Miscellaneous News
- Thread starter bd popeye
- Start date
Is the asbestos thing legit???
No,got to disagree to a point and give credit where credit is due-it was the US which destroyed the IJN on the seas and USMC/USAArmy which destroyed the IJA during the land campain island-hopping battles BUT now much more recognition is given to the Chinese 14 year War of Resistance that tied down over 75 % of the IJA and likewise endured horrific brutal atrocities and the magnificent Soviet 1945 "August Storm" campaign which destroyed the million -man IJA/Kwantung Army in 11days and finally drove the Japanese off the Asian mainland-a comprehensive balanced,fair view is all we ask and need.
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In about 10years -yes Trump will still want to be there in WH-the massive spike in mesothelioma,and other internal cancers will spike if this idiot policy is implemented.
Yeah. Just not right now. The Trump admin tried to legalize it last year.
sure,
However, Japan was pumped up by Anglos to be the aggressor in East Asia. That's why Japan industrialized / militarized so fast.
The role of Japan never changed.
Monroe Doctrine for Japan
In Autumn 1872, minister to Japan explained to U.S. General that he had been urging the Government of Japan to occupy Taiwan and "civilize" the just as the U.S. had taken over the land of the and "civilized" them
Korean investors pour US$92.5 million into Hong Kong-listed AI, tech stocks
Return to mainland equities bends towards start-ups and ETFs, versus earlier focus on bellwether, large-cap names
South Korean investors returned to mainland equities at the start of 2026, ramping up purchases of Hong Kong-listed players in artificial intelligence and semiconductors amid enduring enthusiasm for the tech sector.
They bought US$92.5 million worth of Hong Kong-listed shares this year as of February 13, according to data from SEIBro, a portal maintained by the Korea Securities Depository. The buying was concentrated in newly listed technology companies and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tracking mainland benchmarks.
MiniMax, an AI developer that , topped the list with net purchases of nearly US$21 million by Korean investors. ChinaAMC CSI 300 ETF attracted US$18.9 million, followed by Montage Technology, which , with US$18.8 million.
Other heavily traded names included iShares Hang Seng Tech ETF, CSOP Samsung Electronics Daily (2x) Leveraged Product, Innoscience, Premia China Star 50 ETF, WuXi XDC, Ascletis Pharma, and Global X China Semiconductor ETF, with net buying ranging between US$2.2 million and US$8.7 million, the data showed.
The renewed buying by Korean investors adds to signs of returning foreign interest in Hong Kong’s market after years of subdued inflows amid regulatory tightening, property sector stress and geopolitical tensions.
The shift also marks a in investment preferences compared with mid-2025, when Korean investors’ buying was dominated by technology bellwethers and large-cap names, including smartphone maker Xiaomi, e-commerce major Alibaba Group Holding, and chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International, according to SEIBro data.
This year’s flow suggests a tilt towards earlier-stage technology and AI-related companies, as well as index products offering broader exposure to China’s policy-backed growth sectors.
Strategists and fund managers said the renewed interest came amid improving earnings expectations and structural themes around AI for the Chinese market, while a diversification from US assets with the strengthened yuan also helped boost demand.
Goldman Sachs has maintained an overweight rating on Chinese stocks, estimating that AI adoption could lift overall corporate earnings by 2.5 per cent annually over the next decade. The bank said Chinese equities could attract more than US$200 billion of inflows over the coming year as global investors increased allocations.
Korean investors had previously been heavily concentrated in US markets, particularly in the so-called Magnificent Seven technology stocks and AI-related themes, said Wang Yi, chief investment officer at CSOP Asset Management.
However, a weakening US dollar and rising uncertainty over the outlook for large-cap US tech firms since last year had revived discussions about de-dollarisation and diversification, he said.
On a year-to-date basis through February 13, the Nasdaq posted a flat return, compared with gains of about 0.7 per cent for the CSI 300 Index of the largest mainland-listed companies and roughly 9.4 per cent for the Star 50 Index of Shanghai’s Nasdaq-style Star Market. Over the same period, the yuan has appreciated from around 7 per US dollar to about 6.9, adding to the appeal of Chinese assets for overseas investors.
At the same time, investors had begun to question the heavy capital expenditures on AI by large-cap technology companies in both the US and China, Wang said. Market participants were increasingly focusing on parts of the AI value chain and AI applications that offered clearer revenue visibility and cash flow generation, he added.
“The semiconductor sector represents certainty, and AI applications represent high return potentials,” Wang said.
He added that Korean investors were using broad-based products such as the CSI 300 Index and Hang Seng Tech Index to gain general China exposure and diversify away from their previously US concentrated stock allocations.
“If the relative performance of the China market and the US market continues in 2026, it is very possible to expect the pattern will be extended,” Wang said.
Tallest Shiva Lingam to largest bird sculpture—India’s obsession with bigness
It is a screaming illustration of what size means in the politics of symbolism. You build a 60-foot statue, I will build a 65-foot one.
World’s largest, world’s tallest, world’s highest, world’s greatest—these epithets have haunted us since grade one GK quizzes. They have been so overwhelming that my knowledge of the world’s superlatives is now all I have to offer when my friends do trivia nights.
As I write this, the world’s largest *sighs at the redundancy* Shiva Lingam, is travelling all the way to Bihar from Mahabalipuram. It will be installed in the Virat Ramayana temple on 17 January. The 33-feet-tall lingam is so large, so humongous that Bihar does not even have the infrastructure to actually install it—two cranes are travelling from Bhopal to do the job.
One cannot not ask the question: Why is a state that could not get its bridges right (170 bridges collapsed and 202 people died in the last five years) so eager to set up the largest lingam in the universe?
The logical move would be to fix basic infrastructure first, chase cosmic superlatives later. Alas, ’twas not to be.
What is this obsession with claiming the biggest, the largest something? The Gujarat government, under Modi, set off to build the Statue of Unity, the tallest statue in the world after spending Rs 29 billion. In August 2024, a 90-foot Hanuman statue was built in Texas, US. That statue, with all its vastness, has now become a bit of a lump in the throat for MAGA supporters.
These neck-hurting, tall structures, in all their supposed prowess, serve an end. An end that—while being a waste of public resources and space—carries symbolic meaning that stretches even further than the structures themselves.
They are less about utility and more about posturing. For modern nation-states, colossal structures are essentially a symbolic display of their machismo. To be the tallest, largest are a display of an aspiration to be counted as big in the global conversation. It arises out of a complex. If you apply Freudian analysis to this, it boils down to the oldest question: Who is bigger?
Symbols of a city
If one were to look around, especially in big cities, this Sisyphean pursuit of trying to immortalise one’s regime has found a very loyal fanbase. There is a 108-foot tall Hanuman statue in Delhi that pops up right outside the Blue Line metro and has become Bollywood’s favourite establishing shot for “struggling migrant arrives in the big city.” That statue was unveiled in 2007 and has been silently auditioning for background roles ever since.But let’s go back even further. At first there were domes. Glowing, pearly domes, visible from far away, dripping with grandeur and legacy and the general vibe of “history happened here.” So did this obsession really start with the Industrial Revolution, when production went on steroids and the world started dishing out magnanimous things like the Burj Khalifa, or the structure that has now become new-age Bollywood’s default hangout spot, Antilia? Or is this just the same old human itch, wearing newer, shinier concrete?
In India, a country that has been doing rather poorly on development metrics over the last decade, we have, quite impressively, been excelling at building very large things. Take Bharat Mandapam, a convention centre in the heart of Lutyens’ Delhi, unveiled just in time for the G20 Summit in 2023. It is sleek, stylish, and comes with a name firmly rooted in cultural gravitas. A neat little symbol of the new India in the making, one that seems increasingly keen to be Bharat more than India.
While travelling through Kerala, I was gently but persistently nudged by tourists to visit what they proudly advertised as the “largest bird sculpture” in the world at the Jatayu Earth Centre. A sculpture meant to “honour” a demi-god from the Ramayana. A millennia-old mythology, now accompanied by a very modern logistical question. How does one reach this monument? Drum roll, please. By heli-taxi. A helipad sits right in the middle of the wilderness, delivering equal parts spiritual elevation and Wakanda-lite vibes.
And more recently, the Prime Minister inaugurated a park called ‘Rashtra Prerna Sthal’, the latest addition to Lucknow’s competitive park scene. Uttar Pradesh has long treated parks as a political rite of passage. Mayawati, Akhilesh Yadav, and now Yogi. Acres were laid, statues were raised. This one comes with three 65-foot tall figures of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Deen Dayal Upadhyay, and Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee. If nothing else, it is a screaming illustration of what size means in the politics of symbolism. You build a 60-foot statue, I will build a 65-foot one.
Then there is the 125-foot tall Ambedkar statue in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, unveiled in 2023. It arrived at a politically convenient moment, just as the Congress-led INDIA bloc was running a relentless campaign to “save the Constitution” ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
I often board trains from a railway station in Bhopal that used to be called Habibganj and is now called Rani Kamalapati after a shiny makeover. The slick is there too. A massive structure that people say looks more like an airport than a railway station, except it has fewer benches, for people to sit on, than there were in the old Habibganj. Irony may have died many deaths, but this marriage of muscular nationalism and technocratic infrastructure lives on.
Until the Shiva Lingam finally reaches the pedestal it is meant to be propped on, we are left with just one question. Do we need any more giant structures? In the timeless words of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Ozymandias:
“Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
anyone remember Snowden revelations and Wikileaks? This is but the crystallisation of the Anglo Atlanticist elites goals to control everyone.
Nah. All this is rather tame compared to the pedo-cannibalism we now know they are capable of.
Really curious as to why they tried pushing this when no one, not even conservatives, like cancer causing asbestos.