In 2016, having the remarkable experience of being really happy with a refurbished 2011 Apple iMac, at under half the price of a new one, I am looking into the purchase of an apple factory refurbished 5S iphone. 600 dollars cheaper than a new iphone. In CAIRNS, over 25 years, i have never actually needed a mobile phone at all, but Im thinking it may be a useful thing in Melbourne. I think we should all take up technology with sufficient wisdom to know, as is true, that mostly the new technologies simply dont deliver anything useful for about at least 5 to 10 years between models. This is usually how long things usually take, unless you enjoy disappointment as a way of life. Personal human development obviously takes decades longer than that...and hasn't changed its speed in at least a thousand years, at each essential generic individuated step. Unfortunately, there are no specials or bargains with that. As time goes by, we are all refurbished by these years, by ourselves, to some small extent, as individuals, but still yet mostly as our designers see fit to release or re-release us onto the market.

SOUTH KOREA (ROK): ROK might have to increase defense spending under Trump: minister

ROK might have to increase defense spending under Trump: minister

MND refutes statement, insists South Korea's contributions are adequate

Dagyum Ji 

November 22nd, 2016

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South Korea will have to accept an increase in defense burden-sharing for the U.S. Armed Forces in Korea (USFK) if Donald Trump’s incoming U.S. administration demands it, the head of Seoul’s arms procurement agency admitted on Monday.

The U.S. President-elect has urged American allies to carry a larger defense burden and his campaign’s rhetoric suggests it might happen after his inauguration, Chang Myoung-jin, South Korean Minister of Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), told a seminar in Washington.

“If there is a ‘huge demand’ for more burden on the part of the ROK (Republic of Korea), I think Korea will ‘inevitably have to’ embrace that,” Chang said.

Speaking at a conference co-hosted by Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Chang said the increase in the defense budget would bring about “a lot of resistance,” as the South Korean government would have to cut back on other areas, including on welfare.

“If that ever happens, the ROK government will place ourselves in a dilemma, but our focus and priority will have to be on defense, in my personal view,” he said.

DAPA on Tuesday offered an apology as Chang’s remarks drew heated debate. The agency argued Chang meant to say that it was “a matter for further consultation” if the next U.S. administration called on the South to pay an increased share of defense costs for the American troops stationed in the country.

The South’s Ministry of National Defense (MND) on Tuesday voiced opposition to Chang’s stance on burden sharing.

“The remarks were inappropriate,” MND spokesperson Moon Sang-gyun told reporters. “Our government shares its defense costs at the optimum level.”

Song Min-soon, President of the University of North Korean Studies (UNKS) in Seoul, argued that the U.S. and the South should negotiate new defense cost sharing “publicly, based upon the objective numerical index.”

“South Korea has domestically tried to avoid giving the impression of supporting excessive expenses since the first time the South officially provided maintenance costs for the USFK in 1991,” Song, a former South Korean foreign minister, said on Tuesday at the 59th Unification Strategy Forum held by the Institute for Far Eastern Studies in Seoul.

Speaking at the forum, another South Korean expert at MND-affiliate research institute reiterated that President-elect Trump may demand the South take on significantly more of the costs of American military presence in South Korea.

“According to Trump’s remarks, the U.S. will call on the South to pay 100 percent of the stationing costs for the USFK”, Suh Choo-suk, Senior Research Fellow at Korea Institute for Defense Analyses (KIDA), said.

Suh said the new stationing costs are estimated to come to $18.3 billion, based on data released by American Action Forum (AAF) on November 11: 2.4 times higher than South Korea’s current spending.

“Trump may consider the option of withdrawing the stationing troops if there is no increase in the defense budget-sharing,” Suh said.

Featured Image: U.S. Armed Forces in Korea (USFK)

I think that if you are going to have challenging therapeutic groups in mental health clinics, then everyone should wear a onesie of their own choosing. I see this as a human right.

This is how I expect Mrs Fitz and I will appear as we drive across the border from New South Wales into Victoria...the only difference will be that we will be also wearing Duck-bill surgical Masks...not being paranoid or OCD at all, but It's the only way to be sure these days...

Mind you, carrying a spear gun in your back pack also helps.

A few stray packing boxes have begun to appear in the house, like eagles dropping kittens onto the balcony...like some arcane Roman Omen of Change. Also, there is more floating dust particles in the lounge room. If one has OCD, then one does notice these discrete harbingers.

I knew a guy who drove buses in Rockhampton, Queensland. He liked his job and had done it all his working life. A few years before retirement he thought about what he may have missed out on in his life, but he couldn't come up with any thing much. Except for one...he'd always wanted to be able to sing well...just a few songs. His voice was pretty awful, but, he decided to go to a singer tutor and he did the various voice exercises and learnt hard at 60 years of age. After a year of singing lessons, he was still driving the bus and yet could now sing 5 songs, 3 popular songs and two semi-operatic songs, in pretty close to perfect pitch.

He knew he had it in him.

I think the world is okay just as it is, as long as people stop using the word 'appropriate' altogether.