My Anthem

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Don't say you care for us, just justify with right actions

Politicians posture to the Rakyat
Men, women who interact with these PeMiNPin annually
Singing their love of Country, Religion and the Rakyat
Yeah, it's easy to louth loudly "you care for us" -- The People

But your actions belittle they words
I'd rather go to the Sunday market
and mix with the masses
who frankly tell you their hearts' innermost vibrations

Of pain and sorrow
When what they ear they can't cope
So do you beg, steal or borrow?


Oh dear Leaders who are so pompously loud and pious
Preaching DOWN to the Rakyat

Dio you know many people use th F*** words on thee?

God save us from these good-sounding leaders
But they have eyes, they do not see
IU'd rather interact with the blind who
tell of the state of beings, affairs and fears
As It Is

I:
S: ay
A: men again and AG*IN!
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Friday, November 28, 2014

Opposition Leader Anwar welcomed at U.S. Universities, REJECTED by unis at home: PONDER!

Verdict pending, Malaysia's Anwar visits US

By MATTHEW PENNINGTON | Associated Press – Sat, Nov 22, 2014
WASHINGTON (AP) — Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim told The Associated Press on Friday he's confident of acquittal in his sodomy trial, so long as the Southeast Asian nation's top court demonstrates independence.
Anwar spoke by phone from New York as he rounded off a brief speaking tour at U.S. universities. Although on bail, he was allowed to travel from Malaysia, where a verdict is pending in his appeal against a five-year sentence handed down in March that would also see him banned from politics.
A guilty verdict could weaken the opposition coalition he leads, but it could also create a wave of public anger against the government, which has been led by the same party for nearly six decades.
Anwar was previously imprisoned for six years on similar charges in the Muslim majority country after he was ousted as deputy prime minister in 1998. That sodomy conviction, involving his former family driver, was subsequently quashed.
Critics and human rights activists say the latest case, involving a male aide of Anwar's, is another salvo in a long-running campaign by the government to smear and silence its most potent threat. His treatment has drawn concern from the U.S. and other Western governments.
Anwar, however, said he's not tempted to stay in America.
"I have given this some thought and discussed with my family, but I think I have no option but to return," the 67-year-old politician said. "I have been in this struggle for a long time. I'm committed to the country, to the reform agenda."
"It's not easy because of my age and my back condition. I'm not as strong as I was in my 20s or in my 50s when I spent six years in solitary confinement," he said. "But we have to continue the battle for democracy, and the fight against racism and religious bigotry."
Prime Minister Najib Razak's party has ruled Malaysia since independence in 1957 — a period of relative stability and prosperity in the moderate Muslim country. But Najib faces declining support, and activists say government intolerance of religious and ethnic minorities is rising. Anwar's opposition alliance won the popular vote in 2013 elections but didn't win enough seats to form a government.
State prosecutors and the government deny the case against Anwar is politically motivated. Sodomy, even consensual, is a crime in Malaysia under a colonial-era law that is rarely applied.
This April, President Barack Obama became the first American president in nearly 50 years to visit Malaysia. He raised with Najib concern over Anwar's treatment, but human rights groups criticized the president for not meeting the opposition leader. National security adviser Susan Rice did instead.
Anwar said he had not requested a meeting with senior officials of the Obama administration this week. He spoke at Stanford University in California and Georgetown University in Washington.
Anwar said U.S. diplomats monitor his trial in Malaysia, "so there isn't much more for me to explain."
"To my mind, my case is very strong in respect of the law, but I don't know to what extent the supreme court can be truly independent. If it's independent I have no qualms whatsoever," he said.
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Madness Is WHEN UMNO General Assembly Is On...So Desi WILL TRY...

to lessen thy INsanity. The party is beyong slavation, just salivating from RM...greed; the veom coming out of the PIMinPin's blemishing the Rakyat's soul, dirtying everything that is withing reach of PWTC the past few days; don't even read the NST and UM!

So take a KitKat break by reading this LIFTER from a new news source I spied todie:)~~~YL, Desi

PS: The latest Anthem by the Jewish Elvis is desicated to awe mGf, don't send me Flowers, I prefer some Choc bars. Maybe from Mars, anywan oouch dare?

Obama says he loves "meryl Streep"; desi loves Barbra Streisand, cun?!:)

This 24 Year Old High School Dropout Is Tackling A Problem Every Startup Hates To Deal With

By Eugene Kim | Business Insider – 10 hours ago
YouTube
Indinero CEO Jessica Mah.
Jessica Mah, the founder and CEO of Indinero, was only 11 years old when she started her first business. Having learned how to code in fifth grade, Mah built websites for people and got paid a few thousand dollars a month.
That experience led her to do something more serious for her next business. She leased servers out of a few data centers and created a fully managed hosting service for small businesses, which she describes as a “cheaper version of Rackspace.” She had about four part time employees and generated six-figure revenues from it.
Although she had sales, Mah struggled to deal with cash flow and her server business eventually closed when she was 14 years old. By then, she was spending 40 hours a week on her business, and school was no longer a priority. Her grades were terrible and she ended up dropping out of high school.
“I was so stressed out,” Mah told Business Insider. “I remember thinking I was never going to start my own company and would never go into technology.”
But Mah was still smart enough to get into Simon’s Rock, an “early college” designed for students who want to get college education before graduating high school. It took her two years there to realize computer science was the only major she was happy with, and so, at age 17, she applied to UC Berkeley’s computer science program. After another two years, at 19, Mah graduated from UC Berkeley’s CS program.
Her time at Berkeley also brought back something she had been missing for a few years: her entrepreneurial drive. From her past experience running small businesses, Mah knew how the current accounting software were outdated. She knew accounting was an area ripe for innovation, but none of her fellow computer scientists were interested in the space because most of them had never dealt with it before. So by graduation, she created an accounting software called Indinero with her friend. “I wished there was some service like the ‘Google of accounting for small businesses,’” Mah says.
And the day after graduation, with a prototype, she headed down to Mountain View to join Y Combinator’s summer program. After 3 months, Mah raised $1.2 million for the seed round of Indinero. She was only 20 years old.
Indinero is a software that provides accounting, tax filing, and payroll management all under one service. It basically takes care of all the back office work by automatically importing data from the business owner’s financial accounts. It also has full-time professional accountants and tax specialists manually reviewing financial statements to make sure all the books are in order. “We just make it a lot more cost-effective and affordable because you have all these software layers doing so much of the work,” Mah says.
Indinero has been growing quite fast and now has 75 employees. It’s raised $8 million from angel investors, including 500 Startups’ Dave McClure, Yelp’s Jeremy Stoppelman, and Khosla Venture’s Keith Robois. Mah says over 500 companies use Indinero, including small businesses and bigger ones like some PR firms and law firms.
Despite all this success, Mah, now 24, says running a company has been a big challenge for her. “It’s my first company that’s doing millions in revenues, my first company that has full-time employees and a full office…So it’s been pretty difficult,” Mah says. But she still thinks it’s all worth the struggle. “It’s challenging at times. But it’s an incredibly rewarding job.”
Read more stories on Business Insider, Malaysian edition of the world’s fastest-growing business and technology news website.

More from Y! MY News

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Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Insanity Prevails in Malaysia: I Say Amen Ag*in!

The world goes forth
Leading nations are now trying to land on the Red Planet

Malaysia is not even able to land on the Moon
But we flag off a First astronaut
Merely riding as paying passenger in some else's spacecraft

Leaders at international fora preach Moderation
But back home the PIMinPin are getting more and more XXtrene
Just questioning the Law could get one a jail term under the guise of Sedition
But the id.ots who INCITE, THREATEN those who beg to disagree with their id.otic ways
With Yes, again the mighty Sedition Act to silence the Moderate voices
of Conscience

So do you now wonder WHY
the Young&Articulates who graduate overseas
DON'T want to come back to NegaraKu

'Cos those now who stay in NegaraKu are told
"You don't agree with our ways of doing things
MIGRATE/Pindah lah!"

Desi is migrating back to HIBERnation
e'en it's just 12.10PM...
Pray our Almight look after me and awe myGOoDfRiends wellA
I:
S:ay
A:men 

Ag*in



************************I.S.A***************************************

Repirsing an olde poem I wrote in the days of ISA, but now the SeditionAct takes more prisoners WITH EASE ...


I.S.A.

(or I Say Amen)


When you play Politics

You must master double speak

And watch out for the nemesis

Lest thou be trodden sick and weak


Linger a while

the opposition will attack you

Smile

It's all part of the Game


Linger more than a w'ile

When comrades hug you, kiss you

They honey you

Set thee for The Sting


Then say your prayers

knightly, nightly, frighfully

That thy mother's Angels watch o'er you

I do that too, yes, I do

"O' Lord Almighty, protect me from all evil

The Opposition enemy I can handle

It's the Devil from within I shudder!"

I:

S:ay

A:men


But the +AP is that Archangel in disguise

You saw Him attired in Dunhill shirt and tie

Then in the Steal of the night

They come for you

Chanting the internal Security Act

And a thousand "Amens"

Can't secure you.

+ Agent Provocateur, often abusing status to cause mayhem


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Tuesday, November 18, 2014

English standard on the decline...! Challenge from Desi -- Who's the Culprit?

EVEN several Ministers wouldn't get a credit for the GCE/MCE level English paper we seniors did take in the sixties/seventies (Yeah, Desi's that young!...:) -- But there IS NO EXCUSE IF YOU ARE IN THE CABINET! Of course, if you stick to carpentry making tables and chairs or cabinets, it's okay/ OK with Desi!

But some Public Relations/Advertising Agencies who get paid BIG bucks are sometimes equally guilty of lapses! (Don't they review their product one last/lust time before release?) A KEY MISTAKE which is inexcusable is to breach the Subject-Verb Agreement rule.

Eg: A hoy cries;The boys cry. A child sings; The children sing. ie Singular subject, followed by singular verb; plural subject follwed by plural berb...)

For the past few weeks I have been patiently waiting for the Bosses of a certain ad flagging some superpowerhourTV to CORRECT A JARRING MISTAKE, but it's all silence; CLUE: the event just started today.

The voice-over's grammar was correct, but the TEXT APPEARING on the TV screen a hundred times since its initial airing has this phrase: "....to attract the CUSTOMER(S) who MATTER...". Dear ER, go figure -- pick RED if you see Desi's POV, which is short for Point Of View!~Hope the PR/Ad agency people see Desi's voluntary act to raise English standards ~~~The blardy aSsis missing! OR the company using them should just NOT pay for their half-past six services!

CHICKY PS, Cun?: Maybe I can send a small bill to cover my freelance time as a Journalist to the Company flagging off the ad concerned? Or they are NOT concerned?
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Belatedly, I Convey Selayang MP's Challenge to dear ER: Pick Red or Blue Pill?

Like a cowpoy knot from Nsahville, we in PKR/PR always fight for TRUTH and the Underdog, and for JUSTICE! ~~YL, Desi

Will Malaysians choose the Red Pill or the Blue Pill?

Morpheus: It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Morpheus:That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your mind.
Morpheus:This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes. (The Matrix)
Malaysians have taken the road of racism for 57 years because our minds have been imprisoned. A leader may show us a path to a better tomorrow but we will miss the turning if we cannot liberate ourselves from the prison of our minds. Only by choosing good over evil can we see the true path. The time for choosing has come.
  
After seven days hearing submissions from the defense and the prosecution, the five Federal Court Judges will decide whether to acquit or convict Anwar Ibrahim. If Anwar is convicted, he will be imprisoned for a term that will end his political career. The opposition leader said this is his final sacrifice, his last final service for Malaysians. He will not be silenced. But will Malaysians grasp the opportunity he paid for with his freedom?
Whether there are flying carpets, briyani suits and what happened to the missing KY jelly is for the court to decide. The target audience for the remake of the stage production of Sodomy I, updated by DNA forensic investigation replacing the old fashion mattress prop, is not the court. It is always the Malaysian public especially the Malay Muslims. The impresario, whoever he or she may be, thought Malaysians are either gullible or easily intimidated or both. Now Malaysians will show whether they are indeed a timid and feeble-minded audience or they are bold and resolute judges firmly punishing evil and rewarding the good. Malaysians will have to decide whether to take the red pill or the blue pill.
The red pill and its opposite, the blue pill are popular culture symbols representing the choice between embracing the sometimes painful truth of reality (the red pill) and the blissful ignorance of illusion (the blue pill). The term is popularized in the 1999 film, “The Matrix”, where the main character Neo (Keanu Reeves) is offered the choice between a red pill and a blue pill. The blue pill would allow him to remain living in the “ignorance of illusion”, while the red pill would lead to living in the “truth of reality” even though it is a harsher, more difficult life.

Americans chose the red pill when Martin Luther King Jr was shot. The civil rights movement marched on because they knew oppressors would never give up their privileges on their own. President Johnson in his speech before Congress to pass the Voting Rights Bill allowing men and women to vote whatever the colour of their skin said:
“The real hero of this struggle is the American Negro. His actions and protests, his courage to risk safety and even to risk his life, have awakened the conscience of this Nation. His demonstrations have been designed to call attention to injustice, designed to provoke change, designed to stir reform.”
In 2008, America elected a president based not on the colour of his skin but on the content of his character. They had overcome.

South Africans chose the red pill when Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. For the 27 years he was in jail, South Africans continued his struggle for freedom and equal opportunity. They fought for the idea, which Nelson Mandela in his statement from the dock said:
“Was one he cherished, he hoped to live for but if needs be which he was prepared to die for.”
Internal resistance to apartheid came from organizations dedicated to peaceful protests, passive resistance and armed insurrections. It came from Steve Biko, Bishop Desmond Tutu, white activists like Harry Schwarz, Joe Slovo and Trevor Huddleston. It came from the Black Sash, an organization of white women against apartheid. It came from students and churches. In 1994 the long walk for freedom was finally over, apartheid ended.
Anwar chose the red pill 16 years ago when he rejected the offer to go away quietly and instead took the path of “reformasi”. It took him from the heights of being the acting Prime Minister to the depth of being the lowest convict. On his release from prison, he crafted the New Economic Agenda for affirmative action based on needs and not on race and to restore the country’s international competitiveness. On his qualification to stand for election, he announced on 15 April 2008 at Kelab Sultan Sulaiman Kampong  Baru, the venue where Malay nationalists gathered to fight for independence, that while the constitutional rights of Malays would be protected, it was time to change from “Ketuanan Melayu” to “Ketuanan Rakyat”, The Eight of March  2008 General Election proved to be the birth of a new era where the mill stone of race and religion which had been Malaysians’ burden to bear was finally shattered and transformed the political landscape of the nation. In 2013, Pakatan Rakyat secured 89 parliament seats and won 52% of the popular vote but was thwarted by gerrymandering, malapportionment and unfair electoral practices from forming the government.     
When Anwar chose to awaken Malaysians to give them hope that there can be another Malaysia, he was fully aware he would be challenging the twin pillars of UMNO politics, the first is Malay unity must be maintained at all costs and the second is that UMNO’s dominant political position must be maintained. Anwar was aware that those who left UMNO would be ostracized and made an outcast of his community. UMNO had accused Dato’ Onn Jaafar, the father of Malay nationalism and founder of UMNO as having sold out Malay rights and his heritage when he formed the multi-racial Independence of Malaya Party (IMP). Dato’ Haji Zainal Abidin bin Haji Abas, who with Dato’ Onn was one of UMNO’s founders and its first General Secretary became another example of UMNO’s punitive deterrence. He left UMNO to join IMP and later became the chairman of the United Democratic Party. He was completely alienated from the community. Aziz Ishak, once out of UMNO was hounded, all kinds of charges were laid against him and he was later arrested under the Internal Security Act. However, nothing prepared Anwar for what they did to him, he was arrested, beaten, imprisoned, ridiculed and denigrated by scurrilous attacks against him and his family, ostracized, made an outcast and labeled a traitor to his own race. The rancorousness of the venom, the ferocity of the hatred and the viciousness of the attacks were at levels never seen before. He is now more prepared mentally but physically he is not as strong and as young as he was one and a half decades ago.   
If you choose the blue pill you will carry on in your blissful ignorance of illusion.
You can choose to ignore and jettison the teachings of your religion, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism or other faith and ignore your conscience not to harm your fellow men or to help him because the “common good” of your race demands that you disregard the needs of those of a different colour or religion. But what are you going to say to Him on the Final Day when he reminded you in the 179th verse of the 7th Chapter:
“And We have certainly created for Hell many of the jinn and mankind. They have hearts with which they do not understand, they have eyes with which they do not see, and they have ears with which they do not hear. Those are like livestock; rather, they are more astray. It is they who the heedless.”
The illusion however, demands that your life as an individual belongs not to you but to the group or society and in this case, to your race of which you are merely a part, that you have no rights and  must sacrifice your rights, your values and goals for the greater good of your race.
The illusion further demands you are not to question why but to do and die. You are not to question what is the greater good for the Malays for one person to control Malakoff Corporation, Gas Malaysia, Aliran Ihsan Resources (water utility), Port of Tanjong Pelepas, Johor Port, Senai Airpor Terminal Services, SMART Tunnel, MMC-Gamuda, Proton Bhd, Edaran Otomobil Nasional, MODENAS, Honda Malaysia, Bank Muamalat, PUSPAKOM, Alam Flora, POS Malaysia, Defence Technologies, Tradewinds (M) Bhd which subsidiary BERNAS has a monopoly of rice importation and distribution, Central Sugar Refinery and smaller stakes in Malaysia Sugar Manufacturing which together holds a monopoly for sugar, hotels and property development companies.    
     
The illusion demands that the individual sacrifice you are called upon to make is for the common good for the greatest number of your race. Your income from 2009 has risen by only 8.1% while your household expenditure increased by 12.1% and 88.6% from 1994. Your household expenditure for housing, water, electricity has gone up by 102% since 1994, transport 94.6%, food and drinks by 60.9% while your household debt has increased by 13%. It is difficult to make ends meet with the increased price of petrol, the higher tolls for privatized highways and bridges, the tariffs for the privatized water and electricity, even your rubbish and sewage collection have been privatized. You have no idea how to pay the increased school bus fares but you will be proud that you have contributed to the many monopolies owned by Syed Mokthar Al-Bukhari, one of you.  
The illusion says your sacrifice in being unable to afford your own home is for the greater good. While you are seeking to rent a house, the rent-seeking elite buys luxury bungalows and condominiums. After payment of the car installments, credit cards, food and other bills you have no money for emergencies much less a holiday while the elites are flying first class and staying in five star hotels.
The illusion says your government has provided your children with a university education but they are not employable. The June 2014 World Bank Malaysian Economic Monitor reports 60% of the unemployed are aged 20-24 and 25% are graduates. Your children hold a university degree but employers find they lack soft skills; 47% inability to work independently, 49% lack problem solving skills, 51% lack analytical skills, 56% lack creative/critical thinking and 81% lack communication skills. According to the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 Malaysian students rank 52 out of 65 countries and the bottom one-third among more than 70 countries in international assessments like Trends in International Mathematics and Science Studies (TIMMS). The results show the education standard of our 15 year olds are three years behind Singapore, Korea, China, Japan and even Vietnam.    
No matter how you seek to justify you cannot ignore that while a responsible government builds a floor for the weakest students to stand, it encourages the best and the brightest to fly as high as they can. It is wicked to clip their wings because 150 years ago their great grand parents came to work in the estates, railroads, tin mines or to seek a better life.
While all accept that the Malays and the natives of Sabah and Sarawak are disadvantaged and neglected under colonial rule for more than 200 years and ought to be assisted what justification is there to allow Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Indonesians and Filipinos who came yesterday to enjoy these same privileges so the elite can maintain power? 
The blue pill unfortunately, will not be able to provide the answers and will not save you from the rude awakening one day when Malaysia ends up like Rwanda, Serbia, Sri Lanka or Zimbabwe.
If you choose the red pill, you will realize the painful truth that you yourself are part of the oppressed and you must fight for your own freedom and not that of the elites who can hardly claim to be identifiable with you.
Your life as an individual belongs to you and you have an inviolable right to live it as you see fit, to act on your own judgment, to pursue the values of your own choosing. The basic tenet is that each individual has an inalienable right to the pursuit of his own happiness in a society where men and women deal with one another as equals. The only happy society is one of happy individuals. We cannot have a healthy forest made up of rotten trees.
You will recognize that no race holds a monopoly of beauty, of intelligence, of strength and there is more than enough room for all in this country. You will understand what Malcolm X said:
“I believe that there will ultimately be a clash between the oppressed and those who do the oppressing. I believe that there will be a clash between those who want freedom, justice and equality for everyone and those who want to continue the system of exploitation. I believe that there will be that kind of clash, but I don’t think it will be based on the colour of the skin”      
Anwar has given Malaysians the keys to the door of change, if Malaysians grab hold of them once opened the door cannot be shut but if Malaysians do not use them once shut the door cannot be opened.
What will you choose reality or illusion?

William Leong Jee Keen
Member of Parliament Selayang
12 November 2014

DESIDERATA: PONDER, my dear ESteemedReaders, and come to a GOoD (God in You!) DESIsion. You know Desi the writer wellA, so you see Red in my Face! Cheers, mGf, GodBlesss, YL, DEsi
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Thursday, November 13, 2014

China is playing CATCHUP with US technology!

--Ramli burger wit' tomato ketchup, anywan? -- Desi just enjoyed the APEC 2014 gala dinner performance, climaxing wit' a seven-minute firewworks display safely managed with experts from  a Taiwan-based company -- also responsible for similar displays at Olympics 2008 in Beijing -- my mind thinks allowed that CHINA'S DISPLSAY OF HOSPITALITY AND LARGESSE SHOWS ITS ECONOMIC POWER HAS ALSO ENABLED ITS TECHNOLOGY ADVANCE.

Bakc home we are still fighting over Bibles ban just because of the word Allah appearing in the Bahasa Malaysia version! OMG, some Malaysians don't realise we are into a new millenium for 14years now! -- Desi, knottyaSsusual



China shows off new stealth fighter

By Bill SAVADOVE | AFP News – 17 hours ago
China's new stealth jet fighter rocketed skywards Wednesday as Beijing puts on an unprecedented display of openness -- and military force -- at the country's premier airshow.
The black J-31 rose in a nearly vertical climb on take-off in Zhuhai before circling back and doing two rolls, in the aircraft's first announced public appearance.
The plane's existence has been the subject of rumour and speculation for years, with photographs appearing increasingly frequently on military websites in recent months.
Defence analysts say the J-31 is China's answer to the United States' F-35, though the Chinese jet lags behind the American one technologically.
The fighter's Chinese name is "Falcon Eagle" and it is manufactured by a unit of Aviation Industry Corp. of China (AVIC), whose defence arm uses the slogan: "We are making the best weapons for guardians of the peace."
The plane's debut comes amid tensions between China and its neighbours over territorial disputes, particularly Japan which has feuded with Beijing over a group of islands in the East China Sea.
China's air force said the display of military might at the airshow showed the intention to build a strong country.
The People's Liberation Army (PLA) air force "will make unremitting efforts to realise dreams of a strong China and powerful armed forces", read a sign alongside an array of eight warplanes at the airshow.
"The display... demonstrates the strength and confidence of (the) PLA Air Force to fulfil missions and achieve world peace."
China has steadily increased its defence budget for years, with funding projected to rise more than 12 percent to $132 billion in 2014. But the US has accused Beijing of under-reporting its spending by as much as 20 percent in the past.
- 'Huge power' -
Defence analysts said China appears eager to sell the new fifth generation fighter abroad, also putting on display a model with a designation typically used for overseas destinations: FC-31.
"China's defence industry wants to show the potential for export," said Andrew Erickson, associate professor at the China Maritime Studies Institute of the US Naval War College.
Ally Pakistan is a likely first market, he added.
AVIC has already developed another fighter plane, the FC-1, in cooperation with Pakistan which was also on display at the show.
A large military transport plane, the Y-20, also made its debut at the show, flying lumbering turns over the crowd at its public outing on Wednesday.
"Of course, it is an advance in technology," said the announcer as spectators craned their necks to see it against a smoggy sky.
The China National Precision Machinery Import-Export Corp., the firm at the heart of controversy over the supply of a long-range anti-missile system to Turkey in the face of US opposition, also had a presence at the show, but its booth was devoid of product displays.
The firm, which is under US sanctions for selling arms and missile technology to Iran and Syria, declined to provide promotional materials or answer questions when approached by a journalist.
Although billed as an airshow, new sponsor China North Industries Corp (NORINCO) showed off a battle tank, the VT4, which proved a popular backdrop for visitor photos.
Other countries in the Asian region have beefed up military spending in response to China's growing power.
"It's a bit of a dance that happens all over the world," said Briand Greer, president of aerospace for Asia-Pacific at US conglomerate Honeywell.
"Economically everyone is tied to what happens in China," he said. "But at the same time, you’ve got a huge power rising right in your backyard so you don’t want to feel helpless."
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Imagine science fiction turned reality -- 10 round years in the creation!

CONGRATS to the European astronomers, land and space scentists ...


European Spacecraft Lands on Comet in Historic Space Feat

by Miriam Kramer, Space.com Staff Writer   |   November 12, 2014 11:13am ET
 
 
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For the first time in history, a spacecraft from Earth has landed on the face of a comet speeding through deep space.
The European Space Agency's Philae lander on the Rosetta spacecraft made its nail-biting, history-making touchdown on the Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko today (Nov. 12). Mission controllers are still trying to determine whether Philae's harpoons fired to anchor it to the surface of the comet. The landing ended what some scientists had dubbed "seven hours of terror" - the time it took for Philae to descend from Rosetta as the spacecraft and comet flew through space about 317 million miles (510 million kilometers) from Earth.
People started hugging, cheering and celebrating as soon as mission controllers got confirmation that the lander successfully touched down on the surface of the comet. Officials are now trying to determine whether they need to re-fire the probe's harpoons to be sure it stays in place on the comet. ESA officials confirmed that the spacecraft made its soft landing on the comet at a little bit after 11 a.m. EST (1600 GMT) today. [See images from the Rosetta mission]

ROLIS Captures Descent of Philae
Comet 67P/CG appears in an image taken by the ROLIS instrument on the Philae lander as it descended from Rosetta spacecraft on Nov. 12, 2014, from a distance of approximately 1.9 miles (3 km) from the surface.
Credit: ESA/Rosetta/Philae/ROLIS/DLR
Diagrams show how lander touches down on a comet nucleus.
The European Rosetta spacecraft's Philae lander aims to be the first probe ever to safely land on a comet. Here's how to land on a spinning ice mountain in space.
Credit: By Karl Tate, Infographics Artist
"We see the lander sitting on the road," Andrea Accomazzo, Rosetta flight director said just after landing was confirmed. "We've definitely confirmed that the lander is on the surface."

Unlocking comet mysteries

The Rosetta mission is charged with helping scientists learn more about comets, mysterious, icy wanders that are left over from the dawn of the solar system billions of years ago. Some research also suggests that comets could be responsible for bringing water to Earth early in the planet's history.
Philae's 10 instruments will monitor Comet 67P/C-G from the surface as Rosetta orbits the comet, investigating it from above.
Scientists hope that Philae will continue to collect data about the comet until at least March 2015. The two probes should be able to observe some changes to the comet as it flies closer to the sun. Rosetta is expected to remain with Comet 67P/C-G through December 2015, after it makes its closest flyby to the sun in August 2015.
"Comet impacts are thought to have been one of the principal means by which water was delivered to the early Earth, around 3.6 billion years ago, possibly contributing half the water in our oceans," planetary scientist Stanley Cowley, of the University of Leicester in England, said in a statement.
Philae started its difficult descent to the comet's surface at 3:35 a.m. EST (0835 GMT). The probe separated from Rosetta when they were both flying about 14 miles (22.5 kilometers) from the comet's center. The lander deployed a harpoon into the comet just after touchdown in order to keep itself in place in the comet's low gravity.
Mission controllers ran into a problem with the 220-pound (100 kilograms) lander during earlier checks of the spacecraft's health. As ESA officials found that the probe's "cold gas thruster" could not be activated. The thruster would have been used to help keep the probe from bouncing off into space after touchdown, so instead, ESA officials decided to totally rely on Philae's harpoon to stick the landing.
ESA Scientists Celebrate Philae Landing on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
ESA staff members at ESA's European Space Operations Center in Darmstadt, Germany, celebrate the landing of Philae probe on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Nov. 12, 2014.
Credit: ESA
While Philae's landing marks the first time humans have soft-landed a probe on a comet, this is not the first time a spacecraft has visited one of these icy cosmic wanderers. An ESA spacecraft called Giotto flew past Halley's Comet in 1986, and NASA's Stardust mission returned samples of a different comet to Earth in 2006. Scientists also used a probe to impact Comet Tempel 1 in order to learn more about its structure.

The long road to a comet

It has been a long road to the surface of the comet for Philae. The Rosetta mission launched toward Comet 67P/C-G in 2004 and traveled about 4 billion miles through the solar system before reaching the comet in August. Since then, the two spacecraft have been warming up their instruments and preparing for the landing by learning how to fly in orbit around the oddly-shaped comet.
Comet 67P-GC Over London
This graphic compares the size of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko with the city of London.
Credit: Comet: ESA/Rosetta/Navcam; Map data ©2014 Google, Bluesky
Comet 67P/C-G's nucleus is very different than mission controllers on Earth though would be. While researchers were expecting to find a semi-round, regularly shaped object, they instead found a strange looking comet with a "body," a "head" and a "neck." Philae is currently parked on the head of the comet.
Although the comet seems to be pretty stable right now, it's possible that it could break up as it flies closer to the sun. Comets are extremely unpredictable, and 67P/C-G is no exception, according to Rosetta project scientist Matt Taylor.
"Ultimately, comets only have a limited amount of fuel and a limited lifetime," Taylor said during a webcast before the landing. "We hope and expect that the comet will live up to the end of next year, hopefully, but it may not, it may break up. We don't know. That's part of the mission itself, is to try and understand how a comet works."
Philae, Rosetta and the landing site, Agilkia were all named in a similar, Egyptian theme. Rosetta is named after the Rosetta Stone, a tablet that helped archaeologists translate ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. Philae is named for an obelisk found on an island of the same name in the Nile River, and Agilkia is named for another island in the Nile.
Editor's Note: This story was updated to reflect a correction at 11:43 a.m. EST (1643 GMT). Scientists are not yet sure whether the lander's harpoons deployed. 
Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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Monday, November 10, 2014

China in driver's seat to promote THE ASIA-PACIFIC ERA of DREAMS


Xi offers vision of China-driven 'Asia-Pacific dream'

AFP
By Sebastien Berger 12 hours ago
China's President Xi Jinping speaks on November 9, 2014, at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Beijing
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Beijing (AFP) - President Xi Jinping offered the world a vision of a Chinese-driven "Asia-Pacific dream" on Sunday, as Beijing hosts a regional gathering that underlines its growing global clout.
"We have the responsibility to create and realise an Asia-Pacific dream for the people of the region," the Chinese Communist chief told a gathering of business and political leaders that precedes the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders' gathering.
The 21-member APEC groups 40 percent of the world's population, almost half its trade and more than half its GDP, and the summit will be attended by leaders including US President Barack Obama, his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
It will see Beijing push its preferred Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP), while Washington is driving its own Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
The TPP is seen as the economic element of the much-touted US "rebalance" to Asia and so far brings together 12 APEC nations including Japan and Australia -- but not China.
Obama left Washington Sunday, with the White House saying he was expected to have "candid and in-depth conversations" with Xi, after Secretary of State John Kerry last week described the two powers' relationship as the "most consequential" in the world.
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A Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) honour …
A Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) honour guard welcome Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo  …
"For the Asia-Pacific and the world at large, China's development will generate huge opportunities and benefits and hold lasting and infinite promise," Xi said.
He later welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom he has a shared outlook on issues such as trade, investment and geopolitical interests, including a wariness of the United States.
It was "time to gather fruit" from "the tree of Russian-Chinese relations", Xi told Putin, as the two sides signed agreements stepping up their multi-billion-dollar energy and resources cooperation.
- Chinese dream -
Xi told the business meeting his "Asia-Pacific dream" was based on a "shared destiny" of peace, development and mutual benefit in the region.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and his Chinese …
Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping shake hands during a sig …
The comments have echoes of the "Chinese dream" he regularly speaks of, an unspecified but much-discussed term with connotations of national resurgence.
Beijing -- a veto-wielding permanent member of the UN Security Council -- is leveraging the decades-long boom that has made it the world's second-largest economy to increase its regional and global heft.
But it stresses a policy of non-interference in other countries' internal affairs -- a stance that has enabled it to do business with leaders seen as pariahs in the West.
Its relationship with the United States has been marred by tensions over trade disputes, cyberspying and human rights issues, while Beijing is embroiled in enduring disputes with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea, and with rival claimants in the South China Sea.
Under Xi, it has been asserting those claims more firmly.
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US President Barack Obama boards Air Force One before …
US President Barack Obama boards Air Force One before departing from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryl …
"China wants to live in harmony with all its neighbours," he said Sunday.
Nonetheless, relations with Japan have plunged in recent years with both sides sending ships and aircraft to the islands, which are controlled by Tokyo and claimed by Beijing, raising fears of clashes.
Hopes of an ice-breaking formal meeting between Xi and Abe on the sidelines of the summit have risen following statements by the two countries agreeing to try to improve ties.
But Japanese officials say the key sentence in their statement was "very carefully written" to avoid Tokyo formally acknowledging that there was a dispute on sovereignty over the islands.
"We did not give in to the Chinese demand," one official said.
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A man rides a bike outside the China National Convention …
A man rides a bike outside the China National Convention Centre (CNCC) in Beijing on November 9, 201 …
- 'Not that scary' -
China's decades-long economic boom has seen it overtake Japan as the world's second-largest economy. But its growth reached a five-year low in the third quarter.
Xi said the risks it faced were "not that scary" and slower expansion was expected as its economy matures.
China currently suffers from a deflating property bubble, a crackdown on corruption blamed for curbing some business, and weak demand from Europe.
Even so it was expected to invest more than $1.25 trillion abroad over the next decade, Xi said, while outbound Chinese tourists would exceed 500 million over the next five years.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks to open the APEC …
Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks to open the APEC CEO Summit at the China National Convention Cen …
As "China's overall national strength grows", he told his audience, it would be able and willing to offer "new initiatives and visions for enhancing regional cooperation".
A draft summit communique seen by AFP calls for a "strategic study" on the Beijing-backed FTAAP. But Michael Froman, the US Trade Representative, told reporters Sunday: "It’s not the launch of a new organisation, it's not the launch of a new FTA."
FTAAP, he said, was a "long-term aspiration" to be achieved only through other existing negotiations such as TPP, which was "clearly" the priority for the world's biggest economy.
The communique refers to "the eventual realisation" of the FTAAP.
But whether the leaders will endorse the so-called "Beijing Roadmap" towards the FTAAP remained unclear.

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