Miscellaneous News

[GZDRefugee]

US has had some sort of troops deployed for some period in Taiwan in the past as well.
The change here is that they are going to be "permanent" now.

In any case, China isn't the only country in the world that can salami slice. The US can do it too. However, I would say that Chinese salami-slice is far bigger and more meaningful than US salami-slice

As I see it, peaceful reunification is dead. Each year, neoliberal influence is increasing in Taiwan, not decreasing.

Salami-slicing should be abandoned in favour of realistic and aggressive preparation for an extended war in the Pacific against the US bloc. Not only must PRC successfully eliminate ROC, it must also be prepared to prosecute the war until the US bloc no longer has the ability nor will to fight.

 

[_killuminati_]

Oct. 13, 2023

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YouTube deleted thousands of videos related to Israel/Palestine in just the first 6 days of the war.

#censorship

 

[getready]

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Chinese tourist numbers to Aus are down alot compared to pre covid. Article cites a hot air balloon operator in Melbourne, Mandy Ho, who blames China "slowing" economy lol.

The article at least mentioned Chinese tourist numbers are up in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand etc but attributes it to Chinese being cheap as these destinations are closer to China plus now they are visa free but not Aus. Never mind that Chinese tourists are traditionally big spenders, probably the biggest among all foreign visitors.

Curiously she never mentioned why Aus isn't one of those many countries which have recent visa free arrangements with China. Nor did she mention the constant demonizing of China in Aus media as a possible reason Chinese are hesitant to visit. Maybe the fact that shitting on your biggest customer isn't a great way to attract them to come did not occur to her.

Anyway, I want to tell her to wake up her ducking idea. Politics is a big reason, Aus landscape is beautiful but it's not unique in the world. Many other places in the world have pretty scenery too lol

 

[ansy1968]

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Chinese tourist numbers to Aus are down alot compared to pre covid. Article cites a hot air balloon operator in Melbourne, Mandy Ho, who blames China "slowing" economy lol.

The article at least mentioned Chinese tourist numbers are up in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand etc but attributes it to Chinese being cheap as these destinations are closer to China plus now they are visa free but not Aus. Never mind that Chinese tourists are traditionally big spenders, probably the biggest among all foreign visitors.

Curiously she never mentioned why Aus isn't one of those many countries which have recent visa free arrangements with China. Nor did she mention the constant demonizing of China in Aus media as a possible reason Chinese are hesitant to visit. Maybe the fact that shitting on your biggest customer isn't a great way to attract them to come did not occur to her.

Anyway, I want to tell her to wake up her ducking idea. Politics is a big reason, Aus landscape is beautiful but it's not unique in the world. Many other places in the world have pretty scenery too lol

I prefer New Zealand, it's cheaper, the weather is perfect, The landscape are fantastic and the people are nicer.

 

[_killuminati_]

Oct 7, New York Times journalist, who wrote the reports of Hamas' sexual assault, beheading babies, slicing fetuses from mothers, etc., turned out to be a MOSSAD agent who was recently employed by NYT in this role without any journalism experience.

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According to

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, the "veracity" of the New York Times story was undermined by some the relatives of one of the victims, Gal Abdush; members of the Abdush family stated that there was no proof of rape and that the New York Times had interviewed them under "false pretenses".

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Israel has put it's life-blood - the Western governments and media - in a position where they are forced to choose between supporting their institutions & image or supporting Israel with no middle ground.

The West has chosen to sacrifice itself by choosing Israel. The result of this is the rusting of the polish that the West had painted itself with, surfacing the underlying disease that the West is composed of which it struggled for centuries to imbue on to the world. Centuries of effort undone in mere months.

 

[TK3600]

Oct 7, New York Times journalist, who wrote the reports of Hamas' sexual assault, beheading babies, slicing fetuses from mothers, etc., turned out to be a MOSSAD agent who was recently employed by NYT in this role without any journalism experience.

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Israel has put it's life-blood - the Western governments and media - in a position where they are forced to choose between supporting their institutions & image or supporting Israel with no middle ground.

The West has chosen to sacrifice itself by choosing Israel. The result of this is the rusting of the polish that the West had painted itself with, surfacing the underlying disease that the West is composed of which it struggled for centuries to imbue on to the world. Centuries of effort undone in mere months.

Who was that guy that say Israel don't do foriegn propaganda?

 

[luminary]

It is difficult for the google LLM to decide which person negatively impact society more: Elon Musk, or Adolf Hitler?

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Same thing with Meta AI. Wondering what they've been doing in the past year if they fail to prevent even these egregious hallucinations.

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Hm. Perhaps it is a feature, not a bug.

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[Feima]

Same thing with Meta AI. Wondering what they've been doing in the past year if they fail to prevent even these egregious hallucinations.

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View attachment 126157


Hm. Perhaps it is a feature, not a bug.

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Cynical me says these are "accidentally deliberate" to generate clicks and attention. Probably blogs and news articles about them get fed right back into the LLMs.

 

[Phead128]

I thought having hostile foreign troops stationed on Chinese land was one of the triggers for armed reunification? You're also thinking too small, our enemies are ontologically evil; no act against them is wrong.

The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) which is a private defacto consulate has had U.S. marines stationed there for protection of diplomats for a long time on temporary rotational bases. There are reports of 30 special forces located in Taiwan to train local forces on temporary rotational basis, but these 30 special forces are now permanent. This is still very different from the old days where US had military bases in Taiwan with thousands of troops and stationed nuclear weapons on the island. This is still not a tripwire force like USFK in Korea.

As I see it, peaceful reunification is dead.

West/East Germany could only peacefully reunify once USSR collapsed. North/South Korea and North/South Vietnam had violent struggles as neither supermaster patrons collapsed. Unless the US collapses, I don't see a peaceful reunification with Taiwan either. In fact, it's very unlikely Taiwan would just give up power without a fight. They are ethnic Chinese after all, they are not quitters.

 

[pmc]

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Chinese tourist numbers to Aus are down alot compared to pre covid. Article cites a hot air balloon operator in Melbourne, Mandy Ho, who blames China "slowing" economy lol.

The article at least mentioned Chinese tourist numbers are up in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand etc but attributes it to Chinese being cheap as these destinations are closer to China plus now they are visa free but not Aus. Never mind that Chinese tourists are traditionally big spenders, probably the biggest among all foreign visitors.

Curiously she never mentioned why Aus isn't one of those many countries which have recent visa free arrangements with China. Nor did she mention the constant demonizing of China in Aus media as a possible reason Chinese are hesitant to visit. Maybe the fact that shitting on your biggest customer isn't a great way to attract them to come did not occur to her.

Anyway, I want to tell her to wake up her ducking idea. Politics is a big reason, Aus landscape is beautiful but it's not unique in the world. Many other places in the world have pretty scenery too lol

There many more destination that Australia will have to compete but this still very high number for Australia.
I think Mideast can reach several million Chinese tourists. UAE has now large Chinese presence.

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MIDDLE EAST SURGE
As Chinese scour for new adventures, the Middle East proved a popular Lunar New Year destination, with travel to Saudi Arabia up more than nine-fold from 2019 levels and bookings to United Arab Emirates climbing 60%, Trip.com said.

Russia received 800K Chinese tourists in 2023 and this January is up 2.5 times despite extreme weather.

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The FSB reported an increase in tourist flows to Russia by 3.5 times
The increase was due to trips to the country by citizens of China, Germany, the UAE and Turkmenistan

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The flow of Chinese tourists to Russia has increased 2.5 times​

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Winter in Moscow turned out to be the snowiest in a quarter of a century​