Jesus Malverde
Jesus Malverde's JournalJapan tells world to stand up to China or face consequences
Source: AFP
Davos (Switzerland) (AFP) - Japan on Wednesday told the world it must stand up to an increasingly assertive China or risk a regional conflict with catastrophic economic consequences.
In a landmark speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe issued what amounted to an appeal for international support in a potentially explosive dispute with its superpower neighbour over islands in the East China Sea.
"We must restrain military expansion in Asia ... which otherwise could go unchecked," Abe told the annual meeting of global business and political leaders, which Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is due to attend on Friday.
"If peace and stability were shaken in Asia, the knock-on effect for the entire world would be enormous," Abe added.
"The dividend of growth in Asia must not be wasted on military expansion."
Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/japan-appeals-world-restrain-39-military-expansion-39-173227774.html;_ylt=A2KJ3CYvGuBSIDkAdwXQtDMD
Subcompact ‘minicars’ are really bad in this tough crash test - Top Down Auto Blog
Subcompact cars fared poorly in new crash tests performed by an insurance industry group.
None of the 12 minicars tested got the highest rating of “good” from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The Chevrolet Spark was the only car that earned the second-highest rating of “acceptable.” Six of the cars — including the segment’s best-seller, the Nissan Versa — got the lowest rating of “poor.”
All of the cars were from the 2013 or 2014 model years.
“Small, lightweight vehicles have an inherent safety disadvantage. That’s why it’s even more important to choose one with the best occupant protection,” said Joe Nolan, IIHS’s senior vice president for vehicle research.
http://blog.sfgate.com/topdown/2014/01/22/subcompact-minicars-are-really-bad-in-this-tough-crash-test/#19881101=1
Chinese Internet Traffic Redirected to Small Wyoming House
In one of the more bizarre twists in recent Internet memory, much of the Internet traffic in China was redirected to a small, 1,700-square-foot house in Cheyenne, Wyo., on Tuesday.
A large portion of China’s 500 million Internet users were unable to load websites ending in .com, .net or .org for nearly eight hours in most regions of China, according to Compuware, a Detroit-based technology company.
The China Internet Network Information Center, a state-run agency that deals with Internet affairs, said it had traced the problem to the country’s domain name system. And one of China’s biggest antivirus software vendors, Qihoo 360 Technology, said the problems affected roughly three-quarters of the country’s domain name system servers.
Those servers, which act as a switchboard for Internet traffic behind China’s Great Firewall, routed traffic from some of China’s most popular sites, including Baidu and Sina, to a block of Internet addresses registered to Sophidea Incorporated, a mysterious company housed on a residential street in Cheyenne, Wyo.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/22/chinese-internet-traffic-redirected-to-small-wyoming-house/?_php=true&_type=blogs&src=twr&_r=0
Jahi McMath family attorney: 'They are not fools. They know the odds'
The attorney for the family of Jahi McMath is defending their actions in a new op-ed that criticizes "self-righteous commenters" and praises the 13-year-old brain-dead girl's mother for her courage despite "incendiary, hateful public rhetoric."
The op-ed by San Francisco attorney Christopher Dolan, published in the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday, comes after medical ethicists and physicians have criticized the decision to keep Jahi on a ventilator despite her being declared brain dead on Dec. 12 -- a decision affirmed by at least three neurologists.
Medical experts have said the decision to allow the family to transfer the girl from Children's Hospital Oakland to an undisclosed facility has only perpetuated misconceptions of brain death that have dogged the Jahi case since her family went public.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-jahi-mcmath-family-attorney-20140121,0,4696764.story#ixzz2r9VqNAum
Iran state reporter ditches suit
A FORMER Australian correspondent for Iran's state-run propaganda network, Press TV, has retreated from threats to sue a Melbourne blogger who last year exposed her past as an erotic glamour model.
The Sydney journalist, Edwina Storie, in May announced legal action over the seductive lingerie shots and Facebook photos that contrasted sharply with the reporter's conservative, hijab-wearing TV persona.
snip
Mr Storie, a former adviser to prime minister William McMahon, insisted his daughter only "read the script" provided by Press TV and was not presenting her own views. She did not know the reports would be broadcast.
"The whole thing was very upsetting for Edwina because it was like an acting part for her and they broadcast it," he said, describing her time with Press TV as "work experience".
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/media/iran-state-reporter-ditches-suit/story-e6frg996-1226807982064#
The only 'leader’ who speaks for American Jews on Iran is Barack Obama
Most American Jews support Obama’s policies on Iran - so in whose name are their so-called 'leaders’ sabotaging his nuclear diplomacy?Why does this matter? Because in recent months, the press has been filled with headlines like: “White House Briefs Jewish Leaders on Iran Nuclear Deal,” “American Jewish Leaders Censure Nuclear Deal,” and “Obama Urges Jewish Leaders Not to Back Iran Sanctions.”
The implication is that there’s a conflict between the White House, which want a softer line on Iran, and American Jews who - represented by their “leaders” - want a tougher one. It’s an influential storyline. And it’s utter nonsense.
In truth, the only person who can legitimately claim to speak for American Jews on the subject of Iran is the very guy American Jewish “leaders” oppose: Barack Obama. Look at the evidence. In 2012, Mitt Romney slammed Obama for not supporting tougher sanctions against Iran and for not more explicitly pledging that, if sanctions fail to curb Tehran’s nuclear program, the U.S. will attack. In so doing, Romney road-tested the critique leveled by Benjamin Netanyahu and many American Jewish “leaders.”
The result? Obama won 69 percent of the Jewish vote. According to an exit poll by J Street (the only organization to ask such a question), Jewish voters preferred Obama to Romney on Iran by a margin of 58 to 26 percent.
More recent surveys reveal basically the same thing. A Pew Research Center poll last October found that 52 percent of American Jews approve of Obama’s Iran policy while 35 percent disapprove.
An American Jewish Committee survey that same month found that American Jews support Obama’s “handling [of] Iran’s Nuclear Program” 62-36 percent.
http://www.haaretz.com/misc/article-print-page/.premium-1.569957?trailingPath=2.169%2C2.223%2C
Canadian Prime Minister plays Hey Jude to Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu
On the last evening of his four-day visit to Israel, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper had a special surprise for his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Instead of simply giving a speech thanking his hosts at the state dinner, Mr Harper decided to take to the stage and sing the Beatles' hit Hey Jude.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/the-filter/virals/10589471/Canadian-Prime-Minister-plays-Hey-Jude-to-Israels-Benjamin-Netanyahu.html
California official: utilities would like to “strangle” solar
Source: SFGate
Unless you follow California energy regulation very, very closely, you’ve probably never heard of Mark Ferron.
For nearly three years, Ferron served on the California Public Utilities Commission, the panel that sets utility rates, oversees telecom companies and plays a key role in California’s fight against global warming. The CPUC faced fierce scrutiny in the wake of the deadly 2010 San Bruno pipeline explosion, with critics accusing the commissioners of being too cozy with the companies they regulate. But much of the time, a seat on the five-member panel isn’t exactly a high-profile job.
Ferron abruptly resigned his post last Thursday. And people in California’s solar industry have been talking about him ever since.
Ferron, a former executive with Deutsche Bank and Salomon Brothers, stepped down to focus on fighting prostate cancer, which his doctors diagnosed in 2012. In one of his final acts as commissioner, he penned a three-page goodbye note that gives a remarkably blunt assessment of the state of California energy and climate policy, as well as the CPUC.
Read more: http://blog.sfgate.com/energy/2014/01/21/california-official-utilities-would-like-to-strangle-solar/
http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/NR/rdonlyres/D32220D6-0C9B-4413-A6F6-87C65E44AF2F/0/99FinalCommissionerReport140116.pdf
2. We are fortunate to have utilities in California that are orders of magnitude more enlightened than their brethren in the coal-loving states, although I suspect that they would still dearly like to strangle rooftop solar if they could. Modern utilities are subject to a rapidly evolving business environment, and I wonder whether some top managers at our utilities have the ability or the will to understand and control the far-flung and complex organizations they oversee. And I am very worried about our utilities’ commitment to their side of the regulatory compact. We at the Commission need to watch our utilities’ management and their legal and compliance advisors very, very carefully: it is clear to me that the legalistic, confrontational approach to regulation is alive and well. Their strategy is often: “we will give the Commission only what they explicitly order us to give them”. This is cat and mouse, not partnership, so we have to be one smart and aggressive cat.
4. Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, with the passage of AB327, the thorny issue of Net Energy Metering and rate design has been given over to the CPUC. But recognize that this is a poisoned chalice: the Commission will come under intense pressure to use this authority to protect the interest of the utilities over those of consumers and potential self-generators, all in the name of addressing exaggerated concerns about grid stability, cost and fairness. You – my fellow Commissioners - all must be bold and forthright in defending and strengthening our state’s commitment to clean and distributed energy generation.
Oklahoma Senator wants marijuana legalized, Says, “Marijuana Has Not Killed Anyone”
Whether states should legalize marijuana is a debate that continues.
That debate is heating up this week on the tales of a newly released, controversial interview with the president.
President Barack Obama is quoted in a recent article in the New Yorker magazine as saying he doesn’t believe marijuana is more dangerous than alcohol.
State Senator Constance Johnson is taking it even farther, saying alcohol is more dangerous than marijuana and should be legal.
Johnson has tried in the past to get legislation approved to legalize marijuana, but it has never passed.
This year she is trying again, introducing Senate Bill 2116. The bill would allow for the regulation and taxation of marijuana.
http://kfor.com/2014/01/20/senator-pushes-for-legalization-of-marijuana/
Wells Fargo bars employees from making personal loans on peer-to-peer sites
Wells Fargo's "ethics administrators" have decided "that for-profit peer-to-peer lending is a competitive activity that poses a conflict of interest," the Financial Times reported, based on a message to the bank's employees with accounts at peer-to-peer lenders.
"Going forward, please refrain from making any new P2P investments/loans," according to the bank's message. "If possible, exit existing investments as soon as practical, without forcing a loss, or when the loans are paid off."
Wells said Tuesday that the guidance was in response to a "specific question about investments in peer-to-peer lending companies from a small group of team members" in one of the bank's units.
The lending platforms can offer loans at lower rates than banks charge, while offering lenders, or more accurately, investors, higher rates.
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/2014/01/wells-fargo-bank-lending-club-prosper.html?ana=e_du_pub&s=article_du&ed=2014-01-21
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Name: Jesus MalverdeGender: Male
Hometown: SF
Current location: Japan
Member since: Fri May 17, 2013, 11:44 PM
Number of posts: 10,274
