"There's a lot of ugly stuff today. Emerging markets (India, Indonesia, Turkey, etc.) are getting crushed on all the standard emerging market worries. Plus there's all the Syria stuff that seems to be having a financial market impact. You can really see that in Mideast stock markets. Dubai is getting simply demolished, as the stock market there is down 7%. Saudi Arabia is down 3.5%." Continue reading →
"Okinawa is the reluctant host of more than half of the 47,000 US military personnel in Japan. The rape provoked outrage and led to a nationwide curfew on all American military personnel in Japan. Despite the curfew, misconduct involving US servicemen, much of it drunken, has continued to fuel anti-US sentiment in communities with bases. The attack came amid already high tensions in Okinawa, which saw demonstrations last year against the US deployment to the island of Osprey aircraft. Local activists charge they have a poor safety record. Washington sees the island as a vital strategic base in a region that is increasingly wary of the power of China’s rising military." Continue reading →
"So the proprietor of the Huffington Post has decided to ban anonymous commenting from the site. It seems like common sense [that people will behave better]. Whether it is supported by evidence is uncertain. The most striking study I’ve come across is the experiment conducted by the (South) Korea Communications Commission from July 2007. From that month onwards, anyone wanting to comment on any of the 146 Korean websites with more than 100,000 members was required by law to submit resident registration or credit card details. The hypothesis behind the requirement was that people would behave better online if they were easily identifiable. But it didn’t turn out that way. Continue reading →
"A coral-killing starfish has begun infesting a channel of water in the Philippines famed for having some of the most diverse marine life in the world. The appearance of the crown-of-thorns starfish in the Verde Island Passage could cause great damage to the area’s biodiversity, Jacob Meimban, head of the wildlife bureau’s coastal marine management office, told AFP. 'The crown-of-thorns starfish really kills the corals. It eats the polyps of the corals, leaving the bleached, white bodies. Then it moves elsewhere… until it leaves the reef dead,' Meimban said. Environmentalists have warned for years that the passage, a popular dive location, is under grave threat from pollution and overfishing." Continue reading →
"Five dead crocodiles, 14 critically endangered turtles and a cache of other rare species have been found in the home of a suspected wildlife trader in one of the Philippines’ biggest slums, the government said Friday. The juvenile saltwater crocodiles, as well as 90 birds, were killed by the trader or his aides shortly before police and environment officials raided the place Wednesday, Environment Secretary Ramon Paje said. He denounced the unnamed suspects’ 'cruelty'. 'What’s particularly alarming about this poaching incident is that there were reports that most of these endangered animals were intentionally killed to avoid detection by authorities,' Paje said in a statement." Continue reading →
"Fast-food deliveries have been cancelled, the army has suspended field training and even Singapore’s top marathon runner has retreated as residents try to protect themselves from the smog that has descended on the city-state. In Singapore’s worst environmental crisis in more than a decade, the skyscrapers lining the Marina Bay financial district were shrouded by thick smoke Thursday as raging forest fires in neighbouring Indonesia’s Sumatra island pushed air pollution levels to an all-time high. The acrid smell of burning wood lingered everywhere, including inside air-conditioned metro trains, and cars were covered with a thin film of grey ash." Continue reading →
"Home to meditating monks and Himalayan nomads, the sleepy kingdom of Bhutan has set its sights on becoming an unlikely energy powerhouse thanks to its abundant winding rivers. Hydropower plants have already harnessed the country’s water flows to light up nearly every Bhutanese home, generating electricity that is sent to remote villages by cables strung through rugged mountain terrain. It is a rapid transformation for the long isolated nation, where less than a quarter of households had electricity in 1999 — the same year Bhutan became the last country to introduce television." Continue reading →
"There are reports that Thailand has advised against using Bitcoin. We read the article and in one instance, it stated that the Bank advised against using Bitcoin, then later stated it was banned. Some questions arose as to which is fact and which is made up as we could not figure out how a private company can create Thai law on something it has no clue about. We asked around and could not find any factual statement from a Government agency that what Bitcoin.co.th has said was true. Looking at the business model and the lack of useability of Bitcoin in Thailand, it soon appeared that some statements are not entirely true." Continue reading →
"He explains, 'Because I’m from Africa, I pay a lot of attention to what’s happening there. The developing world is absolutely poised to pioneer this revolution, if you want to call it that, because their national fiats are inflation-ridden, over-taxed and over-controlled; the places with the highest buy into bitcoin is the developing world. Then you have the western world, who are complacent, who are comfortable, who are kept that way and who don’t have an immediate, on the ground need for bitcoin, where the developing world do. If it can go viral in India then a sixth of the world’s population will accept bitcoin. That would be wonderful.'" Continue reading →
"The Asian palm civet eats coffee cherries, the fruit of the coffee plant. They digest the soft fruit and excrete the seeds in their feces, which, according to connoisseurs, gives the coffee a flavor unlike any other in the world. The fact that people will pay exorbitant amounts for real Kopi Luwak has led to a thriving black market in fake Kopi Luwak. Some people sell regular coffee beans and claim they are the famous civet coffee. Others adulterate Kopi Luwak beans with regular coffee beans, hoping drinkers won’t notice the inferior quality. Scientists have developed a test that checks for the unique chemical fingerprint on Kopi Luwak." Continue reading →