The Yomiuri Shimbun

     The Defense Ministry will include in its fiscal 2008 budgetary request funds to develop a manned prototype fifth-generation fighter jet equipped with stealth capabilities and other advanced technologies, sources said Monday.

     With the production of F-2 support fighters, jointly developed by Japan and the United States, scheduled to end in fiscal 2011, the ministry apparently plans to maintain the foundations for future technological development, the sources said.

     The sources also said the ministry, by showing interest in developing jet fighters domestically, hopes to gain an edge in negotiations with the United States next summer when it selects Japan's next main fighter jets (F-X fighters).

     According to ministry officials, the envisioned prototype would be equipped with stealth technology and other advanced electronics that would make the plane difficult to detect by radar. As the prototype would not be installed with radars and weaponry, it is expected to be smaller than real fighter jets, the officials said.

Full Story

The Yomiuri Shimbun

     Japan's security environment has been becoming increasingly unnerving. The threats of North Korea's nuclear program and ballistic missiles, China's rapid military buildup, international terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction all imperil our security.

     Politicians have a responsibility to squarely address the vital issue of how to secure the nation's peace and safety. However, diplomatic and security issues have barely registered a blip in the campaign for the July 29 House of Councillors election. We think each political party and candidate should be doing more to stimulate debate on such issues.

Full Editorial

     Japan continues to be skittish, and reasonably so, about its nieghbors.  Everyone in the region is making territorial claims, forming alliences and building up their military capabillities.  Ideally that would lead some sort of open forum where problems can be dealt with through diplomacy, but through out history all such attempts have failed.  Given the unpredictabillity of North Korea and China, Japan is doing the prudent thing, preparing for the worst.  No one wants to see war in the western pacific but it has to be the most volatile flashpoint in the world right now after the middle east.  As the Romans said, 'pray for peace, prepare for war.'

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        Australia, India, Japan and the United States will join in a Bay of Bengal naval exercise in September, hinting at progress in negotiations for a possible four-way alliance.
     The first high-level discussions of such an alliance came in May, when assistant secretaries of state and equivalents from the four countries met on the sidelines of the ASEAN Regional Forum gathering in Manila, Indian Foreign Ministry sources said.
     The meeting was held quietly, but not secretly; just days before, China issued demarches to all four participants, formally asking about their intentions.
     Singapore will also play in the exercises, which will include submarines, naval aircraft and 20 ships, including the U.S. aircraft carriers Nimitz and Kitty Hawk and the Indian carrier Viraat.
     The exercise, announced July 11 during the visit here by Australian Defence Minister Brendan Nelson, will be part of a joint maritime-security initiative for the Asia-Pacific region.

4-Nation Naval Exercise May Presage New Alliance

     The purpose of these exercises, and the US policy of strengthing ties with its Pacific allies and making new ones, like India is very clear.  It is meant to act as  bareak against any furture Chinese adventures in the region, and to ensure that no matter how much money China pours into its navy it will never be able to equal the naval power of the US and her regional allies.

Photos from RIMPAC 2006, clickable for massive high res versions.  Ships from the US, Japan, Canada, South Korea, Australia, Chile and Peru.

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From first Multinational Force Iraq

Cavalry troops aid Iraqi farmers.

Iraqi Army succeeds using an ‘open heart.’

Engineers' efforts will have lasting impact in Iraq, general says.

New Iraqi Police Station opens in Wahida.

3rd HBCT nabs top insurgent.

Iraqi Army, Coalition Forces detain suspected Al Qaeda cell leader near Taji.

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From the Times of London via Fox News

     Fed up with being part of a group that cuts off a person’s face with piano wire to teach others a lesson, dozens of low-level members of Al Qaeda in Iraq are daring to become informants for the U.S. military in a hostile Baghdad neighbourhood.

     The ground-breaking move in Doura is part of a wider trend that has started in other Al Qaeda hotspots across the country and in which Sunni insurgent groups and tribal sheikhs have stood together with the coalition against the extremist movement.

     “They are turning. We are talking to people who we believe have worked for Al Qaeda in Iraq and want to reconcile and have peace,” said Colonel Ricky Gibbs, commander of the 4th Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, which oversees the area.

     Further proof that we have found a winning strategy and we now only need stay the course to ensure continued sucess.  Still we must keep our wits about us and watch out for a change in enemy tactics to counter our own changes.

Full Story Here

Remeber a seceret is only as safe as the person keeping it! So keep it to yourself!

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    I'm not sure why I'm writing this tonight but here we go.  I have had more than enough of people on the left for crying censorship or opression whenever some one has the gaul to air an opposing view point.  What the fuck is wrong with you people?  You think your being opressed, hardly.  A young man in Tehran who is dragged out of his house for blogging about how thing really are is being opressed, the Russian reporter gunned down in the elevator of her apartment building is being opressed in the most brutal way, ditto the North Korean who is locked away in a gulag to slave away their years for being related to someone who noted that the troll doll seems to be doing fairly  in the body fat percentage department well for the leader of a famine riddled country.  The are opressed, their media is censored.  Remeber that the right to free speech is the right to offend, and that no matter what it does not give you the right to be heard!!!!  I am disgusted by people who use the so called fairness doctrine as an excuse to attack opposing viewpoints and their means of dissemination.  That is censorship, the government has no right nor power to controll what is said by anyone, since it is a right given to us by nature!  Rights derive from the very act of being human, no one can take them away.  The only limit that nay be placed upon speech is that which will bring physical harm to others.  This is the so called fire doctrine, any other form of speech is protected no matter how repugnant it may be.  In the end we all have the right to say whatever we wish, but we may also be ignored, but that is the peril of speaking.  Better to try to be heard than remain silent.

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How can you tell a hard core otaku from a lesser, more normal otaku is a simple one word answer, Doujinshi.  These fan made comics are perhaps the least known but most fasinating bit of Japanese pop culture.  A prpoduct of a uniquely tolerant copyright law Doujinshi allows fans to create works with familliar carachters in new stories and enviroments.  Doujinshi litteraly means 'same people different story'  these stories can be anything that they creator of the Doujinshi wishes.  As a result a high proportion of doujinshi is, well the euphamism is male oriented, but a more accurate statement would be unashamedly pornographic.  Many well known manga artists create doujinshi of their own works, or those of others aqnd more than a few well known artists or groups of artists started in doujinshi, perhaps most notably CLAMP, which grew out of a doujin circle.

If your interested here is a link to the .rar of the Doujin pictured.  Not for anyone under 18 .  If you need a program to decompress .rar files I reccomend the shareware 7Zip.

Featured Doujinshi has been translated into english, no review as I have not yet read it for full disclosure.

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The U.S. Air Force has rebelled against the annoying late 20th century custom of creating many annual training courses to deal with persistent social or organizational problems. From now on, instead of spending nine hours a year attending training for things like suicide prevention, anti-terrorism awareness, handling classified data, sex related issues, and so on, only 90 minutes a year would be used for all these reminders. This move is very popular among those who have to sit through these sessions, and those who have to give them. The troops are also encouraged by such a bold move. In the past, every time another of these annual classes was added, there was grumbling about "spineless and clueless generals,"

USAF Cuts The Crap

That pretty much speaks for itself.  Air Force love photo time.

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  Best Hary Potter Book Ever.  It has been along time since I have read a book this good.  It kept me glued to its pages, seemingly disallowing me to stop reading.  I won't give any spoiler but I want more, I demand more.  Whatever J.K. Rowling writes next I will read it no doubt.  Now go, buy it, read it if you haven't already.

Rating =5 Tachikomas

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Barry Bonds belted homers number 752 and 753 today in Chicago, bringing him within two of tying and three of passing hammering Hank.  Good, I am Barry Bonds fan, I love that he treats the media with the level of respect that they have earned over the years, which is absolutely none.  I have yet to see a sports reporter that can be described as a serious journalist since Dick Schapp.  I, like most baseball fans give a rats ass as to wether or not Bonds used steroids, if he did so where a ton of other players, including pitchers.  So don't bring the tired crap about an unfair playing field.  Steroids don't give perhaps the best hitters eye in the history of the game, ridiculous plate discipline.  Bonds was, and remains a no doubt first ballot hall of famer, the numbers speak for themselves, 750+ home runs, 71 multi homer games, 500+ stolen bases, 7 mvps (4 consecutive), 8 golden gloves, 12 silver slugger awards, only 40-40 player (homers and stolen bases) 2900+(2901 as of now) hits and a life time average near .300 (.299 as of now) and the all time walks record.  Barry has only three seasons where he hit fewer than twenty homers (19, his first year in the leauge, 16 in 1989 and 5 in 2005 when he only played in 42 games because of knee problems)  yet some people acted surprised when he becam a homer hitting machine.  Hell he came into the 2001 season with 498 bombs, and he had 30 or more homers a season from 1992 to 2004.  That I believe is what they call consistent power.  We are lucky to be around to see some of the best ballplayers of all time playing, so why can't people just sit back and enjoy it?  I don't need the negativity and inuendo, much less the fscination people seem to have with wether a player used steroids in the past.  The past is the past, we sure as hell can't change it so why dwell on it. Records as they say are meant to be broken, so Go Barry Go!!

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O.K. so light isn't exactly a word one would use to describe hikikomori.  But this is one of the best manga to come down the pike in a long time.  Following the adventures of a real live hikikomori and the girl that is determined to save him, or maybe accidently kill him is a great read.  It manages to deftly mix humor and human emotion in just the right way, unlike some books where you wish you could slap some of the charachters for their inabillity to see how things really are Welcome to the N.H.K never lets this happen.  It works because it is a book about people.  Real, flawed human beings, no magical powers, giant robots or ninja, just people who struggle to deal with their own personal flaws and failings.  This series sets a standard for other slice of life books to follow with its realistic portrayal of some of the problems currently facing real people in real places, yet it manages to leave you wanting more at the end of each volume, rather than feeling like shooting yourself or to beat down the protaganist for their utter lack of spine and or common sense.

Three volumes out so far from Tokyopop.  For mature audiences. (18 +)

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From First Multinational Force Iraq

Iraqi troops lead joint medical effort in Hor Al Bosh.

Medical Clinic to Benefit Iraqis for Years to Come.

Iraqi National Police officers graduate from NCO Course.

Precision-guided munitions kills top al Qaeda leader.

Iraqi Army cleans Baghdadi of insurgency.

Iraqi Soldiers participate in first ever advanced infantry course.

Damn Straight

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My taste in music is best descrided as eccletic, my collection of LP's and CD's covering everything from J-POP, anime OST's, Rock, Metal, Blues, Jazz, Classical, Bluegrass and Gospell.  Among my favorites is a little known album by an unfortunately now little known jazzman, The Hawk Flies High, by Coleman Hawkins aka Bean.  It is perhaps the most impressive display of the Sax I have ever heard, encapsulating all that can be done with a horn, added to the fact that the session artist are some great preformers in their own right.  A true jam session it moves from number to number with a fluidity that is exceptional even for jazz.  If you can find I highly, highly reccomend picking it up.

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From First Multinational Force Iraq

Ubaidi, Anbakia tribes sign peace agreement in Diyala.

Good ‘intel’ makes Polar Tempest success.

Iraqi Army, Coalition Forces detain insurgent linked to Iranian IEDs.

Fardh Al-Qanoon Update: MND-B general sees change, progress.

Security forces gaining strength, generals say.

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From AP Sports via Fox News

Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury on charges related to illegal dogfighting.

Vick and three others were charged with violating federal laws against competitive dogfighting, procuring and training pit bulls for fighting and conducting the enterprise across state lines.

The indictment alleges that Vick and his co-defendants began sponsoring dogfighting in early 2001, the former Virginia Tech star's rookie year with the Falcons.

Read it all

     This is not good for Ron Mexico Michael Vick, or the Atlanta Falcons.  Roger Godell is left with little choice but to maintain a consistent line on off the field misbehavior and suspend Vick.  The real queation is how long he will be sitting for, my guess is at least ten games, if not the season in light of some of his past problems.  In truth this doesn't surprise me, given the past behavior of Michael Vick and his younger brother Marcus both on and off the football field they have made it abundantly clear that they are not good people.  I can't help but shake my head at how quick sports media was to applaud the crack down on off field violations without waiting for the courts to due their work with Tank Johnson and Pac Man Jones but repeatedly taking the wait and see approach with Vick.  After all where there is smoke there is fire.

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From AP via Fox News

     WASHINGTON —  District of Columbia officials said Monday they plan to petition the Supreme Court as they seek to defend the city's 30-year-old ban on most handguns.

     A federal appeals court panel struck down the law in March, rejecting the city's argument that the Second Amendment right to bear arms applied only to militias. The full appeals court refused to reconsider the decision in May. The law has remained in effect during the appeals process.

 Read it all here

     So D.C. goes for another bite of their losing apple, not surprising.  They fear that they will be looking at a mountain of lawsuits and massive settlements if they lose.  When the 2^nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the D.C. handgun ban was unconstitutional they effectively threw out all convictions under it since it went into affect in the 1970's.  What is even more disgusting than that is that they Mayor of D.C. is claiming that this piece of $h!t law has actually saved lives.  This when D.C. consistently has one of the highest murder rates and overall violent crime rates in the U.S.

     One of three things is going to happen here, the least likely is that D.C. wins on appeal.  The current court os decidedly conservative, and given that on conctitutional issues to which the U.S. government is not party to it is routine for the court to ask for the position of the U.S. from the solicitor general.  The current position is that the second amendment is an individual right and subject to the protection that entails.  Furthermore this case could well see the 2^nd amendment incorparted through the equal protection clause of the fourtteenth amendment, meaning that similar state laws would be struck down.  Even of that is not the case it will force those state to modify their laws to come into compliance with the standards the court will set for what is constituional.  The second option is D.C. loses yet again, this is probably what will happen (results detailed above) if it actually gets Cert**.  But the two scenarios above will only happe if the SCOTUS* agrees to hear the case, if they allow the 2^nd circuit ruling to stand is a victory, but a smaller one in that it means that SCOTUS agrees with the lower court ruling and finds no reason to reopen the matter, but the ruling will only be enforcable as precident in the 2^nd district, but it still sends a clear message to the other districts as to thinking of the court.  Now to watch and wait.

NRA  Go check it out, and join, they help make lawsuits like this possible.

*SCOTUS=Supreme Court Of The United States

**Cert.=Certiari, Latin for to hear, menaing that the court agrees to hear the case.  The Supreme Court hears only a couple hundred cases a year out of thousands of petitions.

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From Fox News

     Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, is defending himself Monday after comparing President Bush to Adolf Hitler and leaving the impression the administration may have rigged the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

     Speaking to an atheist group on July 8, Ellison said that the president acted much the way Hitler did when the Reichstag, or German Parliament building, was burned in 1933 ahead of elections that pitted Hitler's Nazi Party against others, including the Communists. Hitler, who was suspected of ordering the fire, declared emergency powers that helped him launch his dictatorial and murderous reign.

Read the Full Story Here

    Idiot.  Hitler began to round up anybody and everybody he didn't like, canceled elections and set about systematically silensing his opposition by killing them.  Representative Ellison needs to realize that he is not only making himself look the fool but he is also doing a great diservice to the memory of those killed by Hitler and Islamofascits.

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As always from 1^st Multinational Force Iraq

Anbar leaders celebrate awakening.

Operation Eagle Ares brings 46 into custody.

Setabck for al-Qaida operatives in Diyala.

Surge progress may lead to troop reductions in northern Iraq, general says.

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From IGN.com

To Be, or High-Def DVD?
When will the anime companies jump on the high-def DVD bandwagon?
by Scott Collura
July 13, 2007 - When Bandai Entertainment announced that its brand new OVA series Freedom would be released on HD DVD, it got us at IGN thinking. When will the other anime companies out there get around to adopting a high-def DVD format, and when they do, which side in the format war will they choose -- HD DVD or Blu-ray?

Read the whole thing

     I know some people will take this as big news but it isn't.  It is clear that not only is anime to small to profitable in a HD format in North America, any type of media in HD is unprofitable.  While the technology is impressive all manufacture of HD software have overlooked the single biggest hole in their business plans, the pathetically low installed base of HD television sets in the U.S.  Combined with the fact that only in the past 2-3 years DVD has firmly replaced VHS as the dominate market force and two competing standards for HD optical discs most consumers are simply not interested in having to upgrade yet again.  Nearly everyone is holding off for one of two basic reasons, either the don't own an HD tv, or they're are afraid of choosing the loser and being left high and dry ala BETA.  Asking which HD format a company is running with is like asking if you want to be on the Titanic or the Andrea Dora.  Both ships sank at sea even though one was undeniably safer and better built than the other.

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     After checking the sitemeter it seems that vistors here are XP fans, well how about a little XP love.

  My Laptop desktop.

  My current desktop wallpaper.

And one with both XPtan and 2Ktan for good measure.

Posted by: raging tachikoma at 08:36 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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1 Nice.

Oh, and converting BMPs to JPGs should work now.  (The system now emails me when something causes a 500 error, so's I can fix it.)

Posted by: Pixy Misa at July 15, 2007 09:36 PM (PiXy!)

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From Fox News.

     Hamas TV introduced a new children's character intended to inspire future extremists and suicide bombers with Nahoul the Bee.

      In a television skit, the character vows to continue the work of his cousin, Farfour the mouse, in following in the 'path of Islam, of heroism, of martyrdom.'

 Full Story Here

     Dispicable, no other word can describe how I feel aout this.  I am surprisingly without words to properly express my level of outrage.  It is bad enough to encourage adults to carry out homicide bombings*, but to encourage it as a desirable goal in children is well and truly beyond the pale.  Once more the enemy reveals his true nature to us all.

*I refuse to use the term suicide bomber, suicide is the act of taking ones own life, and only ones own life.  These repugnant scum are also taking the lives of innocents with them, making them nothing more than murders.

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