News that makes us laugh, cry, or both

[Vnonymous]

Wow, that guy is a colossal douchebag. Seriously, that was like the very essence of "I am an overentitled white American douchebag."

I mean seriously, he even did the whole "the poor are breeding!!!1!" thing. It's like he read a book on how to be an asshole in the face of tragedy, and then did everything the book told him to do.

Do you think that the opposite is true then?

Do you think that if someone started building his home on a railway track, we should help and support him every time it gets destroyed?

It is possible for people to live in Haiti. But you'd need a real government, actual building safety codes, an economy that isn't based largely on donations and crime, and a cleaning up of all the various bits of "voodoo" culture and various other religious influences.

Until you can fix most of that, giving unconditional aid to Haiti isn't going to achieve shit. Hell, unless you give a couple of million dollars, most people aren't even going to see a cent of your aid. Something like 75 percent of the aid money goes straight to government coffers, where it can be used on booze, parties and luxuries for government officials.

[shadzar]

If you actually read the article that Shirley posted, it makes a hell of a lot of sense.
http://www.flipcollective.com/2010/01/2 ... l-shirley/

Before the reader reaches for his or her blood pressure medication, he should allow me to explain. I don’t mean in any way that the Haitians deserved their collective fate. And I understand that it is difficult to plan for the aftermath of an earthquake. However, it is not outside the realm of imagination to think that the citizens of a country might be able to: A) avoid putting themselves into a situation that might result in such catastrophic loss of life. And B) provide for their own aid, in the event of such a catastrophe.

Giving people in Haiti money so the government can take 75 percent of it and the rest can build even more flimsy, ramshackle shacks and have more babies is about as responsible as feeding the starving ethiopians.

I like A....I just think of things like Mt St Helens, Hurricanes Katrina, Hazel (also killed close to 1000 in Haiti), Andrew ($25+ billion in damages), Gordon (1,122 deaths in Haiti), and when you most think about things to do to prevent such catastrophic loss of life....move the fuck out of Tornado Alley and California.

I hope the person quoted wasn't from America spouting off that people should do something about choosing how to avoid getting into such a situation.... They might as well be trying to teach Americans how money works* because that would be just as futile.


*If you have money you can spend it, if you don't you cannot. "Credit" is just a scam.

[IGTN]

Haiti would also be in a lot better shape if they had an agricultural economy like they used to before the US crushed it, instead of trying to set up a factory sweatshop economy and overgrowing their cities (seriously, Port-au-Prince's population in 2000 was more than 12 times its 1950 population). Building codes can't save anything if you can't enforce them, and you can't enforce them in a city that's doubling in population every 15 years when the new people are building shantytowns.

Haiti wouldn't need (much) aid for this earthquake without the US's "free trade" efforts.

[Psychic Robot]

I politely disagree. Blaming the United States for the problems in Haiti is disregarding the behavior of the Haitians. I'm going to quote a few news articles on the matter.

Desperate Haitians have set up roadblocks with corpses in Port-au-Prince to demand quicker relief efforts after a massive earthquake killed tens of thousands and left countless others homeless.

Angry survivors staged the protest as international aid began arriving in the Haitian capital.

..."They are starting to block the roads with bodies. It's getting ugly out there. People are fed up with getting no help," he told Reuters.

Looters swarmed a collapsed supermarket in the Delmas area of Port-au-Prince, carrying out electronics and bags of rice unchallenged. Others siphoned gasoline from a wrecked tanker.

"With the blackout that's befallen the Haitian capital, bandits are taking advantage to harass and rape women and young girls under the tents," national police chief Mario Andresol said.

“Yesterday, they threw water bottles back at us and said, ‘We don’t want your water’,” Lt Kerfoot says. “When we gave out high energy biscuits, they threw them on the ground and stomped on them when they saw they were cookies. My soldiers and I think they’re ungrateful.”

The displaced Haitians want food, not water, a Haitian woman explained to me. And in their culture, biscuits are not real food, but something given to children.

What made the situation that much more tense was sightings of gangs of young men with machetes. On Wednesday they were seen getting into stores and taking all the supplies they could carry. The armed men were seen marching up and down the streets with machetes raised and the competition among the gangs turned quite fierce.

Fights between gangs were seen on the streets. Machetes were flailing and it was impossible to predict what would happen next.

There was no sign of police or any kind of law and order.

Haitian police shot and killed a man they suspected of stealing rice in earthquake-ravaged Port-au-Prince on Thursday, leaving his body on the sidewalk for hours as his family mourned.

A child squats to defecate yards away from a sidewalk where women press plantain into bite-sized pieces for frying and a naked toddler plays with a pile of rice on the filthy ground.

Nearby, a dead body has been dumped on the street, right in front of a sea of morose people sitting on grubby mattresses, and a garbage collector uses a shovel to scoop up soggy black mounds of putrid trash composed of plastic water bags, polystyrene plates, orange peel and tin cans. Stray dogs forage.

As if the appalling injuries on display were not enough, doctors say they are now having to contend with looting. Following Wednesday's aftershocks, which struck at around 6am, the hospital's guards fled, fearing another big earthquake. Immediately the crowds outside poured through the unguarded gates towards the main building.

"They came into our operating rooms and stole whatever they found," said Bouttin. "The oxygen tanks were gone. Everything was gone. I understand why they steal … but they steal useless things for them. I mean, what are they going to do with an oxygen tank? What are they going to do with intravenous antibiotics?"

One person was killed Friday when private security guards opened fire on around 100 youths looting an appliance store in the Haitian capital.

Haitians refuse free food.

[CatharzGodfoot]

I politely disagree. Blaming the United States for the problems in Haiti is disregarding the behavior of the Haitians. I'm going to quote a few news articles on the matter.

I politely disagree. Blaming the behavior of the United States on the Haitians is both completely unreasonable and self-serving.

Small groups of people acting as jerks will always have a disproportionate impact regardless of whether those jerks happen to be American or Haitian. When power structures are in place, rich jerks are more able to act out. When power structures break down, poor jerks are more able (than before, not more than rich jerks) to project influence.

[Juton]

Three things:

First in a disaster people are going to try and get food. They go to the super market, I doubt any cashiers are on duty so they take what they can. If you have a family to provide for and a broken supermarket is the only place to get food, you're going to 'loot', scavenge is probably a more fair word. Journalists are going to focus on more sensational elements, because guess what, their journalists. So while there is some shady stuff going on it's probably blown out of proportion, because hey, that sells news papers.

Second, it's not America's fault the earth quake hit, or that the buildings weren't up to a higher standard. That said there is a moral obligation to try and help. That's what the Americans are doing and a lot of other nations and NGOs are doing. There was a good deal of corporate manipulation of Haiti, a people have some responsible to try and reform their own country.

Third, and this is completely off topic. Why are people afraid the UN is going to take over the world and usher in the NWO? They can't even give out food to starving people.

[shadzar]

Third, and this is completely off topic. Why are people afraid the UN is going to take over the world and usher in the NWO? They can't even give out food to starving people.

Maybe that is how they are doing it by starting off starving the underprivileged countries and then control them with food in exchange for services....

Or Maybe people see the UN as the starting of Star Trek's Federation and a global political structure, that would in fact BE a NWO....

[cthulhu]

Didn't a bunch of people loot stuff in New Orleans when Katrina hit? Pretty sure I saw looting on the TV. Trying to say that the reason the Haitians are poor is because they loot shit is entirely retarded. In major disasters, people will loot shit. This is because most people are petty criminals who are only restrained by fear of being caught.

Anyway the country is fucked. The core problem is the revolving door of brutal governments and the US intransigence when they get sick of it, invade, then leave after having made the problem worse.

It's like Iraq in that respect. We can have GW III soon!

[Psychic Robot]

Blaming the behavior of the United States on the Haitians is both completely unreasonable and self-serving.

I don't recall saying this.

Trying to say that the reason the Haitians are poor is because they loot shit is entirely retarded.

I don't recall saying this.

[cthulhu]

Blaming the United States for the problems in Haiti is disregarding the behavior of the Haitians.

implies that you're blaming the haitians' behaviour and then the evidence you submit is looting etc which doesn't get to the crux of the issue either way.

They don't have a building code because they don't have a government. One of the reasons they don't have a government is the US.

[Koumei]

Didn't a bunch of people loot stuff in New Orleans when Katrina hit?

Depends which paper you looked at. Some showed white people "finding supplies", and others showed black people "looting".

[cthulhu]

Yeah that hilarious photo caption <3 media watch, aside there was definately looting going down.

[CatharzGodfoot]

Blaming the behavior of the United States on the Haitians is both completely unreasonable and self-serving.

I don't recall saying this.

Of course, you didn't. You're quoting me.

[cthulhu]

ah fuck knuckles, sorry, I quoted the wrong thing

I meant to quote

Blaming the United States for the problems in Haiti is disregarding the behavior of the Haitians.

My bad, my bad.

edit:

Wait no fuck psychic robot is just retarded, not me.

Hurray!

[Lago PARANOIA]

http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/fe ... -guide.php

A Ducktales'-themed parody of the FEMA disaster of Hurricane Katrina. Some of the funniest writing I've ever read in my life.

[Prak]

Didn't a bunch of people loot stuff in New Orleans when Katrina hit?

Depends which paper you looked at. Some showed white people "finding supplies", and others showed black people "looting".

You mean good ol' Looty?

[Psychic Robot]

They don't have a building code because they don't have a government. One of the reasons they don't have a government is the US.

Then we're just quibbling over blame distribution.

[Username17]

When your city is underwater and sanitation is broken, bottles of beer are great supplies. You know that every one you open is potable. It's like living in the 12th century.

Bottles of orange soda are better supplies, but if I found a crate of beer and I was living in a post-disaster no-relief Mad Max style world, you'd bet your ass I'd snag the beer. Hell, I'd be giving out said beer to children so that they'd have something clean to drink.

Also, having lived in several refugee camps as both an occupant and a worker, I can tell you that a lot of people are really sad and really want a drink. The exchange rate on beer to soap is surprisingly good.

-Username17

[violence in the media]

Not to mention that beer is also great source of calories when your other food supplies are infrequent or sketchy.

[Neeeek]

Not to mention that beer is also great source of calories when your other food supplies are infrequent or sketchy.

And even if it wasn't, drink enough and you might not care.

[Nicklance]

Not to mention that dehydration is worth the price of calories and a good buzz.

[Koumei]

>implying American beer has enough alcohol to cause dehydration

[Nicklance]

>implying American beer has enough alcohol to cause dehydration

Never tried them.

[Lago PARANOIA]

Ethanol is a more powerful diuretic than water so you'll be more likely to piss out that water before your body finishes absorbing it--so assuming that Australian beer is indeed more hardcore than American beer (which I don't doubt at all) you would rather drink American beer since it has less, you know, alcohol.

[Prak]

When your city is underwater and sanitation is broken, bottles of beer are great supplies. You know that every one you open is potable. It's like living in the 12th century.

Bottles of orange soda are better supplies, but if I found a crate of beer and I was living in a post-disaster no-relief Mad Max style world, you'd bet your ass I'd snag the beer. Hell, I'd be giving out said beer to children so that they'd have something clean to drink.

Also, having lived in several refugee camps as both an occupant and a worker, I can tell you that a lot of people are really sad and really want a drink. The exchange rate on beer to soap is surprisingly good.

-Username17

All excellent points, I just think the picture is hilarious. It's been put in a new light for me, certainly, but it's still amusing.

as for news that makes me laugh and cry...
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/02/01/sex. ... tml?hpt=T2

Some guy's finally created the first sex "robot". It's more of an automaton, really, which, yes, is a type of robot, but it's a long way from the sex android that lonely nerds actually want, even if it is fully functional and anatomically correct. I mean, really she's a real doll that keeps body temp and holds a dialogue. They keep saying you can talk to her, but I think it's more of a set of conditioned responses based on word recognition, like you say "I had a shitty day" and get the reply "That's too bad honey, tell me about it." Which is appropriate, and not necessarily unrealistic to get every time, but still.

Now, it's not just lonely guys that are pre-ordering her, apparently women are as well, and she was fairly popular at the AEE (Adult Entertainment Expo), but I suspect as more of a novelty.

She's also $7000. Obscenely expensive, but only barely more so than a real doll ($5500), and actually understandable for 120 lbs of "flesh," plastic, metal and computer.

What makes me cry: "Roxxxy" is the result of a guy inventing an AI tech, and then trying to figure out the right market for it. Either the AI is only good for simulating conversation and a lack lustre lay, or he didn't try hard enough. Or the military has something better. (Maybe the Navy's got their own sex bot for those long missions...)