Free Republic

A survey by New York-based magazine Conde Nast Traveler has ranked Guangzhou and Shenzhen among the world's top 20 most unfriendly cities. How many respondents have been to Guangzhou and Shenzhen? Condé Nast Traveler released the lists of the friendliest and unfriendliest cities in the world recently. According to its website, a total of 46,476 respondents were surveyed. China’s Guangzhou is considered the 11th unfriendliest city while Shenzhen is the 14th on the list. So what were exactly asked in this not-very-scientific survey to determine these embarrassing results for Guangdong Province? The survey didn't introduce how many respondents have been...

Less than a week after being "rescued" from a jungle home they built and fled to 40 years ago during the Vietnam War, a former soldier and his son have both asked to go back. They were taken from their dwelling, where they had been ever since their house was bombed in 1972, by a group of family members and local officials last week. Ho Van Thanh, the 82-year-old father, has recovered with some medical care after being carried from his home 40 kilometers deep in the jungle in the central province of Quang Ngai on a hammock last Wednesday....

SEOUL: South Korea ordered sweltering government offices to turn off their air conditioning as two power plants stopped operations on Monday, a day after a minister warned of an imminent national energy crisis. The timing could hardly be worse with South Korea in the grip of an extended heatwave and temperatures nudging 34 degrees Celsius. One Seoul city government employee described her office as "one big dim sum basket". The heatwave is also smashing records in Japan, where the mercury hit 41 degrees Celsius on Monday. The coal-powered Dangjin III plant, with a capacity of 500 megawatts, was taken offline...

SINGAPORE: The latest survey by GfK, one of the world's largest research companies, has found that economy-related matters appear to be on top of the list of concerns for consumers in the Asia Pacific. Two in every five surveyed are worried about recession and unemployment, as well as inflation and high prices. At the same time, one in three said they are concerned about having enough money to live right and pay the bills. Consumers in Singapore (65 per cent), Thailand (55 per cent), China (51 per cent) and Indonesia (39 per cent) expressed their greatest anxiety towards inflation. Those...

A northern Arizona family that was lost at sea for weeks in an ill-fated attempt to leave the U.S. over what they consider government interference in religion will fly back home Sunday. Hannah Gastonguay, 26, said Saturday that she and her husband "decided to take a leap of faith and see where God led us" when they took their two small children and her father-in-law and set sail from San Diego for the tiny Pacific island nation of Kiribati in May. But just weeks into their journey the Gastonguays hit a series of storms that damaged their small boat, leaving...

The Tourism and Sports Ministry is planning to make it compulsory for all foreign tourists to have travel insurance before entering the Kingdom because unpaid bills are putting a huge strain on cash-strapped public hospitals in major destinations, particularly Phuket. However, some tourism-business operators warn that this measure might keep away travellers as well as tarnish the country's image. In a telephone interview with The Nation, Tourism and Sports Minister Somsak Pureesrisak said the ministry was readying to implement the regulation to cut down on foreign tourists' unpaid medical bills that cost the country more than Bt200 million annually. Somsak...

A growing number of Chinese couples are choosing to go to South Korea for their wedding photo shoot. The bride sits patiently as her makeup is applied and her tiara fixed in place. After choosing the South Korean company to shoot their pre-wedding photo online, Yang Candi and her fiance have travelled to Seoul from their home in China. "In China, the photo shoots are more likely to be in traditional Chinese style or European style. Compared to those, South Korean photo studios are very simple and express their own stories. So it was unique." These photo shoots are big...

SEOUL, Aug 12 — General Motors Co. has begun gradually cutting its presence in South Korea after mounting labour costs and militant unionism triggered a rethink of its reliance on the country for a fifth of its global production, three individuals familiar with GM’s thinking said. The US automaker’s plan, which already appears to have been put into action with recent decisions to shift production of newer models away from South Korea, highlights complaints from both local and foreign carmakers about rapidly rising wage costs in the world’s seventh-largest exporting nation. “We need to make sure we mitigate risk in...

GUMI (South Korea), Aug 9 — A South Korean city has begun testing an “electrified road” that allows electric public buses to recharge their batteries from buried cables as they travel. The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), which developed the system, said yesterday it would be tested over the next four months on a 24km route in the southern city of Gumi. Pick-up equipment underneath the bus, or Online Electric Vehicle (OLEV), sucks up power through non-contact magnetic charging from strips buried under the road surface. It then distributes the power either to drive the vehicle or...

WASHINGTON, August 2 (By Maria Young for RIA Novosti) – Politics, it has been said, makes strange bedfellows. Now, as US gay rights groups protest against Russia’s new laws on homosexuality, conservatives across America have quietly begun to align themselves with the Russian government in a rare union that defies a long history of animosity. “Russia could be a great ally for conservatives, on issues like defending the family, abortions, even strengthening marriage and promoting more children,” said Larry Jacobs, managing director the World Congress of Families, an Illinois-based organization that promotes traditional family values in the US and abroad,...

Russia turned westward in the 18th century, but its relationship with the West has remained strained. The two civilizations were like oil and water: No matter how you stir the mixture, the substances stayed separate and Russia always shrugged off Western influences. For 200 years, Russia was ruled from St. Petersburg, a city built by Western architects and planned under the spell of the French Enlightenment. However, Nikolai Gogol, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky and other writers despised it, describing it as an alien sore on the body of Mother Russia. After the 1848 revolution in Europe, ideas such secularism, individualism...

The performance of popular U.S. rock band Bloodhound Gang was canceled over the weekend after one of its musicians shoved a Russian flag into his underpants at a concert in Ukraine, prompting outrage from Russian officials and calls for an investigation into the possibility that the flag fiasco was "ordered" by a higher authority. The latest came Sunday as United Russia deputy Sergei Neverov demanded that prosecutors get to the bottom of "who paid the group to desecrate the flag" at Wednesday's performance in Odessa, RIA Novosti reported. At the concert, bass player Jared Hasselhoff withdrew and showed to the...

From an African perspective, China is a vast country shrouded in myth and preconceived ideas, especially when it comes to Chinese doing business on this continent. This is largely perpetuated by the lack of real information on both sides: the Chinese need to know how they are actually perceived so that they can actively work to improve their image, and their African partners need to operate from an informed position in order to take advantage of the many opportunities offered by Chinese investment. Just how wide the gaps on both sides are was highlighted during the recent journalist study visit...

More/video at Reaganite Republican...

Here are some really good photos of the crashed Boeing 777 known as Asiana Flight 214.These include pics of the interior, exterior, landing gear, engines, and removal and loading process.

There are two topics that you don’t discuss in Singapore: the weather and politics, because both generally remain the same. Food, on the other hand, is a subject that unifies the people of this small island like nothing else can. Eating out here can range from horrifically expensive - S$300 for a steak if you go to a celebrity chef restaurant - to terrific value, such as S$3 for a bowl of delicious noodles, eaten out of a plastic bowl while sitting under strip lighting. Yet it is the traditional and inexpensive food sold at hawker centres that sparks an...

Taiwan authorities on Tuesday announced new measures to relax entrance restrictions for certain "professionals" from the Chinese mainland. The island has decided to issue special entry permits to elite mainlanders working in fields such as education, mass communications and art and literature. With the special entry permits, they can freely enter or exit Taiwan within a one-year validity period, according to the local department in charge of internal affairs. Under current policies, people from the mainland must apply for a single-pass entry permit prior to each time they enter Taiwan. The policies have greatly affected mainland people who have to...

<p>A family of four touring San Francisco in a GoCar Monday took a wrong turn and ended up getting stranded halfway across the Bay Bridge, authorities said.</p> <p>The California Highway Patrol responded around 2 p.m. to calls of a caravan of GoCars chugging along slowly in the left lane of the Bay Bridge, heading toward Oakland, said Officer Mike Ferguson.</p>

The pretty thing won't have to serve another day in a U.S. prison. A federal judge in Miami, FL has sentenced Sandra Avila Beltran to time served after pleading guilty to her role in the Sinaloa cartel which once was headed by boyfriend Juan Diego Espinosa Ramire, and the Queen of the Pacific soon will return to her native Mexico where she's known to indulge in a lavish lifestyle and cosmetic surgery as reported by Hannah Strange for The Telegraph: "the judge sentenced her to 70 months in prison but ruled that the penalty had been fulfilled by her five...

The sun is out! The birds are singing! The open road calls! Your vinyl interior is burning itself into your thighs! Yes, summer is here and it's time to go on some road trips. What car do you take, though?

It's a good morning in Italy. Italian police have arrested more than 100 suspected mobsters in two unrelated raids -- one targeting Sicilian Mafia clans in Rome and another focussed on a Calabrian Mafia clan in Lamezia Terme -- as reported by BBC News. The Rome raid netted about 50 suspects from the Fasciani, Triassi and D'Agati clans which allegedly used bars and restaurants as fronts for their operations including the drug, protection and gambling rackets, and apparently were caught on tape plotting murders and dividing territory as reported by AFP. The Calabria raid -- dubbed Operation Perseo -- rounded...

In 1975: 1.You could buy an airline ticket and fly without ever showing an ID. 2.You could buy cough syrup without showing an ID. 3.You could buy and sell gold coins without showing an ID 4.You could buy a gun without showing an ID 5.You could pull as much cash out of your bank account without the bank filing a report with the government. 6.You could get a job without having to prove you were an American. 7.You could buy cigarettes without showing an ID 8.You could have a phone conversation without the government knowing who you called and who...

Bear with me, LI readers – I’m a little bit of a geek, so I find stories like these exciting. It might not be of interest to everyone, but I do think there’s one point about it that will resonate with all of you. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos started Bezos Expeditions (as well as the space exploration venture Blue Origin) out of his “passions for science, engineering, and exploration.” Bezos, like so many others, watched Apollo 11′s launch from his television as a child in 1969. Days prior, the mission began when five F-1 rocket engines fired together in a...

I am writing a novel set in Russia and need some help with airplanes. Does anyone you know the make of any Russian plane that would regularly fly into the coldest regions? I flew into Enta (Komi Republic) one time and landed on skis. (rear loading, about 15-20 pax) It was surreal. And cool, I mean cold! :-) Thanks for any help.

Asiana 214 – A Failure of Standardized Procedures? By Bruce Croft – www.twozerowest.com In her final on-site briefing NTSB chairman Deborah Hersman added what are in my view two final but highly significant pieces of factual information contributing to the investigation into the cause of the crash of Asiana 214. We learned that there was conversation about being above, then on, and then below the glidepath for the approach – in that order, and we also learned that there was no mention of the aircraft’s speed until a little less than nine seconds prior to impact.  What these facts taken...

The drug trafficking 'Ndrangheta or Calabrian Mafia has been long-entrenched in Australia, and the Herald Sun has run an enlightening three-part series based on confidential law enforcement intelligence reports: Part I, Part II and Part III. Australian authorities became aware of the 'Ndrangheta's presence in the early-1960s when a turf war among rival clans attracted attention, and notwithstanding repeated investigations over the next fifty years little has been done to bring down the crime group. Of course, a little corruption apparently goes a long way in Australia. A 1991 report by the Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence states that Mafia...

The FBI has arrested four reputed narcos from the Gulf cartel for their alleged roles in kidnapping an innocent man off a highway in Hidalgo, TX by posing as police officers, and then smuggling him over the border into Reynosa, Mexico where the poor soul was murdered as reported by Sergio Chapa for KGBT. The whacked victim never had any role in the drug trade, and the accused narcos apparently had mistaken him for someone else they suspected of stealing from them. And yet Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano insists the border is secure, and there is no evidence of...

After I retired from UAL as a Standards Captain on the -400, I got a job as a simulator instructor working for Alteon (a Boeing subsidiary) at Asiana. When I first got there, I was shocked and surprised by the lack of basic piloting skills shown by most of the pilots. It is not a normal situation with normal progression from new hire, right seat, left seat taking a decade or two. One big difference is that ex-Military pilots are given super-seniority and progress to the left seat much faster. Compared to the US, they also upgrade fairly rapidly because...

On a blazing summer afternoon in Moscow, Stefania, an Italian professional in her early 30s, manages to look picture-perfect. In a belted tangerine dress, with an impeccable manicure and glossy hair, she fits right in to a local culture that celebrates ultra-feminine style. “You have to dress bright, like a traffic light – high heels, short skirts, hair, nails – to attract men’s attention,” she explained. “Dating in Moscow is a war, and your looks are your only weapons.” Yet even as she turns heads in the street, Stefania admits that her love life is a struggle. “Dating Russian men...

Hey, but if you drive one of these, I'm sure you're the exception... 10. Toyota Prius   They should have called it the Toyota Sanctimonius. That sidelong glare you get when you pass one? It means you're driving too fast. Wasting precious gasoline. Defiling Gaia. Reveling in your carbon footprint. You, my friend, are the enemy of mankind. And all Prius drivers. 9. 1990's-Vintage Modified Honda Civic   Yes, this is the infamous "Ricer", equipped with fart pipe, sub-$250 body kit, partially-finished paint job and Formula One-style spoiler. It must, of course, be lowered sufficiently to scrape the pavement like...

Apparently he was a sensitive boy. Mexican authorities say the teenage son of imprisoned Sinaloa boss Jose Carrasco Coronel is a suspect in the murder of two 15-year-old classmates after getting teased by the pair as reported by The Associated Press.

Willie Sutton said he robbed banks because that's where the money is. Roberto Pannunzi went to Colombia because that's where the coca grows. And that's also where the reputed boss from the 'Ndrangheta or Calabrian Mafia was arrested by the Colombian Defense Ministry after a tip from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency as reported by AFP. Italian prosecutors accuse Pannunzi -- dubbed the Pablo Escobar of Italy -- of establishing the transatlantic cocaine trade between Colombia and Italy," and "he is suspected of helping import up to two tones of cocaine into Europe per month." Anti-Mafia prosecutor Nicola Gratteri characterizes...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu8US6YAcoYSharing with you a personal experience that I had with law enforcement while concealed carry. I strongly believe that this topic should be mandatory discussion for every concealed carry class. This overview of the "stop" and interaction with the officer should give you some guidelines and protocol to follow when this happens to you. It could also be of benefit to law enforcement personnel as well. My desire is not to reveal the municipality where this transpired. The comments in this video (including text responses to viewers) represents my personal opinion only. I am not an attorney and cannot provide...

A Canadian man from Thunder Bay, Ontario is on trial in an Italian court for alleged association with the 'Ndrangheta or Calabrian Mafia as reported by CBC News: "prosecutors allege that Giuseppe Bruzzese, 66, was caught on tape in a high-level meeting in an Italian laundromat with a top crime boss" although "Bruzzese's lawyer contends his client was only having coffee with a friend." In recent years the 'Ndrangheta has eclipsed Cosa Nostra or the Sicilian Mafia as Italy's most powerful crime group due to its obscene profits from the cocaine trade in Europe, and it has become entrenched in...

Three Mexican brothers caught with 29 kilograms of methamphetamine have been sentenced to death for drug trafficking in the southeastern Asian country of Malaysia as reported by NTD Television. Malaysia previously had not encountered the Mexican cartels until the brothers' arrest, and apparently it's nipping the problem in the bud. Now that's a zero tolerance policy.

20 Cool Things About Mobile, Alabama That I Didn't Know Before Last Week Julie Zeveloff Jun. 24, 2013, 6:17 PM Julie Zeveloff/Business Insider Mobile, Alabama, got pretty miffed several months back when I included it on a list of "miserable" cities, based on health and wellness statistics from Gallup. So when a local mayoral candidate invited me down to prove me wrong, I booked a flight. I'd never been to Mobile before, and figured it would be a good chance to learn about a new city beyond a set of numbers. I won't say that I got an unbiased view:...

MEMPHIS, Tenn., June 21, 2013 — For 35 years, Boeing 727 aircraft were a reliable workhorse for the world’s largest express transportation company. Today, the venerable 727 narrow-body freighter closes an enduring chapter in aviation history as FedEx becomes the last major carrier to retire the aircraft from service. The retirement is part of the company’s aircraft modernization strategy.

just wondering how the range time was, what accomodations were decent nearby, how training was, helpful tips.

Fellow Freepers I am in need of assistance from your personal experiences. I'm looking for a place to spend a week relaxing/reading books on a balcony in September. What I'm trying to find is a nice hotel with great mountain or coastal views in the US. Would prefer something that's not at the base of a mtn but up the hill so to speak or on a rocky coastline. Want to park my butt for a week, drink wine, read books, eat, relax. Don't seem to be finding answers on travel sites. Any and all recommendations appreciated!

Our country and the world marked a great moment: 50 years since the flight of the first woman in space: June 16th, 1963, by Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova. At the time of her space flight she was only 26. The first woman cosmonaut, Hero of the Soviet Union Tereshkova graduated from the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy with honors, and received a PhD in technical sciences. She was a professor and the author of over 50 scientific papers. She holds the rank of air force major general and was a deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Valentina Tereshkova has...

Here’s a sign of the changing times — Muslim cabbies now have their very own place at San Francisco International Airport to wash their hands and feet before they pray. Under Islamic law, Muslims are required to pray five times a day — a ritual that also calls for a ceremonial cleansing. For many cab drivers, that’s meant either lugging bottled water around or using one of the bathrooms inside the terminal to wash — a practice not always welcomed by airport passengers. So Royal Cab driver Hasan Khan, 52, a Pakistani immigrant, collected some 300 signatures from fellow cabbies,...

This is in-car video of my 1986 Toyota MR2 at a lapping day at a local racetrack. The chassis is stock, the engine has a turbo and lots of go-fast parts. Watch this first to see the goodies under the skin. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWHwvQJBPKc The car has 255 RWHP, 179 ft lbs at 8500 rpm. The torque peak and HP peak are 300 RPM apart, at 8200 RPM and 8500 RPM.

Today I want to talk about The Troubles. I previously talked about Operation Banner An Analysis of British Operations in North Ireland.That is worth reading though it is a bit dry. So here we go. For a brief recap the problems between England and Ireland probably go back 900 years or so. We will focus a bit more on current history. The Anglo- Irish war from roughly (start and stop points are hard for guerrilla wars) 1919 to 1922 ended up partitioning Ireland into 2 entities. The 26 counties that make up the majority of Ireland were granted Dominion...

The U.S. is fortunate that Russia is not intent on undermining our interests, which makes it a little odd that so many American hawks insist that this is so and sometimes seem eager to make it so. Consider Syria. Syria hawks see Russian opposition to Western and Arab intervention in the country as proof of Russian antagonism to America, but Russia is at most half-heartedly defending the status quo and continuing its formal policy of objecting to outside interference in other states’ internal affairs. It has committed itself to nothing except occasionally vetoing a resolution at the U.N., and if...

Auto theft is rampant in South Africa. If they catch you, justice is swift and sure. Police vehicle POV.

Islamic Sharia law is outdated, controlling, un democratic, barbaric, racist, sexist and just plain stupid. It is completely incompatible with modern life in civilized  nations. It’s no wonder those who live under Sharia in Muslim countries or those who call for it in the west are often regarded as a bit backwards,because  Sharia  most definitely is retarded. How can throwing a female who is a victim of  not 1 repulsive rapist but of 3 evil rapists, into prison for having sex out of wedlock be any kind of justice. The woman never asked to be raped, she wasn’t flirting with the attackers or leading them on...

Alexander Wolfe wrote an excellent post today discussing Go Bags and Bug Out Bags. I am going to talk about my thoughts on 'lines' of gear. In doing so we will talk about go bags/ assault packs/ get home bags and such.  First line gear is the most basic survival and defensive gear. You really shouldn't be leaving home without it. Military- Survival gear (knife, fire, etc) and weapon with reload. For most deployed personnel the weapon is an M4 variant but that doesn't really matter. Civilian- EDC/ Survival gear and potentially CCW pistol with reload. You can see mine...

Polar bear attacks homeless crack head who choose wrong place to rest.

A mob war for control over the drug racket in Canada which allegedly pits the Rizzuto clan from Cosa Nostra or the Sicilian Mafia against a breakaway group headed by Raynald Desjardins with support from the 'Ndrangheta or Calabrian Mafia has spread to Italy as reported by Adrian Humphreys for the National Post. Juan Ramon Fernandez, an alleged enforcer of Montreal boss Vito Rizzuto, was gunned down with Fernando Pimentel, another mob-linked man from Canada, in a planned ambush outside Palermo, Sicily, and an Italian investigator says "we are sure" that "the order to kill [them] came from Canada." The...

does anyone know where to get some that are legit? it seems lately that ones bought locally in Spain or Greece work for 5 minutes when they were allegedly loaded with 30 minutes worth of time to be able to call the US. are there ones that can be purchased at a legit source here in the US ? do they have any that allows my actual cell number to come up on caller ID so people will know it is me?