undermining democracy:
Capturing the "referees" (especially the courts);
Sidelining opponents (e.g., via slanderous charges and trumped-up criminal charges);
Changing the rules (e.g., restricting the right to vote).
Again, they provide numerous examples, and again Trump and his Republican enablers are prominent among them.
These examples, these case studies of the attitudes and tactics of authoritarians, are the most valuable part of the book.
As for the analysis of why things have gotten so bad in the U.S., not so much. The authors are conventional liberals who see nothing fundamentally flawed in what, from its start, has always been a weak democracy with, almost from the start, a two-party duopoly under the control of the rich. (The authors don't mention it, but George Washington, for all his virtues, was the richest man in the 13 colonies.)
While they're not entirely uncritical of America's past — for example, they include a good but quite brief history of the political aspects of Jim Crow in the wake of Reconstruction — they paint a remarkably rosy picture of America's "democratic" past, with "backroom candidate selection . . . keeping demonstrably unfit figures off the ballot and out of office." And this in reference to Warren G. Harding(!), arguably the most corrupt and incompetent U.S. president until Trump.
The authors are also rather obtuse regarding the underlying economic reasons for the current crisis in what passes for American democracy. They blame post-1975 "economic growth slowing" plus increased ethnic diversity as being the reasons for the current breakdown of political norms.
This is simply wrong. Since real wages peaked in 1972-1973, productivity growth has averaged roughly 1.75% per year, while wages have grown not at all. This means that the amount of goods and services produced per hour worked have approximately doubled over the last 45 years, with almost all of the gains going not to those who do the work, but to those who own the corporations. As well, there has been a distinct redistribution of wealth from the bottom to the top over the same period, with the top 1% now owning nearly 50% of the nation's wealth — a trend which Obama didn't even try to address, and which is worsening under Trump.
Is it any wonder that people are fed up? That so many voters are so fed up with their stressful economic state and the corporate-controlled two-party duopoly — essentially a choice between evil and greater evil — that 41% of those eligible to vote in the last election didn't even show up at the polls? Is it any wonder that so many feel so much economic pain that they'll listen to demagogues who scapegoat minorities?
The authors' prescription to put U.S. democracy back on the rails? To oversimplify, a return to civility between Democrats and Republicans. That might involve (they say this is a remote possibility) a reformed Republican party casting out the white nationalists and other authoritarians (good luck on that), plus the Democrats fighting Trump et al. in court and on the ballot, and the Democrats advocating a few minimalist common-sense reformist measures, such as universal healthcare coverage and a significantly higher minimum wage.
In the end, the authors see nothing fundamentally flawed in the present system. If you're looking for bold strategies to address the fundamental inequities, injustices, and outright horrors in present-day America, you won't find it in How Democracies Die.
The book's value, though, lies in its clear presentation of the attitudes and tactics of dictators and would-be dictators, and its many case studies of authoritarian figures and regimes.
Who's responsible for this political disaster? (revised & considerably expanded)
Posted: February 5, 2017 in Evangelicals, Livin' in the USA, Politics
Tags: Democracy, Democrats, Donald Trump, Mandate, Republicans, Voter participation
I've written a lot about how the Clintons, Obama, and the the other corporate Democrats have paved the way for the current political catastrophe. How they sold us out, deliberately betrayed us.
Let's briefly outline how all of the other equally guilty parties have totally screwed us. This covers so much territory that it's necessarily schematic. If you doubt any of this — it's a matter of abundant public record — please, please investigate everything I say here. Facts are facts, "alternative facts" are just lies.
Racism. The Voting Rights Act of 1964 severed the Dixiecrats from the Democratic Party. Almost immediately, the Republicans instituted their racist "southern strategy." Until recently, it was mostly implemented via dog whistles: Willie Horton, "welfare queens," etc. The Republicans have now reverted to overt racism. Who knew that the racism of the Christian South ran so deep? The Republicans did. LBJ thought the Democrats would lose the South for a generation because of the Voting Rights Act. He was wrong. It's been more than half a century.
Anti-intellectualism. To put it more baldly, pride in being ignorant, pride in being easy for scumbuckets to manipulate. To put it in Republican-speak, pride in not being a "pointy-headed intellectual." Pride in stupidity ain't a good thing, folks. But it's a dominant trait in America. Admiration for Donald Trump, a dumbshit real estate heir with a fourth-grade vocabulary, an IQ probably in the 90s, and a transparently phony "I'm on your side" schtick, provides a good illustration of this.
Industrial-Strength Ignorance. Decades ago, George Carlin said, "Think about how stupid the average person is, then realize that half of them are stupider than that." He'd have been equally right if he'd substituted "ignorant" for "stupidity." As an example of this ignorance, an appallingly large percentage of the population thinks that the American military is weak — while that military accounts for nearly half of world military spending. They're ignorant enough to buy the obvious bullshit assertion that the way to create jobs is to give ever more money to "job creators" (corporations and the top 1%). They evidently think that rich jerks, upon receiving taxpayer largesse, say to themselves, "Yeah, first thing I'm gonna do with this is drive up my labor costs by hiring more people." (News flash here, folks: Demand drives job creation; tinkle-down economics doesn't. (hat tip to Jim Hightower)
Assaults on Higher Education. Thirty years ago the U.S. had the highest proportion in the world of adults with college degrees. At last count, the U.S. ranked 17th, largely because of the skyrocketing costs of higher education (annual increases averaging three times the rate of inflation). Why would the Republicans, with the collusion of all too many Democrats, permit, indeed foster, this? In general, the less educated people are, the easier they are to manipulate. As Donald Trump put it, "I love the poorly educated."
Disinformation. Manufactured "news." This has been going on for years. Let's start with the Acorn deliberate disinformation campaign, accusing this in-part moderate voter-registration campaign of fraud. The Republicans produced no evidence of this, but Fox "News" destroyed this voter-registration campaign in large part because the corporate Democrats were too gutless to call them on it. Trump has now escalated his disinformation campaign to not only routinely lying, but — without a shred of evidence — labeling all honest reporting on his vicious, irresponsible, and often moronic conduct as "fake news."
Voter Suppression. The prime example beyond the Acorn debacle is the utterly evidence-devoid charges that there has been massive voter fraud at the ballot box. Again, no evidence whatsoever. The result? Voter ID laws that have resulted in the disenfranchisement of millions of poor, mostly nonwhite, and elderly people. (My mom, who died last year at 99 , and who never had a driver's license, would have had to produce ID.) At the same time, Bush stole the election in 2000, and Dumbshit lost the election by almost three million votes in 2016, while claiming, again without a shred of evidence, that millions of "illegals" were responsible for his popular-vote loss.
Taxation without representation. Millions of people in the U.S. are disenfranchised, largely because they've been sentenced to prison time despite having done nothing to hurt others. We're talking about drug "offenders" here, folks. The assertion that they "forfeited" their rights by doing or selling drugs is no more valid than the assertion that their self-righteous accusers "forfeited" their rights by being authoritarian assholes. In other words, prove the assertion. Goddamn it. Prove it.
An Undemocratic Voting System. People here have a choice between bad and worse. Is it any wonder that 41% of eligible voters chose not to vote in the last election? A proportional or ranked voting system would have encouraged participation. As is, the voting system discourages participation. One minor example of this is that voting happens on a Tuesday with no provision for people to take time off from work to vote. Are you kidding me? Do you want people to vote or not? (The question answers itself.) And let's not even get started on the Electoral College–a national disgrace for over two centuries that gave us both George W. Bush and Donald Trump.
Koch Whores. At this point, money buys elections. Here in Tucson, Kock Brothers' money bought a house seat for Martha McSally (who's now running for the senate). Same thing across the country. The corporate Democrats with their superpacs and deep-pocketed corporate donors aren't much better than the Republicans — overall, they just get less money.
Authoritarianism. Probably around 30% of the American electorate are desperate for a "strong man" to goose step behind, and Trump has supplied them with one. Authoritarians want easy answers, want to abandon their responsibilities as independent, decision-making adults, and quite often are driven by sadistic, bullying impulses, which the "strong man" allows them to vent vicariously.
Religious Fundamentalism. By its very nature, fundamentalism — blind acceptance of the commands in a "holy book" or from a "holy man" — is authoritarian, anti-intellectual. It demands blind faith and discourages, all too often physically, free inquiry and a questioning attitude. It's no wonder fundamentalists are such enemies of free thought and free people, and want to impose their views on others: a moment's consideration shows that their beliefs are contradiction-riddled insupportable bullshit. Is it any wonder that they flock to mean-spirited, slimeball charlatans who screw them (and their kids and neighbors) economically, but promise to impose their theocratic "moral" dictates on others. In the last election, 81% of American fundamentalists voted for Donald Trump. Trump received the votes of 26% of those eligible to vote (Clinton got 28%, and over 41% didn't vote at all), and almost half of his 26% came from fundamentalists. Nearly a century ago, Clay Fulks, in Christianity, A Continuing Calamity, nailed it:
Having fundamentalists in a nation is like having congenital imbeciles in a family–it's a calamity. Allow their mountebank, swindling leaders enough control over society and though religious faith would flourish fantastically, society would revert to the sheep-and-goat stage of culture . . . Wherefore it is perfectly irrelevant whether your fundamentalist is honest or utterly hypocritical in his religious beliefs . . . It just doesn't matter. The question of his intellectual integrity will have to wait until he grows an intellect. In the meantime, however, what the forces of reaction are doing with him constitutes a continuing calamity.
The Horror of the 2016 Election — Some Definitions
Posted: August 25, 2016 in Humor, Livin' in the USA, Politics
Tags: 2016 Election, 2016 presidential election, Democracy, Democratic Party, Elections, Oscar Wilde, President of the United States, Republican Party, Voting
The 2016 presidential election is fast approaching, and to provide a few moments of respite from the nauseating spectacle — election workers would be well advised to hand out barf bags along with ballots — here are a few definitions you might find humorous.
The first definition is from Oscar Wilde's The Soul of Man Under Socialism, and all of the others, plus the graphics, are from our new American Heretic's Dictionary. We hope you enjoy them.
Democracy, n. 1) The bludgeoning of the people, by the people, for the people.
Democratic Party, n. 1) The "good cop" in the biennial good cop/bad cop mugging of the American public; 2) A political party which has persevered and prospered for over two centuries without, curiously, ever having had any principles to betray.
Hell, n. A place of everlasting torment, much like the United States during an election year.
Lesser of Two Evils, phr. The perennial and inspiring reason to vote for the Democratic Party's courageous, incorruptible candidates.
Majority Rule, phr. The governing principle of the United States. The revered concept that it is every bit as right and just that two million individuals impose their will upon one million, under threat of force, as it is that two individuals impose their will upon one, under similar threat.
Municipal Election, n. A refreshing dip in an open sewer.
President of the United States, n. 1) A pathological liar suffering delusions of grandeur; 2) An office which confers upon its holder vast coercive power as well as the means to commit mass murder—an opportunity of which all recent U.S. presidents have taken advantage. Because of this, some observers have concluded that only the worst type of individuals seek the office of president. This unkind assessment is, however, incorrect. It is more realistic to conclude that only the worst type of individuals are elected to the office.
Republican, adj. Having an affinity for gold, in both bullion and shower form.
Republican Party, n. Once described as "America's largest hate group," the Republican Party is often scurrilously portrayed as consisting entirely of racists, but this is not so. Many Republican leaders are not racists themselves, but are merely content to pander to them.
Quote of the Day 1-22-16 (H.L. Mencken)
Posted: January 22, 2016 in Politics, Quotations
Tags: Democracy
"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard."
Quote of the Day 11-3-14 (George Bernard Shaw)
Posted: November 3, 2014 in Politics, Quotations
Tags: Democracy, George Bernard Shaw
"Democracy substitutes selection by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few."
–George Bernard Shaw, Preface to Major Barbara
Quote of the Day 10-26-14 (Allen Thornton)
Posted: October 26, 2014 in Anarchism, Livin' in the USA, Politics, Quotations
Tags: Citizenship, Democracy, Vot9ing
"The weakness of fascism and communism consists in their turning citizens into slaves. Slaves have nothing to gain and nothing to lose.
"The strength of democracy is that it encourages the common man to believe himself a ruler, that is, an oppressor of his neighbor."
–Allen Thornton, Laws of the Jungle
Quoted in The Heretic's Handbook of Quotations
Quote of the Day 10-25-14 (Charles T. Sprading)
Posted: October 25, 2014 in Livin' in the USA, Philosophy, Politics
Tags: Democracy, Elections, Majority Rule, Vot9ing
"To believe in majority rule as an unqualified principle is to believe that might is right."
–Charles T. Sprading, Freedom and its Fundamentals
Definition of the Day 10-2-14 — Legitimate Government
Posted: October 2, 2014 in Anarchism, Philosophy, Politics
Tags: Ambrose Bierce, American Heretic's Dictionary, Coercion, Democracy, Devil's Dictionary, Law, tax, Violence
LEGITIMATE GOVERNMENT, n. A curiously unremarked-upon oxymoron on the level of "workers' state," "compassionate conservative," or "vegetarian piranha."
The basic premise of the "legitimate government" concept is that as long as a government–an organization using coercion, the threat of violence, and often outright violence to force those within its area of domination to bend to its will–is "democratically" elected, it is "legitimate."
To put this in perspective, let's consider an island with ten inhabitants. If six of the island's residents decided to form a government and elected three of their number to make laws binding on all residents, with the new laws enforced under threat of violence or through actual violence, and if the new governing body armed itself with deadly weapons and extorted money from everyone on the island, under current concepts that island government and its "taxation" would be "legitimate." And if it then passed laws regulating the most intimate aspects of the daily lives of everyone on the island, including those who wanted no part of the new government, and enforced those laws at the point of a gun, those laws would, in the eyes of the world, be the "legitimate" acts of a "legitimate," democratically elected government.
Violence and the state


There are a lot of different terms thrown around when describing the key action (how the keys respond when engaged) of digital pianos.
In order to better understand which key action you should look for when purchasing a digital piano to best suit your needs, we've provided a list of easy to understand definitions for each type of key actions as well as explanations for why certain ones are the best.
This one is exactly what it would seem to be: there are no weighting mechanisms to any of the keys. This is commonly found on keyboards and less expensive digital pianos, as the spring-loaded keys are much lighter and less expensive to produce.
While unweighted keys help keep the weight and cost down, they are best avoided if you are looking to purchase a digital piano that will give you a realistic playing experience.
While this key action does have weights to better simulate the keys of an acoustic piano, they are not nearly as heavy as they would have to be to fully replicate the feel of playing an acoustic piano.
Semi-weighted key actions can be a decent compromise if portability is extremely important to you, but like unweighted key actions they are usually best avoided.
The two interchangeable terms refer to key actions that are weighted to the precise level an acoustic piano would be. Weights inside the instrument simulate the sensation of a rising and falling hammer, and there are no springs necessary to lift the keys back up.
If you are wanting to purchase a digital piano that will give you the best possible playing experience, then hammer weighted keys are an absolute necessity.
It may not seem like that significant of a feature, but having a digital piano that correctly replicates the tactile sensation of playing an acoustic piano is a must have if you really want to become good with the instrument.
Both semi-weighted key actions and hammer weighted key actions can be graded. What this means is that as you go from the low end of the keyboard to the high end, the weights become lighter, correctly simulating the way an acoustic piano feels since the hammers at the low end of an acoustic piano are much larger and heavier than those at the high end.
No digital piano is capable of perfectly replicating the key action of an acoustic piano, but key actions that are hammer weighted and graded are as close as you will be able to get.
Fortunately, many companies have recognized this and have produced digital pianos at a variety of price ranges that sport key actions that are both graded and hammer weighted.
If you are looking for a digital piano that will provide you with the best and most realistic experience, then it is our recommendation to purchase a piano that describes itself as having a graded, hammer weighted key action.


text:
package org.jboss.pnc.common.json.moduleprovider;

import org.jboss.pnc.common.json.AbstractModuleConfig;
import org.jboss.pnc.common.json.moduleconfig.AlignmentConfig;
import org.jboss.pnc.common.json.moduleconfig.AuthenticationModuleConfig;
import org.jboss.pnc.common.json.moduleconfig.BpmModuleConfig;
import org.jboss.pnc.common.json.moduleconfig.DemoDataConfig;
import org.jboss.pnc.common.json.moduleconfig.JenkinsBuildDriverModuleConfig;
import org.jboss.pnc.common.json.moduleconfig.IndyRepoDriverModuleConfig;
import org.jboss.pnc.common.json.moduleconfig.OpenshiftBuildAgentConfig;
import org.jboss.pnc.common.json.moduleconfig.OpenshiftEnvironmentDriverModuleConfig;
import org.jboss.pnc.common.json.moduleconfig.ScmModuleConfig;
import org.jboss.pnc.common.json.moduleconfig.SystemConfig;
import org.jboss.pnc.common.json.moduleconfig.TermdBuildDriverModuleConfig;
import org.jboss.pnc.common.json.moduleconfig.UIModuleConfig;

/**
 * @author pslegr on Aug 21, 2015
 *
 * @param <T> module config
 */
public class PncConfigProvider<T extends AbstractModuleConfig> extends AbstractConfigProvider<T>
        implements ConfigProvider<T> {

    public PncConfigProvider(Class<T> type) {
        setType(type);
        addModuleConfig(
                new ProviderNameType(JenkinsBuildDriverModuleConfig.class, JenkinsBuildDriverModuleConfig.MODULE_NAME));
        addModuleConfig(
                new ProviderNameType(TermdBuildDriverModuleConfig.class, TermdBuildDriverModuleConfig.MODULE_NAME));
        addModuleConfig(new ProviderNameType(SystemConfig.class, SystemConfig.MODULE_NAME));
        addModuleConfig(new ProviderNameType(IndyRepoDriverModuleConfig.class, IndyRepoDriverModuleConfig.MODULE_NAME));
        addModuleConfig(new ProviderNameType(AuthenticationModuleConfig.class, AuthenticationModuleConfig.MODULE_NAME));
        addModuleConfig(new ProviderNameType(BpmModuleConfig.class, BpmModuleConfig.MODULE_NAME));
        addModuleConfig(
                new ProviderNameType(
                        OpenshiftEnvironmentDriverModuleConfig.class,
                        OpenshiftEnvironmentDriverModuleConfig.MODULE_NAME));
        addModuleConfig(new ProviderNameType(UIModuleConfig.class, UIModuleConfig.MODULE_NAME));
        addModuleConfig(new ProviderNameType(OpenshiftBuildAgentConfig.class, OpenshiftBuildAgentConfig.MODULE_NAME));
        addModuleConfig(new ProviderNameType(DemoDataConfig.class, DemoDataConfig.MODULE_NAME));
        addModuleConfig(new ProviderNameType(AlignmentConfig.class, AlignmentConfig.MODULE_NAME));
        addModuleConfig(new ProviderNameType(ScmModuleConfig.class, ScmModuleConfig.MODULE_NAME));
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
The Earliest Hatsumi
by Keith Rainville | posted in: 6 - History and Martial Arts | 0
In researching VN's timeline of the 80s ninja craze, the pre-history was easily the most interesting. The tiny nuggets from the 60s and 70s — magazine articles, network TV episodes, occasional comics — largely unsung during the two decade process that quietly fertilized the soil of the shinobi beanstalk, offer some eye-opening surprises.
In the early days of the craze, say 1981, when the name Masaaki Hatsumi was sweeping across bookshelves and magazine racks, and the teachings of his Bujinkan were pollenating around the globe, few realized the multi-media ambassador and curator of modern ninjutsu's first exposure in the Western world came twenty years before in an issue of a pulp fiction rag that went back to the 1880s.
Self-aggrandized as "The Largest Selling Fiction-Fact Magazine for Men," Argosy Magazine was built on a tradition of action-packed exploits of frontier pistoleers, two-fisted war heroes, sensationalized sports achievements and intrepid global explorers, both in prose fiction and infotainment articles. And in May of 1961 they quietly introduced the world to Japan's formerly secret warrior tradition — "ninjitsu." [sic]
In a six-page photo-article entitled "The Art of Invisibility" by Ray Falk, manly-man readers were introduced to a select few martial arts practitioners in Japan keeping alive antiquated fighting arts used by military spies of the feudal era. The approach of the editorial is similar to contemporary fascinations with karate, judo, and kung-fu — novel ways those curious little 'Orientals' fight instead of straight up fisticuffs like real pipe-smoking, steak-eating men with proper chest hair do. The tone here is more clever than the preciousness or passive-aggressive contempt you see in other martial arts bubble-gum aimed at the general public, and it also latches on to exotic gadgets and weapons right away, just as the craze would decades later.
Then still known as Yoshiaki Hatsumi, the future grandmaster is portrayed as a curiosity, seclusively guarding arcane dirty-fighting arts from a modern world better off without them. Falk also loves the idea of this bone-breaking expert also being a medical professional by regular trade.
It's an innocent enough piece of light fluff, but considering in 1961 the ninja boom in Japan was just igniting there and we were still years away from You Only Live Twice, this feature is staggeringly ahead of the curve. And at this point, a full year before Shinobi-no-Mono would help make the black suit and hood requisite iconography, there's none of the familiar tropes that would both bless and burden the ninja idiom in the coming decades.
In 1961, a pioneering feature on modern day ninja didn't even make the issue's highlights listed on the cover. In 1981, this feature would have been the cover, and Hatsumi would have been hooded. And they'd have sold the living hell out of it…
Photos from this article would later be adopted by the ground-breaking book Spike & Chain: Japanese Fighting Arts by Charles V. Gruzanski, but apart from that this is an all-but-forgotten, albeit damn nifty, piece of ninja lore.
Enjoy the full piece below…
Argosy, Bujinkan, Masaaki Hatsumi, ninjutsu

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Imperial Japan's Southeast Asia Offensive in Retrospective
Imperial Japan's Southeast Asia campaign is among the most successful series of military operations ever conducted.
By Robert Farley for The Diplomat
Credit: Japanese book
Japan's massive offensive to conquer Southeast Asia began to unfold seventy-five years ago this week. In territorial extent, it is among the largest, most successful series of military operations ever conducted. The Japanese offensive managed to destroy the front line naval assets of two peer competitors, sinking seven capital ships without loss. It also managed to capture the greater portion of what is now ASEAN, the most economically dynamic region in the world. Although Japan would only hold the territory for four years, the offensive helped end formal colonialism in East Asia.
In the years prior to the opening of the Pacific War, Japan had already made significant territorial acquisitions. It came into possession of Formosa following the Sino-Japanese War, and Korea after the Russo-Japanese War. The League of Nations placed several Pacific island chains under Japanese control after World War II. In 1931 the Japanese Army seized Manchuria; in 1937, it began a war against China that would lead, by 1941, to the occupation of much of the north and east of the country, as well as several coastal enclaves. Finally, in 1941 Japan occupied French Indochina, giving it critical bases for the advance into the rest of the region.
Japan's war with the West began with the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, which destroyed the greater portion of the capital ship strength of the U.S. Navy. Invasions of the Philippines, Malaya, and Thailand followed in the next few days. Borneo and Sumatra suffered invasion later in the month. In January the Japanese Army began its seizure of the greater part of Burma; in February it captured the British military fortress at Singapore, and invaded Java. In March Japanese troops captured Rangoon and landed in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. Japanese victories would continue through April.
How did a state with a backward economy (compared to the United States and the United Kingdom) manage to conquer the great part of Southeast Asia within three months? From the vantage point of the 1939 Battle of Khalkin Gol, where the Soviets simply outfought and out-muscled the most elite elements of the Japanese Army, the prospects for success looked grim. But the Japanese had good timing. The British were occupied in Europe, fighting the Germans and the Italians. The Dutch and the French were literally occupied, and in any case their colonial regimes enjoyed little local support. The pre-war American military buildup had not yet taken full shape. Moreover, trends in Japanese training and equipment procurement coincided, through both good planning and good fortune, with the moment of Western weakness.
But of course, it didn't last. Japan's military momentum ended at Midway and Coral Sea; the long battle of attrition over the Solomon Islands gave the United States plenty of time to recoup its strength; when the counter-offensive began in earnest, the Japanese Empire collapsed quickly. Japan's economy could not keep pace with the U.S. either on quantity or quality of military material, and as the war drew on the Japanese industrial base simply collapsed under direct and indirect assault.
A modern military success of this scale is almost unimaginable. For one, in the contemporary technology environment, no state could keep all of the moving parts of its offensive concealed nearly as successfully as the Japanese. For another, the existing regimes of East Asia (and most of the rest of the world) have a degree of genuine popular foundation; they would not topple at the arrival of a few brigades.
However, Japan's brief seizure of East Asia had lasting effects on the region. The colonial regimes in Vietnam, Burma, and Indonesia quickly collapsed, followed by the British Raj. The United States ended formal control of the Philippines, although it had planned to leave even before the war. The Sino-Japanese War gave the Chinese Communists an opportunity to seize power, which they took advantage of. In short, the Japanese managed to rewrite the map of East Asia in four months, and no one has ever managed to put it back the way it was.
Imperial Japan
Japan and World War II
Southeast Asia and World War II
What If Japan Had Won The Battle of Midway?
By Benjamin David Baker
One of the most decisive battles of the Second World War could have ended up very differently. Be glad it didn't though.
The Real Story of the Destruction of Force Z
Even more than Pearl Harbor, the sinking of the two British battleships served to convince political and naval authorities of the pre-eminence of airpower in the Pacific.
Rethinking the Technological Story of the Pacific Theater of the Second World War
Just how central was the battleship to naval operations during the Second World War?
Were Tankers the Key to Imperial Japan's Early Wartime Success?
Japan had come to appreciate the value of at-sea replenishment for its navy early on.


text:
Q: How to swap eth and btc to bsc using binance bridge api and transfer bsc to another account using binance api? For eth swap I used
 POST api.binance.org/bridge/api/v2/swaps

with body
   {
    "amount": 0.2,
    "direction": "IN",
    "fromNetwork": "ETH",
    "source":"",
    "symbol":"ETH",
    "toAddress":"my wallet address",
    "toAddressLabel":"",
    "toNetwork":"BSC",
    "walletAddress": "my wallet address",
    "walletNetwork": "ETH"
 }

This gave me a deposit Address. How can I deposit a test token to that address to avoid using real crypto for test.
I tried depositing test token from infura using c# Netherium web3 library to test. But Test token decreases but binance test token doesnot increases.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
A 'love jihad' ends in peace for couple but many others feel wounded for life
Published on: 2015-11-20 Written By: Irena Akbar
Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/a-love-jihad-ends-in-peace-for-couple-but-many-others-feel-wounded-for-life/
A year later, the love jihad story has fallen flat: the woman and the man, Kaleem, are living together at an undisclosed location in Meerut and are set to get married.
He was Muslim, she was Hindu. He was accused of raping her and keeping her in illegal confinement. His Muslim brethren allegedly did worse — they 'abducted' her, 'gangraped' her, and 'forcibly converted' her to Islam. It was a sensational 'love jihad' story, one that thrust Sarawa village in Meerut into the spotlight in August last year, making it the centrepiece of political campaigns for by-elections in western UP. A year later, the love jihad story has fallen flat: the woman and the man, Kaleem, are living together at an undisclosed location in Meerut and are set to get married.
Speaking to The Indian Express on phone, Kaleem's lawyer Zulfikar confirmed, "Yes, they are living together and will get married soon. They fear for their lives and don't want to meet or talk to anyone."
It's a dramatic end to a story of several twists and turns. It began in the last week of July 2014, when the woman, 21, who taught at a madrasa in Sarawa, went missing, after which her father filed a complaint . When she returned on August 3, she registered an FIR accusing Nawab Khan, the village pradhan, and Sanaullah, a property agent, of abducting and taking her to two madrasas, where she was allegedly gangraped and forcibly converted to Islam.
Sanaullah's wife Samar Jahan and the woman's friend, Nishat, were accused of helping Nawab and Sanaullah. Six others were arrested, including Kaleem (he got bail two months ago).
In October 2014, she fled her home, landed at the police station and denied her charges, saying she had made them under pressure from her parents. The district court sent her to Meerut Nari Niketan as she said she feared for her life. Last month, she was released after a high court order to decongest Nari Niketans. In her deposition, she said she wanted to live with her lover, not her parents.
Her father says he does not know where she is. "I've heard she is living with that Kaleem somewhere in Meerut. Even if she is an adult, how can they let her live with the accused when they are not married?"
Sources say the retraction of the allegations does not change the legal status of the case. The trial is still on. While the couple are looking forward to a new start to their lives, the four villagers named in the original FIR say they have been scarred for life.
Nawab Khan, 43
"Allah ka shukr hai," says Nawab Khan of the turn of events. The pradhan got out on bail on August 20 after a year in jail, during which his eight children dropped out of school as his family lived on borrowings. "I have to repay my debts before I can send them to school. But who will repay me for the humiliation I have suffered, for the tears my wife and children have shed?" he says.
Khan says the Tyagi community, to which the girl belongs, foisted the case on him in "revenge". After he was elected in 2010, he says he had run-ins with the Tyagis. In 2011, he says they sued him over repair work on a mosque but lost the case; later, he got a pillar, build on a road by the girl's uncles, removed. The next pradhan elections are due soon and Khan is contesting again.
Sanaullah, 48; Samar Jahan, 44
"They used to call me Chhota Osama," laughs Sanaullah, as he recalls the time he spent in a Meerut jail on charges of being the alleged mastermind in the case filed by the woman. His topi and beard — and the fact that he was the last to be arrested – had earned him another sobriquet, "cleric on the run". "Perhaps my looks made it convenient for them to label me a mastermind," he says, adding he is no cleric either. "I am a farmer and property dealer," he says, though he holds the title of hafiz, given to those who have memorised the Quran. In jail, he taught the Quran to other inmates. He says he has no enmity with the woman's family and believes he was arrested because "Nawab, their main target, is a cousin"
On August 3, 2014, when the police came looking for him, Sanaullah was in Delhi. "My mobile phone was not working, so I called my family from a PCO. When they told me the police had come to arrest me, I got scared and stayed back in Delhi," he says. He was arrested on August 13, 2014, and got out on bail on May 23 this year. His wife spent a longer time in jail — arrested on August 3, 2014, she was released on bail on September 22 this year. "That day, the police knocked our door at 4 pm, asking for my husband. I told them he was out of town, but they came again and asked me and my father-in-law to come with them. Then they put me in lockup," she says.
For someone who could "barely step out of home and would lose my way even in the lanes of the village", spending over a year outside of home "was unimaginable". "I would tell my children to imagine I had gone on a long vacation abroad," she says.
Sanaullah and Samar Jahan's son Irfan, 20, was a BA student when they were arrested. He dropped out of college, and his five siblings out of school. "Sab khatam ho gaya," he says. He has a diploma in computer programing and plans to start working "to support my father". The eldest daughter, Tehzeeb, then in Class VIII, dropped out to "take care of the home" while her mother was in jail.
Nishat, 20
Nishat and the 21-year-old woman studied in the same school and were friends till Class XII. The girl enrolled in a college in Hapur while Nishat stayed home. Nishat sits in a corner, smiling to herself; her mother and brother Asif speak on her behalf. "She is not mentally sound. She had a swelling in her brain because of an infection, and has been suffering from depression for two years," says Asif, who runs a transport business.
Nishat smiles and says she "liked" it in jail. "She is like a murti. Place her anywhere and she will sit there comfortably," says Asif.
Nishat spent eight months in jail and was released on bail five months ago. Her mother, Vasila, says she has a court hearing every 15-20 days. "Her reputation has been tarnished. How do we find her a match now?" she asks, adding Nishat was engaged before her arrest but the boy's family called it off.


text:
Q: Authorization for Static Files in ASP.NET MVC w/ Owin I have the need to secure an entire folder of static HTML files. The intention is that a user cannot access these files unless they are authenticated and have the necessary role.
We've got cookie-based authentication set up using OWIN, but no matter what I try I can't seem to figure out the correct combination of changes to make to require authentication on the folder.
The first problem is that IIS is skipping ASP.NET completely and just serving the files. I think there's probably a way around that by setting runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests to true. But where do I go from there?
I've tried stuffing  elements in the Web.config to require the proper roles, but it just results in EVERY request getting denied (presumably because it's not inspecting the proper cookie or something).
I've spent my entire day on this and I'm about to lose my mind.
Has anyone solved this problem?

A: *

*IIS is serving static files , if you want to stop this you can remove default static file handler and than every request is
serverd by MVC/OWIN.

*Than make static file handling and authorization in your controller
: listen/map route where static files are located

to remove default static file handler add this to web.config file:
<configuration>
    <system.webServer>
        <handlers>
           <remove name="StaticFile" />
        </handlers>
    </system.webServer>
</configuration>


text:
<BroadcastMonitor>
  <updated>2015-08-04T10:54:35</updated>
  <stationName>Radio 6</stationName>
  <Current>
    <startTime>2015-08-04T10:54:35</startTime>
    <itemId>1000080520:0</itemId>
    <titleId>216090763</titleId>
    <itemCode></itemCode>
    <itemReference></itemReference>
    <titleName>*** JINGLE 10 LOUNGE</titleName>
    <artistName></artistName>
    <albumName></albumName>
    <CategoryCode>965</CategoryCode>
    <CategoryName>ZWARTE LIJST</CategoryName>
    <itemDuration>19</itemDuration>
    <MultiMedia1></MultiMedia1>
    <MultiMedia2></MultiMedia2>
    <MultiMedia3></MultiMedia3>
    <MultiMedia4></MultiMedia4>
  </Current>
  <Next>
    <startTime>2015-08-04T10:54:50</startTime>
    <itemId>1000080520:1241086</itemId>
    <titleId>216041042</titleId>
    <itemCode>MS323</itemCode>
    <itemReference></itemReference>
    <titleName>Rose Rouge</titleName>
    <artistName>St Germain</artistName>
    <albumName></albumName>
    <CategoryCode>737</CategoryCode>
    <CategoryName>JAZZ</CategoryName>
    <itemDuration>242</itemDuration>
    <MultiMedia1></MultiMedia1>
    <MultiMedia2></MultiMedia2>
    <MultiMedia3></MultiMedia3>
    <MultiMedia4></MultiMedia4>
  </Next>
</BroadcastMonitor>


A work of art that is a home. That is what is said about this beautiful home. The designer/creator of this is Burnsville's prominent architect Armin Wessel. He designed this home to be his personal residence. It has been his home for the last 10 years. Home features great mountain views as well as a view over picturesque Burnsville. The entrance is graced by the relaxing sounds of a precious waterfall. The contours of these Blue Ridge Mountains are seen in the stone work and tile work found throughout the home. 4-car garage (two on each level). One of the single car garages is used as workshop/studio. The variety of screened porches and decks are perfect for entertaining. same for the downstairs billiard/game room. Mr. Wessel thought of everything to truly make this a dream home.


text:
Site Menu Give Now
In The Dark Streetlight Series
Judge Prohibits Jail From Holding Prisoners For ICE
By Chris Boros • Mar 28, 2017
my_southborough via Creative Commons / Creative Commons
President Trump's administration this month began publishing a weekly report of local and state law enforcement agencies that have refused to detain people so that federal agents can determine their legal status.
But a federal judge in New Mexico recently approved a settlement that prohibits the San Juan County jail from doing just that - holding inmates past their release date at the request of federal agents.
This stems from a lawsuit filed in 2014 by Somos Un Pueblo Unido, a Santa Fe-based immigrant advocacy group.
Communications Director Neza Leal spoke with KUNM's Chris Boros.
KUNM: Who took who to court and why?
Leal: This lawsuit was originally filed in 2014 by immigrant families in San Juan County who were having their civil rights violated by the jail – by being held beyond the time that was authorized by a judge solely based on an immigration detainer or a request by ICE to investigate their immigration status.
KUNM: What does this mean for the San Juan Country jail and how they treat people are being held there?
Leal: It's unfortunate that the federal government continues to intimidate local jails and local governments into violating the civil rights of their residents. These requests by ICE or immigration officials to local jails are not legally bound, meaning that local jails do not have to honor them whatsoever.
KUNM: Gov. Susana Martinez ordered state prison officials to cooperate with federal immigration agents and two weeks ago, after a request from ICE, the state Corrections Department presented a list of foreign born prisoners. Does this court ruling affect what the state can do?
Leal: The governor has been instructing the corrections department to do this for many years so the practice here is not new – the announcement is new. And what's happening across the country and here in New Mexico is that local jails and communities are proactively passing polices that prevent this sort of thing from happening.
KUNM: The Obama administration focused on deporting people who had been convicted of crimes and President Trump has broadened that. Isn't it a good thing to deport dangerous convicted criminals?
Leal: The thing with these requests is that in many cases it was individuals who were arrested for a traffic ticket. And so we want to be able to separate that local jails are not obligated by any means to honor these requests by ICE beyond what a judge orders. So we can separate what is civil immigration law and criminal justice.
San Juan County jail
somos un pueblo unido
Neza Leal
Albuquerque Church Offers Woman Sanctuary From ICE
New Mexico Coalition For Immigrant Justice / Creative Commons
Last week, an Albuquerque church offered sanctuary to an Albuquerque grandmother under threat of deportation. Her name is Emma – she's originally from Honduras and she's been living in the U.S. for 25 years. The Albuquerque church is one of over a dozen churches in the nation to provide sanctuary to an immigrant.
Corrections Department Gives Inmate Info To ICE
By Anna Lande • Mar 10, 2017
pixabay.com via CC
Governor Susana Martinez on Friday ordered the state corrections department to work with the federal government on immigration enforcement. President Trump's Administration requested a list of foreign-born inmates late last month as part of a push to deport people who are in the U.S. illegally.
Supporters Hold Vigil For Immigrants In Albuquerque
By Anna Lande • Feb 18, 2017
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston / Creative Commons via Flickr
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in cities across the country are alarming immigrant communities. Hundreds of Albuquerque community members found solace with each other Friday night at a candle-lit St. Paul Lutheran Church.


Advanced Concrete Solutions LLC has great ideas for your new concrete areas. Whether it is a new pool deck, patio, sidewalk, porch or retaining walls, Advanced Concrete Solutions LLC can help you design and install new plain or stamped concrete, paving stones, wall block and fire pits. Contact Advanced Concrete Solutions LLC for all of your concrete and outdoor living needs!


text:
José Maria Dinis Vieira ComNSC (Nisa, 24 de Novembro de 1847 – 1 de Julho de 1933), 1.º Visconde de Vale de Sobreira, foi um empresário agrícola, político e filantropo português.

Família
Filho de Domingos da Cruz (Nisa, São Matias, Velada, 19 de Abril de 1822 - ?) e de sua mulher (Nisa, Nossa Senhora da Graça, 15 de Setembro de 1842) Catarina Dinis Vieira (Nisa, Nossa Senhora da Graça, 10 de Dezembro de 1821 - Nisa, Nossa Senhora da Graça, 2 de Julho de 1896), irmã do 1.º Barão de Maxial, neto paterno de Manuel Joaquim da Cruz e de sua mulher Maria do Rosário e irmão de Maria da Graça Dinis Vieira, casada com seu primo Augusto Dinis Vieira de Sousa.

Biografia
Desempenhou durante muitos anos as funções de Presidente da Câmara Municipal e de Provedor da Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Nisa, onde foi grande Proprietário e Lavrador, e militou sempre no Partido Regenerador. Era Comendador da Ordem de Nossa Senhora da Conceição de Vila Viçosa.

O título de 1.º Visconde de Vale de Sobreira foi-lhe concedido, em sua vida, por Decreto de D. Carlos I de Portugal de data desconhecida, nos últimos anos do seu reinado, mas que não foi registado na Torre do Tombo.

Casamento e descendência
Casou com Maria José da Graça e Oliveira (c. 1861 - Nisa, 25 de Fevereiro de 1949), filha do Dr. José Luís da Graça Mota e Moura, Doutor na Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de Coimbra, do Conselho de Sua Majestade El-Rei D. Luís I de Portugal, e de sua mulher Joaquina de Oliveira, com geração.

Naturais de Nisa
Empresários de Portugal
Agricultores de Portugal
Presidentes da Câmara Municipal de Nisa
Filantropos de Portugal
Políticos do Partido Regenerador
Comendadores da Ordem de Nossa Senhora da Conceição de Vila Viçosa

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Not 2002, 2001 Shapes My View on Modi
Author(s) : Hashmi Hams Tabreed
I was an intern back then. Having done my diploma in journalism and mass communication, i was working with a senior journalist to learn the tricks of on-ground reporting and developing contacts.My mentor was a veteran journalist, aged about 52 years. Everyone used to call him Haji sahab. He had gone on Haj with family twice and on both occasions used his contacts in Haj committee to get Haj subsidy. He was a smart fellow. Always getting what he wanted just by approaching one of his numerous contacts. Haji sahab was living in Gaziabad with his parents and two sons, both married and had kids. His only daughter Zuveria, whom he loved very much was married into a Bhuj based family, however she along with her husband was living in Dubai. I was living in a hostel in Noida. Life was tough for me. Brutal heat and cold of Delhi region, food in hostel mess, round the clock readiness to run for the story and above all, rudeness of Delhites. Guess its a cultural thing, it takes getting used to and in time i did get used to it.
26th Jan 2001, was a lazy day. Haji sahab had told me he was going with family to see the Republic day parade and i had decided to sleep as long as i can. I had come back from Bulandshaher the previous day and wanted to use the rare day of peace, sleeping. It had been 6 months in the city and I still had very few friends in city, Infact my neighbors in the hostel who were mostly students and the cook in hostel mess, Pradeep were my only friends. They were all Hindus. At around 4 PM, I was woken up by Pradeep for lunch. Watching TV in the mess, i first came to know of the Bhuj earthquake. Channels were saying hundreds might have died. The next day I encountered an extremely worried Haji sahab. He had been trying to reach his daughter's in laws in Bhuj without success. Too worried to work, he sent me home for the day. By now media estimate of victims had swelled into thousands. Back at the hostel few of my neighbors were talking about doing something. We spent the day surfing channels and it seemed with each passing hour the tragedy was growing. By evening we had started a drive to collect money for the victims. By next day we had about Rs 9700 collected that we intended to donate to PM's relief fund. I even approached Haji sahab for donation who was worried sick. He wanted to go to Bhuj but being a diabetic, idea of him going into a disaster zone was firmly struck down by his family. He said he was willing to donate Rs 10000 if anyone was going to Bhuj. That's when the idea struck me. I proposed i can go there and cover the disaster as a reporter and check on well being of his relatives. I had his approval and the donation. Back at the hostel my friends agreed to join me as well. Surprisingly, Pradeep, the cook also wanted to join us. Said he earned enough paap by embezzling funds from hostel mess and wanted to earn some punya. We were getting ready to embark on this journey. TV reported a special train was announced by government to ferry people from Delhi to Ahmadabad free of charge. Things were getting into place. We had collected about Rs 21000 after pooling in our money as well. Pradeep had arranged another cook for the time he will be away. He had prepared 100 food packets which we intended to distribute among the needy. We were a group of five and we all pledged we would not spend a single paisa from the donations we had received on ourselves, no matter what.
Despite all the urgency we could only start on 30th night. We reached New Delhi railway station hoping to catch the special train to Ahmadabad which was to leave at 10PM. Unfortunately despite our frantic efforts we could not find that train. No one seemed to have heard of this train. How typical of Indian government efforts, mired in ineffective bureaucratic logjams. We asked a TT standing next to a Ahmadabad bound train. His response was "I know people like you hoping for a free ride, don't you dare enter my compartment or i will throw you all off the running train." We could not spend money on tickets, every single penny was for victims. And so despite, the TT's warning we boarded that train. It was a sleeper bogey. We spread some newspaper on the floor and settled near door. In about couple of hours the angry TT was staring at us. He was hurling choicest of abuses,insulting us. I was upset at the humiliation but the students somehow were unaffected and just kept arguing with TT till he left us alone. Most passengers in the bogey didn't believe we were going to Ahmadabad to help. To them we were a nuisance but no one dared to confront a group of 5 men.
The journey was excruciatingly long. We reached Ahmadabad by 8:30 PM next day. My first reaction was that of surprise. Going by media reports, I was expecting to see some damage in Ahmadabad as well but the city was unscathed. We were confused about what to do next. I called Haji sahab who gave contact and address of few NGOs engaged in relief work. We visited their offices. Some seemed as if they've been closed for last few years while others sounded extremely casual about relief work. We had not traveled this far to give the relief money to someone who wasn't serious about utilizing it in a fair way. Finally someone suggested going to RSS office as they were heavily engaged in relief works. I had my apprehensions. I had heard enough about RSS VHP Bajrang Dal etc during Ayodhya movement. But i did not oppose. The RSS office was abuzz with activity. A lot of people were preparing big packets of relief material. A person said we've enough volunteers in the field, you can donate your stuff here if you want. Right ! give money to RSS ? never. I thought. Gladly, everyone agreed the money will be better utilized if we managed it ourselves. The RSS guy told us the epicenter of devastation was Bhuj and maximum assistance was needed there. We took an overnight bus to Bhuj. Food packets from Pradeep kept us going. I woke up at about 3 AM. Absolute darkness all around us, the bus was bouncing over cracked roads. Someone said, there used to be a village here.
About 6:30 AM, our bus rolled into Bhuj bus station. Wasn't much left of it. There was devastation all around. Broken almirahs, computers, documents strewn around. The main road originating from bus stand towards town was deserted. Not a single building stood intact. There was debris all around. In balcony of few buildings one could see clothes hanging as they were hung out to dry on 26th morning. It looked like a scene lifted straight from a Hollywood movie. First thing my friends did was relieve themselves. They managed to get plastic bottles and there was plenty of space for attending to nature's call. I couldn't. It's a personal thing. Some of you can relate i hope. Well we inquired about relief camps and headed to one setup in a college ground nearby. It turned out to be VHP (Vishwa Hindu Parishad) camp. I could see a big crowd waiting for food there. Muslim women in their dirt covered torn burqas along with their children queued up in a line. We thought it was a good place to distribute our food packets, however the vegetable had turned stale. Poori and pickle were still eatable. We checked with VHP guys and they were only too happy to allow us to distribute food we had. People didn't mind our poori and pickle packets and within 15 minutes we were done distributing our packets. I wanted to go to the locality where Haji sahab said his relatives lived but the VHP guy said that area is completely devastated. He suggested we should go to Bhuj Military base where most of the rescued people have been camped. The Bhuj Military camp was full of injured and homeless people rescued in past few days. I was able to locate Haji sahab's relatives who were rescued 2 days back. A lot of people in camp were Muslims and each had a tragic tale to tell. Most of them had lost loved one's. We started distributing some money among people. We came across RSS volunteers who were bringing quake affected people to camps. I also saw the little girl who was rescued alive after being 6 days under rubble. She had become a celebrity and i could see media flocking her.
It was getting late. We wanted to cover more camps. Someone suggested a place called Mandvi had suffered more devastation. We caught the overnight bus. First place we went to was Haji Hasan hospital. It was chaotic, the hospital was full of injured people. We distributed some money when an angry doctor stopped us. He said we'll end up creating stampede as there are large number of desperate penniless people. We still had some money which we wanted to ensure reaches the needy. The auto driver told us about a medical camp in his village. We reached that hospital which was nothing but a school converted into a makeshift hospital. When doctors learnt we were from Delhi, everyone stood up in attention pose, They had mistaken us for bureaucrats. We explained our position and said we wanted to help. Upon inquiring, the people there said they'd prefer food instead of money. One shop that we managed to find was selling a Rs 5 biscuit for Rs 50. Ghafoor the shopkeeper was as ruthless about profits as nature was when earthquake hit the region. Sparing some money for travel back home we spent the entire amount buying eatables for the people in that hospital. There are so many stories from this trip that i wanted to tell but i do not want it to turn into a memoir. There is a beautiful message that i got from this trip, one that serves me to this day. Oh, and by the way on our our ride back to Delhi a bunch of TTs argued among themselves, each wanted us to sit in his bogey. We were still ticket less. This time they had believed us when we told we were volunteers who came to help.
Today I hear a lot about 2002. From Mullahs, Intellectuals, Media both Indian and Foreign, Liberals, Seculars and God knows who else. Almost everyone singularly blames RSS, VHP etc.I haven't heard most of them talk about 2001 which was a far bigger tragedy where Hindus-Muslims in tens of thousands died. I did not see any of those champions of humanity serving there. Muslims, similar to those who today outrage and hate Modi for loss of Muslim lives in 2002, were out there looting other Muslims like vultures. Unfortunately none of the liberal secular narrative unfolded there. What i saw there was much maligned RSS and VHP folks serving humanity without any bias or hatred. They didn't show any hesitation in helping, be the person a bearded Muslim or a burqa clad women. How many liberals or Muslims can maintain such neutrality when they see a man in Khakhi shorts or sporting a tilak. 2002 riots were unfortunate. One that was provoked because of a cold blooded planned burning of Hindus. In a state where riots started on incidents like bicycle collisions and cricket matches, this was a grave provocation. In a moment of madness, hundreds of innocents lost their lives. Anyone who sits on judgement about 2002 riots should ponder and think. Imagine how it would feel to be burnt alive, Imagine if it happened to your parents or your child, Imagine if they were blamed to have foolishly burnt themselves. In the land of mahatma not everyone is Gandhi. Our history is replete with Hindu Muslim riots across the length and breadth of this country and yet for some reason Media sees Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb everywhere else except Gujarat. We will move on only when we let the pain of past go. It's time to let 2002 go. Courts have already done so. In 2008 i visited Bhuj and Mandvi again, and i was surprised at the transformation that had taken place. It was here that Haji sahab's in-law told me of a weird incident. While being rescued by Army, the local Maulvi was upset that the Army men, all Hindus, had to touch his wife in order to rescue her. Think what would these kind of people say about 2002 riots.
On Modi and RSS i'm not asking you to change your opinion. I've formed my opinion based on my experiences and i'd request you to do the same. Don't let some random guy on TV shape your opinion. I've seen many preachers of high morality turn into spineless cowards when the time comes to practice what they preach. This country is too precious to be held hostage by a narrow skewed version of what happened in 2002. A lot of blood was spilled by freedom fighters in the hope of seeing the glorious India of yesteryear revived again. I have every hope that despite all odds India will prevail.
Published at : http://curiousindian.com/
Comments (2) We welcome your comments
Your last paragraph hits the nail on the head. Rather than praising Modi you have questioned the credibility of his detractors.
An objective analysis of criticism helps people form opinions.
A VERY GOOD ARTICLE
Posted By Ganesh R On Date: 02 May 2014
Superbly ilinmluating data here, thanks!
Posted By Soda On Date: 22 Aug 2014


This signal is used by any official to indicate that a forward pass or scrimmage kick has been legally touched by a member of the defense/receiving team.
This means that the originally ineligible members of the passing/kicking team now may legally recover the ball or be downfield. It also means that certain other fouls such as pass or kick-catch interference no longer apply.
Begin the with one hand held high and pointing horizontally and sweep the other under the first hand creating a "T" shape. This may be repeated several times to give everyone a chance to notice it - do NOT blow your whistle.


text:
Will stealthy Eurofighter Typhoon trump Russian Su-35 in a dogfight?
Aggressive Baltic Republics are likely to accidentally invite the first response from Russia forcing an unwilling NATO to react.
By Girish Linganna
Girish Linganna
Girish Linganna is a Defence & Aerospace analyst and is the Director of ADD Engineering Components (India) Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of ADD Engineering GmbH, Germany with manufacturing units in Russia. He is Consulting Editor Industry and Defense at Frontier India.
Russia's use of its Su-35 fighter aircraft in Ukraine has brought the plane under the spotlight. On the other hand, the war has drawn attention to the European security situation and the military preparedness of countries in this region. Aggressive Baltic Republics are likely to accidentally invite the first response from Russia forcing an unwilling NATO to react. Baltics are backed by even more aggressive U.K. PM Johnson, who said his country is considering deploying RAF Typhoon fighters and Royal Navy warships to protect southeastern Europe in April. In June, the Typhoons were engaged in training to protect the airspace of the Baltic States.
In the context of an apparent connection between fighter aircraft and a perceived security crisis, the Eurofighter Typhoon, a jet operated by four major European countries, has also come under scrutiny. How does the Su-35 compare with the Eurofighter Typhoon?
Created at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Plant under the direction of the Sukhoi Design Bureau, the Su-35 refers to two improved derivatives of the Su-27 air-defence fighter. Su-35 is a single-seat, twin-engine, highly agile aircraft initially known as the Su-27M and was created by the Soviet Union from the Su-27. Sukhoi changed the aircraft's designation to the Su-35 to gain export orders after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. To use the Su-27 as a temporary aircraft while the Sukhoi PAK FA (Su-57) programme was developed, Sukhoi, in 2003, started a second modernisation of the Su-27. This variation, also given the Su-35 designation, featured a new weapons control system, cockpit, and thrust-vectoring engines.
The Eurofighter Typhoon prides itself on being Europe's largest military programme. It has four founding nations- the UK, Germany, Italy, and Spain- who all use the fighter plane in their air forces. The aircraft's development essentially began in 1983, with the construction of the first Eurofighter Typhoon prototypes starting in 1989. The nations agreed that each would host the production line and final assembly for the aircraft components they were responsible for. It is currently manufactured by a consortium of BAE Systems, Airbus, and Leonardo. The plane can accommodate one or two crew. Like the Su-35, it is also a twin-engine, highly agile fighter that has been built for efficacy in dogfights and compatibility with a variety of armament and equipment.
Excluding pilot skills, team coordination, numbers, and environmental circumstances, an essential factor influencing chances of victory is the edge one aircraft has over the other based on technical specifications. This can be measured in terms of detection, endurance, weapons capacity etc.
Detectability
The Su-35 is 21.9 metres long and 5.9 m tall with a wingspan of 15.3 m. In comparison, the Eurofighter is 15.9 m long and 5.29 m tall. It has a wingspan of 10.9 m. A smaller size usually means the aircraft has a smaller radar-cross section (RCS). Smaller RCS, in turn, means that the object is harder to detect by enemy radars.
Apart from size, the Su-35 also has a larger RCS due to its large intakes, ineffective fan-blade shielding, vertical dual stabilisers, and thrust-vectoring jet nozzles. The Eurofighter's RCS, on the other hand, is lesser because of its smaller size and greater use of radar-absorbent materials and signature management for canards. In addition, the Su-35 has a much larger heat signature than the Eurofighter due to its larger size, canted position of the engines, and the higher thrust needed.
Another aspect of detection is how well an aircraft can detect targets, enemy aircraft etc., around it. The Su-35S's Irbis-E Passive Electronically Scanned Array (PESA) radar boasts incredibly high power levels. It allows for target detection beyond 300 kilometres and has claimed advancements in detecting low-observable threats like stealth fighters. The paradoxical drawback here is that because Irbis-E has to use extremely high power levels to achieve this performance, it becomes easily trackable and detectable. Coupled with the high RCS of the aircraft, this makes for a troublesome combination. This forces the aircraft to rely on out-ranging its adversaries beyond visual ranges (BVR) instead of sneaking up on them whilst relying on passive tracking.
Eurofighter Typhoon. Image: Leonardo
The Eurofighter's CAPTOR-M radar goes head-to-head with the Su-35's Irbis-E radar regarding long-range tracking and detection in active scanning mode. However, it may be less effective at detecting low-observable threats. Yet, the Typhoon still has a clear advantage in passive tracking owing to Leonardo's Praetorian Defensive Aids Sub-System (DASS). It protects against air-to-air and surface-to-air threats by" monitoring and proactively responding to the operational environment." In addition, the system comprises electronic support measures, missile warning, onboard electronic countermeasures, and towed radar decoys that assist in detecting, evaluating, and countering threats at maximum range. The typhoon radar is improving with E-Scan AESA radar installation under Tranche 4 upgrades.
Endurance, Speed, Altitude
Endurance of an aircraft, referring to the maximum amount of time an aircraft can spend at cruising speed, can usually be compared by looking at the plane's fuel capacity. The fuel capacity of the Su-35- 11,500 kilograms- far exceeds that of the Eurofighter- 5,000 kg.
Powered by a Saturn AL-41F1S engine, the Su-35 offers a maximum speed of 2.25 Mach. The aircraft's service ceiling, i.e. the maximum height it can reach, is just a little short of 18,000 m. In comparison, the Eurofighter, powered by the E-J-200 engine, offers a top speed of 2 Mach. The service ceiling of this jet is a little short of 20,000 m.
It is important to note that both aircraft are capable of supercruising. However, the Typhoon's speed without afterburners at combat loading is significantly higher than the Su-35. When comparing top speeds, the Eurofighter can still edge a slight advantage- the Su-35 carries twice as much when fully loaded as the European plane, but it also burns more fuel to maintain energy. The Eurofighter maintains more power during high-g turns and has better combat persistence during sustained afterburner-dependent manoeuvres in prolonged engagements. As a result, even though the Su-35's thrust-to-weight ratio eventually catches up to Typhoon as fuel is burned off, it will continue to be at an energy disadvantage over time.
Altitude also comes into play. Su-35 is likely to be at a serious energy disadvantage during a BVR engagement at high altitudes, assuming both aircraft have detected one another. Typhoons would be flying at their higher service ceiling and faster supercruise speeds.
The Su-35 has 12 hard points, while the Eurofighter has 13. However, the weapons carrying capacity of the Su-35 trumps that of the European jet. Despite having 13 pylons, the Typhoon can only use 8 of them to carry weapons – 6 BVR air-to-air missiles (AAM) and two short-range AAMs.
On the other hand, each of the Su-35's 12 hard points can be equipped with a missile. Critically important electronic countermeasure (ECM) pods are stocked in the wingtip stations. Russia has more long-range firepower with 10 BVR missiles and 2–4 short-range missiles.
The Radar cross-section (RCS) of Su35 is known to be "1-3m2", and the Typhoon is "0.5m2," but both must be over 5m2 at full payload. The RCS of the Flanker would undoubtedly be greater than that of the Typhoons, but not by much. The difference in aircraft size is not particularly significant because of all those missiles and fuel tanks.
Su-35S payload, cockpit view
However, external loads do not affect radar performance, and the Su-35 does have a more powerful radar. Once the threat is within transmitting range, Eurofighter's BriteCloud decoy jamming performs better, but the Su-35's ECM can communicate over a greater area. Therefore, it is unlikely that the Typhoon would have an advantage in BVR.
Excellent Russian missile design expertise is advantageous for the Su-35. It is very challenging to defend against Russian fighters due to the variety of seeker-heads they use in their missile salvos when combatting Western fighters. The Su-35 can fire semi-active radar homing, anti-radiation (home on jam), and infrared homing missiles at a distance, while the 'Archer series is still as lethal at close range.
On the other hand, the European aircraft have excellent short-range infrared homing (I.R.) missiles like the Advanced Short Range AAM (ASRAAM) and IRIS-T that can match or even outperform their Russian counterparts. Still, at long range, the Advanced Medium Range AAM (AMRAAM) is getting old, and against the Su-35S' DRFM jamming technology, multiple missiles would probably be needed to take out each target.
However, the Eurofighter benefits from rules of engagement that permit long-range missile shots and high-velocity BVR combat, especially once the Meteor missile is fully integrated. In 2020, Russia unveiled a new R-37M Hypersonic Air to Air Missile to be deployed From the Su-35 Fighter. It is not yet known if it is in service. This missile is capable of tipping the BVR scales with its 400km range, Mach 6 and 60kg payload.
The Su-35 performs better in Within Visual Range (WVR) combat, especially at lower speeds and altitudes. Although the Su-35 is incredibly manoeuvrable, courtesy of its thrust-vectoring engines and massive lifting body, WVR is considered to be very dangerous. Unless a Typhoon pilot could find room to accelerate vertically to gain an energy advantage without being shot down in the process, Typhoon would likely be outmatched by the Su-35 WVR in both the horizontal and vertical planes.
Yet, it is imperative to consider that both aircraft are also fitted with helmet-mounted sights to trigger off-boresight missile shots and are armed with highly manoeuvrable I.R. missiles with excellent countermeasure resistance. Both would probably perish in a WVR "merge" with the other.
Electronic warfare (E.W.) and defensive tools
Russian EW capabilities are often outstanding. Their defensive toolkits, however, frequently lag behind those of their Western rivals. Although the specifics are highly classified, the Su-35 and Typhoon have some of the best DAS and E.W. capabilities that their respective countries can mount in frontline jets. It is plausible that Su-35 has the advantage in offensive E.W. and jamming capabilities while Typhoon has the edge in defensive aids and passive ELINT gathering.
Su-35S Sensors
The Su-35 does not rely as heavily on computers and software as the Eurofighter. Relying too much on computers also creates its own unique set of problems. Su-35 could likely match Typhoon's reliability rate and outperform it in terms of ease of maintenance if used by a Western air force as part of a sizable, coordinated fleet. Currently, Su-35 is significantly less reliable than Typhoon as it is part of a Russian Air Force with various fighter types and patchy resources.
Easy flying and fighting thanks to the human-machine interface!
Russian jets have historically had trouble in this area. The Su-35 is less user-friendly to fly and use in combat than Typhoon, despite having multifunction cockpit displays and digital flight instruments.
Connection to a network
Typhoon dominates due to its advantages in connectivity, latest generation Link 16, MIDS, and lack of Russian Air Force standardisation. This disadvantage, however, might not be as significant for the Russian Air Force as it would be for a Western Air Force due to Russian tactical doctrine.
What is the state of the Russian Su-35 fleet right now?
48 Su-35S are currently in use in Russia, and another 48 are slated for production. The success of the new Saturn 117S thrust-vectoring engines, which have so far avoided many of the reliability issues of previous models, appears to give them a higher average serviceability rate than earlier iterations of the Su-27/30 family as well as the MiG-29. However, as with many other facets of the Russian military, the Su-35's low production and service numbers, as well as its presence among a wide range of MiG-29 and Su-27/30 ancestors that do not share many essential parts, resulting in high operating costs and complicated logistics.
Except for small forward deployments like Syria, where the entire logistics chain can be focused on maintaining a small portion of the force at high readiness, this reduces serviceability to levels significantly below those of the US, British, and French fighter fleets.
Viable Comparison
Given the reluctance of the West to get its military involvement in any war since the Afghanistan debacle, it seems unlikely that a Su-35 and a Eurofighter would face each other off in a dogfight. However, if they do, the deciding factor would depend quite heavily on technical and non-technical factors mentioned earlier, viz., pilot skills, team coordination etc. Since neither the Eurofighter nor the Su-35 is decidedly better than the other in the technical aspects, if a battle does come down to those specifications, it would depend on whether a plane needs to show endurance or speed or detection skills, weaponry etc. in that particular fight. However, evaluating and comparing these capabilities provides a foundational basis for predicting, to some degree, the victor.
Advanced Medium Range AAM
Advanced Short Range AAM
AMRAAM
ASRAAM
BriteCloud
E-J-200 engine
E-Scan AESA radar
Irbis-E radar
IRIS-T
Meteor Missile
R-37M Hypersonic Air to Air Missile
Saturn AL-41F1S engine
Su-35S
LCA Tejas gets equipped with JDAM-ER precision Bomb Kits
Turkey may purchase of Eurofighter Typhoon fighter if the U.S. refuses the F-16V deal
Jonas 2022-08-11 At 4:59 pm
"Aggressive Baltic countries?"????? Wtf this supposed to mean? Russia is the aggressor, this article is bullshit!


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