More than 100 North Korean shells out of 500 or so fired landed in South Korean waters, prompting marines from the South to fire back with more than 300 rounds in the North's waters, defense officials in Seoul said.
Seoul also scrambled F-15s on its side of the maritime border, they said.
"We believe the North's maritime firing is a planned provocation and an attempt to test our military's determination to defend the Northern Limit Line and to get an upper hand in South-North relations," South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said.
In this Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012 photo, a flock of Geese fly past the
smokestacks at the Jeffrey Energy Center coal power plant as
the suns sets near Emmett, Kan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) | AP
Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that issued the 32-volume, 2,610-page report here early Monday, told The Associated Press: "it is a call for action." Without reductions in emissions, he said, impacts from warming "could get out of control.".........
Twenty-first century disasters such as killer heat waves in Europe, wildfires in the United States, droughts in Australia and deadly flooding in Mozambique, Thailand and Pakistan highlight how vulnerable humanity is to extreme weather, according to the report from the Nobel Prize-winning group of scientists. The dangers are going to worsen as the climate changes even more, the report's authors said.
"We're now in an era where climate change isn't some kind of future hypothetical," said the overall lead author of the report, Chris Field of the Carnegie Institution for Science in California. "We live in an area where impacts from climate change are already widespread and consequential."
Update: I posted following picture a while ago suggesting that earth may become a barren globe.
Now I see that The Huffington Post has posted the barren land globe on its front page under the UN Report on Climate Change. Interesting! I am not the only one who thinks that earth may become barren someday.
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Residents walk across the frozen Songhua River in front of smoke stacks at Jiamusi,
in China's northeast Heilongjiang province Sunday Dec. 4, 2005.
(AP Photo/Greg Baker) | ASSOCIATED PRESS
This story first appeared on The Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
Climate change has already left its mark "on all continents and across the oceans", damaging food crops, spreading disease, and melting glaciers, according to the leaked text of a blockbuster UN climate science report due out on Monday. Read more here.
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A Polar Bear walks on the frozen tundra next to Hudson Bay ahead of
the freeze-over 12 November 2007 outside Churchill, Mantioba, Canada.
| PAUL J. RICHARDS via Getty Images
If you think of climate change as a hazard for some far-off polar bears years from now, you're mistaken. That's the message from top climate scientists gathering in Japan this week to assess the impact of global warming. In fact, they will say, the dangers of a warming Earth are immediate and very human. "The polar bear is us," says Patricia Romero Lankao of the federally financed National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., referring to the first species to be listed as threatened by global warming due to melting sea ice.
OTTAWA - Russia on Monday slapped an entry ban on 13 Canadian lawmakers and officials, including Commons Speaker Andrew Scheer and government House leader Peter Van Loan, in retaliation for Canadian sanctions over Ukraine.
TORONTO - Toronto Mayor Rob Ford says he was imitating a retired professional wrestler (Hulk Hogan) in a video in which he threatens to kill someone, denying that the target of his rant was his sister's ex-boyfriend.
Clapping and swinging his hips, civil rights legend Rep. John Lewis danced to Pharrell Williams' hit song "Happy" in a recent YouTube post. “This is my song!” the 74-year-old Georgia Democrat exclaimed...
Mr. Lewis hopes that good days are ahead as the civil rights movement has made a lot of progress and the U.S has its first black president, Barack Obama. Mr. Lewis was a colleague of Martin Luther King Jr. and fought along side him for civil rights.
Inconsiderate reporters waste the time of His Majesty Stephen Harper. Following video speaks volumes about Harper's attitude. He is accountable to no one. It is a shame. Who would have thought that we will have dictatorship in Canada.
It was a comedy, for real. Mike Duffy, the ultimate Ottawa insider, a cartoonish character who has become the leading symbol of Senate corruption, claiming living expenses for a cottage in Prince Edward Island he hardly occupied. The ultimate oversized sense of entitlement. He is a schmoozer who likes access to power, and has a giant ego to boot. A highschool dropout who made it big.
The documentary showed how Mike Duffy had been lobbying for a Senate seat since the Mulroney era. He had no principles or party preference, he did the same sucking up to Jean Chretien. Finally, Duffy got his break, when during the 2008 federal election he replayed the tape of Stéphane Dion's false start during an interview with CTV Atlantic, leaving out the rest of the interview, focusing on that one stumble. A serious breach of journalistic ethics. Though Harper rewarded him with a seat in the Senate after the election.
Maybe Harper is regretting that decision now... given the embarrassment Duffy has caused him.
I am not against free trade per se, it has its benefits in expanding markets and bringing our world together. When people are trading with each other and making money, they are much less likely to wage war on each other. However, we should not uncritically accept free trade deals. We must be cognizant of national sovereignty and jobs.
Harper is travelling to South Korea to seal a free trade deal with them, it would be Canada's first free trade deal with an Asia-Pacific country. There are some potential benefits to this deal - in particular for Canada's agricultural exports - however there are serious concerns about the impact on our auto-sector, in particular the flooding of Canadian markets with cheap South Korean imports. This could endanger jobs in the automobile manufacturing sector in our country.
Can Harper be critical minded and act in Canada's best interests? I think there is reason to be skeptical.
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Harper is a horrible prime minister, he does not care about democracy or science. He has tarnished Canada's image on the world stage by promoting the tarsands and by supporting George W. Bush style militarism. Canada was denied a seat on the UN Security Council because of how Harper has damaged the country's international reputation. No longer peacekeepers.
I have no use for Harper, he is a bully with authoritarian tendencies promoting destructive policies, but calling is Nazi is a little too much.
The cartoon (pictured above) appeared in the Pictou Advocate - a weekly Nova Scotia newspaper. It was inappropriate. The overuse of Nazi analogies to slander political opponents - this has been done by the lunatic Tea Party in the United States with Obama - trivializes the horrors of Hitler's regime, the bloodshed of WWII, and the tragedy of the Holocaust.
Please, let's criticize and call out Harper for his abominable government, but do not resort to tactics comparing him or his policies to Nazism, trivializing a 20th century tragedy.
Has Harper gone crazy? Does he care about democracy? He seems more and more a dictator. Harper's Conservatives even shortened debate in the House of Commons over this bill.
The Chief Electoral Officer was not involved in the drafting process, he only saw it after the media did. Usually, for a bill of this nature, the Chief Electoral Officer would be involved. This bill limits the ability of the Chief Electoral Officer to communicate with the public, he stated that he is barred from talking about democracy.
It was quite something watching Harper's Minister of State for Undemocratic Reform, Pierre Poilievre, spin this in the above video. British Columbia's former Chief Electoral Officer has expressed concerns about central polling supervisors being appointed by the incumbent candidate or their party, something that increases the potential for abuse. He stated that this was "completely inappropriate in a democracy." These are nonpartisan voices - experts in electoral law and process - being ignored.
Do the CONS have any sense of decency or respect for the democratic process? You can read more on the Unfair Elections Act here.
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A lot of people on twitter were saying that Jimmy Kimmel, a comedian, asked the questions Peter Mansbridge wouldn't, that it was one of the most hard-hitting interviews of Ford. Kimmel directly confronted Ford on his domestic abuse charges and drug use. Ford in all this seemed out of it, was cringe-worthy to watch. It can't have been a good night for Ford, with a headline like "Rob Ford Ridiculed on Jimmy Kimmel Live" on the CBC.
After, just to show what a joke Ford is, Gonzo the Great - who followed him (for real) - said he felt like Rob Ford when asked about his chicken fetish, and then noticed the puddle of Rob Ford's sweat that was left behind from the previous interview (it was nice of Kimmel, earlier, to dab Rob Ford's sweaty brow).
Update: Here is the complete interview.
It is quite funny:
Is there a new Cold War? The situation in Ukraine is escalating with Russian troops invading the Crimea, and with concerns about Russian soldiers potentially advancing further. There has been a dip in world markets in response to this news. The United States has halted trade and investment talks with Russia and the planned G8 summit in Sochi looks to be in trouble.
In the 21st century, an era of globalization and trade, a post-Cold War era, this talk is shocking, and really does sound like another Cold War could be upon us. Hopefully not, hopefully this situation will de-escalate soon and Putin will come to his senses. Though Putin seems mad with power - with Czarist delusions - and seems determined to recreate the Russian Empire. Thankfully the United States is more cautious, and does not have a desire for military confrontation.
The timing is ironic, soon after the over-priced $50+billion Sochi Olympics, an overpriced Olympics rife with corruption and mismanagement. Many in Sochi were displaced as Putin embarked on the absurd project of hosting a Winter Olympics in a subtropical climate.
Though not everyone in the West is off the hook, John Baird used shockingly provocative language - in a situation that should call for diplomacy - by saying Putin's invasion of Ukraine was like Hitler's invasion of Czechoslovakia. Over-using the Hitler analogy - as Baird did - marginalizes the suffering of the Holocaust, the brutality of WWII.
In all this, de-escalation is needed. Let's hope this situation calms down soon, that we are not pulled into another Cold War.
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Rob Ford is gone Hollywood and is also going to the Oscars, he is quite the actor and his performance deserves an Oscar. He has been a train-wreck as a mayor but very entertaining. Ford does love the attention - even if it is for drug use and crass behaviour. He must have enjoyed the limo ride he got from late night host Jimmy Kimmel. It will be worth watching him on Jimmy Kimmel's show tonight.
A new trend in Hollywood? Could be given the popularity of the movie Son of God, a bible-themed movie about the life of Jesus. Mega-churches are helping to spread the word and there is a strong demand it seems. What other bible-themed movies could be coming? What is Hollywood trying to do, make everyone religious, or are they just in it for money?
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Is it possible that the Planet Earth can become a totally barren planet in the not too distant future? In particular if the CO2 emissions and pollution continue at the current or accelerated rate?
