Posts by Mazo

India tells WhatsApp to add filters, ASAP

Re: Shoot the messenger

Your argument is nonsense . People in the West or India or Timbuktu are just people - none more inherently "intelligent" or less susceptible to manipulation than the other.

Even in the "Educated" West, elections have been unduly influenced by fake news, false information and motivated campaigns of provoking outrage. People have lost their lives when extremists have resorted to violence by shooting sitting Congresswomen and Senators ! Despite Obama showing his birth certificate millions still believed he was a Muslim from Kenya !

Yet your "Solution" is to sufficiently educate villagers in India to determine the verisimilitude of "rumors" and "gossip" ? So for another "generation" we ought to sit back and allow these vigilante lynchings and mob violence to continue? Do you think these people who spread fake news and provocative stories will remain silent for an entire generation ?

There has to be some effort from service providers to be part of the solution - Govt compelling them to do something to limit if not eliminate the spread of viral messages is a good thing. The liberty to communicate instantly with tens of thousands of people should have some checks and balances. Failure of Facebook to participate in finding a solution would be tantamount to them being complicit in this phenomena of fake news and the violence it generates.

Re: Shoot the messenger

What makes your think its because of "corrupt police" that these lynchings are taking place? That's a ignorant claim.

If 10 policemen assigned to a village police department are confronted by a mob of 3000 intent on lynching the "suspects" in custody - what are these 10 policemen with their 5 rifles and 50 bullets supposed to do ? Kill 4-5 rioters and risk getting lynched themselves ?

Paying them more wouldn't change their choices.

Nervy nuke-armed nation fires missile with 5,000km range

Re: If your not on the list, you're not getting in

"Apart from the nuclear non-proliferation ones?"

There are no LAWS that prevent a country from building nuclear weapons if it wants to. They are not prohibited by the Geneva Convention, the Hague Convention or any other statutory conventions that we consider "international law".

Nuclear weapons development is restricted only by a TREATY - called the Non-Proliferation Treaty that is basically a "deal" where countries who sign up get to benefit from civilian nuclear technology from the P5 while they make a commitment not to develop nuclear weapons.

India didn't accept that "deal" and consequently was denied access to uranium, nuclear technology and other nuclear material so that it could build its nuclear weapons. North Korea, Iran and Iraq however did sign the deal (NK backed out later when "Lil Rocket Man" took over)

Re: Diego Garcia

Never could understand what this "third world status" nonsense has to do with the capability of a race or people. The "third world" Soviet Union that fought WW2 with borrowed arms from the Americans reached Berlin first. And the "third world" Indians will soon displace Japan to become the No 3 economy according to the British Govt.

This vulgar idea that a person or a people are worth what they have is a very un American concept and always has been but today there are some enamored with this vulgarity of "first world" / "third world" classification based on wealth.

Originally the terms were used during the Cold War years to classify "allies", "commies" and "others". So Turkey was "first world" even though it wasn't democratic while Finland was "third world" originally.

Re: priorities..

Everybody knows that UK "Aid" to India, China etc is a scam that only profits British bureaucrats and business interests. Neither the Govt of India nor the people of India see any of that money and haven't for decades. The "aid" that UK doles out to other countries is more about funding the large body of "professional NGO" groups who are staffed by retired bureaucrats, wives of ambassadors and politicians.

They have other missiles for Pakistan

This one they tested is focused on covering China - as China is much bigger than Pakistan.

You can't "win" a Patrol..

The Cambrian Patrol is an exercise - not a competition. Teams from around the world participate in the "training event" and consequently Common wealth nations are usually the most represented.

Gold (75 percent), silver (65-74 percent) and bronze (55-64 percent) medals are awarded based on the number of points earned on completion of the gruelling course. Certificates are awarded to teams that finish with lower than 55 percent of the points.

Indian, Pakistani, Nepali etc teams regularly get the Gold.

Building "death tools" is not a choice

For India they had to do it because the British left them with this mess called Pakistan next door. And then they had Mao on the other side. The need for building these weapons was not a lark or an ego project but a considered decision - just like their space program. The development of independent industrial, technological and scientific capabilities was one of the foundation stones of Indian Govt policy. Self sufficiency in food was another. Today they have achieved both of those largely.

Sanitation in general is a product of their poverty - not due to lack of interest. The over-population and under funded civic authorities naturally means that that sanitation struggles to improve.

Britain has invested plenty in building Aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines and maintaining nuclear missiles despite not having any significant threat to its interests since the end of the Cold War. Has all that extra money build better infrastructure, improved democracy, addressed a range of racial, ethnic and social issues, addressed the race gangs, the Sharia courts, the grooming gangs, the number of child homeless, the state of the rural economy, the NHS, the number of children trafficked, the spread of ISIS ideology or even building the IT infrastructure that countries like India, China are building to take their societies into the 21st century ?

Re: Agni-5’s range is also less than half....

They could put a 300 Kg Probe into Martian Orbit with under $150 million in investment. If they WANTED to they could have covered the Globe decades ago.

Their missile ranges are not an indicator of their capabilities - but rather their threat perceptions.