Monday, May 19, 2014
"Girls und Panzer" Voice Pack No. 2 - Yukari Akiyama
Source: http://worldoftanks.asia/en/news/21/announce-gupmod-02/
"World of Tanks" Meets "Girls und Panzer" Voice Pack Part 2 is released!The second Voice Pack will feature Anglerfish Team's loader and a diehard tank enthusiast, Yukari Akiyama !
By installing this Voice Pack, the crew voices during your World of Tanks battles will be changed to Yukari 's voice.
The new character voice for this Voice Pack are all newly recorded and exclusive to this Voice Pack. Also, the Voice Pack is free for everyone to use, so everyone can enjoy Sensha-do with Yukari.
"Character Voice Pack No. 2 - Yukari Akiyama" can be downloaded from the World of Tanks Official Forum.Download here:
http://cdn-frm-sg.wargaming.net/wot/sg/uploads/monthly_05_2014/post-138-0-36118000-1400488005.zip
Saturday, May 17, 2014
[Asia Pacific] China - The Last Empire Expands
Source: https://medium.com/china-and-the-world/49025a8aa648
Written by
The
world’s last remaining empire is expanding. More than fifty years after
the European, Japanese, and American colonial powers largely abandoned
their holds on far-flung territories, and more than twenty years after
the Soviet collapse, one colonial power remains: China. To its portfolio
of Tibet, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, Beijing has now added the
near-entirety of the South China Sea. Why? Because it can. How? By
simply announcing it.
The U.S. and the nations
bordering the South China Sea are simply too hobbled or militarily weak
to stand up to China’s bald territory grab.
The Obama
administration appears, in public at least, not to hear the
announcement, continuing to refer instead to amorphous needs for freedom
of navigation and codes of conduct. But here is the crystalline
statement by China’s Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in early September:
“China has sovereignty over the islands in the South China Sea and the
adjacent waters.”
If that isn’t clear enough, an
earlier statement by China’s state news agency Xinhua in July was more
precise; a newly announced Chinese prefecture called Sansha, the Chinese
name for one of the Paracel Islands, will administer “2 million square
kilometers of water” in addition to the hundreds of islets and shoals
within the sea. That adds up to an expanse almost equal to the
Mediterranean.
It is no longer possible to pretend
that this annexation is something nuanced or limited, especially in
light of China’s recent printing of passports that include a map showing
the South China Sea as belonging to China, and the recent announcement
by the foreign affairs office of China’s Hainan Province that Chinese
ships would be allowed to search and deny transit to foreign vessels if
they were engaged in any “illegal activities” within the
12-nautical-mile zone surrounding any of the hundreds of islands claimed
by China.
How could the “peaceful rise” of an
inwardly focused China possibly lead to strident hegemony over other
territories? For decades, Western Sinologists and China’s communist
party leaders have framed the middle kingdom as a self-centered entity,
never on the hunt for foreign properties. If you lived in Boston or
Berkeley, the argument was more credible than if you lived in Lhasa,
Kashgar or Hohhot (or Vietnam in 1979, when Chinese forces invaded).
Beijing’s latest imperial move will bury the illusion of a self-occupied
benevolence.
The Chinese Communist Party and the
People’s Liberation Army Navy have been biding their time for this
moment. The South China Sea has long been a backwater of unresolved
borders, disputed exclusive economic zones, and competing claims on
fishing and petroleum rights. In addition to China, Vietnam, Malaysia,
Taiwan, the Philippines, and Brunei all have long-standing overlapping
claims. Why is it not still a sleepy backwater?
Two reasons: The muscling-up of China’s navy, and America’s epic military diversion to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Despite
its history of having a mostly ground-based military with marine
capabilities limited to its shores, over the past twenty years China has
built a major naval force with “blue water” reach, anchored by
substantial submarine bases at Ningbo, Qingdao (which U.S. Defense
Secretary Leon Panetta visited in September) and Sanya, the latter two
bases having underground sub facilities. The assortment of submarines is
complemented by 13 destroyers and 65 frigates, as well as
precision-guided ballistic and cruise missiles that the U.S. worries
could disable its aircraft carriers and bases in the region. Measured
against these advanced weapons, China’s recently launched relic of a
small aircraft carrier, the Varyag (renamed Liaoning), is nothing more
than a photo-op.
China’s newly expressed territorial
ambitions find support beyond the leadership of the Chinese Communist
Party, extending well into the national psyche. The CEO of China’s
state-controlled oil company Cnooc announced in August, vis-à-vis the
South China Sea, that “deep-water [oil] rigs are our mobile national
territory and a strategic weapon.”
In recent weeks the
South China Sea story has been overshadowed by heated frictions between
China and Japan regarding the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands in the East China
Sea. In this dispute China has a claim of ambiguous validity that can be
used to harness long-standing anti-Japan and nationalist sentiment, to
the benefit of a Chinese Communist Party that must legitimize itself.
This tussle provides two other benefits to Beijing—it keeps attention
off the South China Sea grab, and provides a robust warning to Vietnam,
Malaysia, Brunei, Taiwan and the Philippines of the consequences of
resisting.
What a difference a decade makes.
China’s
neighboring countries on the South China Sea have sailed through the
past decade with inadequate defense preparations, lulled by the
dissipating notion of a U.S. security umbrella.
The
Philippine government’s announcement in August that it is negotiating
with Italy to acquire two used Maestrale-class anti-sub cruisers,
possibly a year from now, illustrates the feebleness of its maritime
position. Two decommissioned coastguard cutters—stripped of weapons—that
have been recently transferred from the U.S. to the Philippine navy are
Manila’s most advanced ships.
The Scorpène-class
submarine sighted at dock by this observer in September at Malaysia’s
Sabah naval base still requires French naval personnel to operate
properly, according to a well-informed individual in Malaysia. (The
country received its first two submarines in 2009-2010, a procurement
that is now the subject of a corruption investigation in France.) One of
the submarines was deemed unable to submerge by the country’s defense
minister shortly after its delivery; the government now claims it can
dive.
Belatedly, Vietnam has begun a serious naval
rebuilding, deploying in 2011 its first two Gepard-class light frigates.
More significantly, in 2009 Vietnam ordered six Russian-built
kilo-class submarines, the first of which was launched for initial sea
trials four months ago at St. Petersburg. With their stealth
capabilities, extended combat range, and weapons for land and sea
strikes, these subs will markedly complicate Beijing’s regional naval
posture. But deliveries of the vessels are not likely to be completed
before 2016, which is all the more reason for an assertive Beijing to
make its South China Sea move now.
The nations in the
neighborhood are obviously weak compared to Beijing’s forces, so what
about the historical protector and stabilizer, the United States? Its
draining wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have created a decade-long vacuum
in East Asia. Beijing has likely calibrated its latest imperial move to
occur just prior to the U.S. military’s final extraction from
Afghanistan, after which the U.S. will theoretically have more
capabilities to deploy elsewhere.
Now the U.S. is
urgently trying to fill in the vacuum with a loudly broadcast “pivot”
that so far is more talk than substance. Will it be sufficient to deter
Beijing from taking a bite out of mineral-rich Mongolia on its northern
border, or colonizing rickety Myanmar to the south, with its
hydroelectric potential and Indian Ocean access? These questions are
open for consideration only because of the self-injurious actions of the
world’s current superpower over the past ten years.
An
overused phrase of officials in the administration that launched the
U.S. into the bog of Iraq was “Weakness is provocative.” With painful
irony, it is the debilitating lost decade in Iraq and Afghanistan that
enabled Beijing’s recent nimble territory grab. It is time to see the
Beijing Empire for what it is: a hegemon that has been emboldened by
America’s folly and is expanding.
Victor Robert Lee is the author of the debut spy novel Performance Anomalies, released by Perimeter Six Press in January 2013.
Friday, May 16, 2014
[Asia Pacific] U.S. warns China its actions in sea disputes are straining relations
REUTERS:
"U.S. warns China its actions in sea disputes are straining relations
(Reuters) - China's "provocative" actions in maritime disputes with its neighbors are straining ties with the United States, raising questions over how the world's two biggest economies can work together, a senior U.S. official said."
"Violence abates in Vietnam as U.S. warns China for 'provocation'
(Reuters) - Anti-China violence subsided in Vietnam on Friday after the prime minister called for calm, but the United States said China's "provocative" actions in maritime disputes were dangerous and had to stop."
USATODAY:
"Vietnam violence ups stakes for U.S.
WASHINGTON/BEIJING/HANOI – The outbreak of deadly protests against China in Vietnam raises the stakes for the United States, which has rallied behind Beijing’s neighbors but faces ugly new realities."
TUOITRENEWS:
"China uses vessels, fighter jet to bully Vietnam in oil rig tension
A photo collection by Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper’s two on-site journalists shows Chinese vessels and a fighter jet chasing, intimidating, and firing water cannons at Vietnamese ships around Beijing’s illegal oil rig Haiyang Shiyou 981 illegally placed in Vietnamese waters in the East Vietnam Sea."
Oh God ! China please stops bullying your own neighbor !
"U.S. warns China its actions in sea disputes are straining relations
(Reuters) - China's "provocative" actions in maritime disputes with its neighbors are straining ties with the United States, raising questions over how the world's two biggest economies can work together, a senior U.S. official said."
"Violence abates in Vietnam as U.S. warns China for 'provocation'
(Reuters) - Anti-China violence subsided in Vietnam on Friday after the prime minister called for calm, but the United States said China's "provocative" actions in maritime disputes were dangerous and had to stop."
USATODAY:
BEIJING — Vietnam's Prime Minister texted millions of citizens late
Thursday encouraging them to defend the nation's sovereignty in a
dispute with China over an oil rig that has left at least two Chinese
workers dead and injured a 100 more."
USNEWS:
Earlier this month in Vietnam, many residents chose to celebrate the
60th anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu victory over the French on the
beaches of Nha Trang. Yet while they sunbathed or splashed in the ocean,
few could have been aware that some 130 nautical miles off those same
waters, other Vietnamese were busy confronting a flotilla of some 80
Chinese ships."
GLOBALPOST:
Vietnam's de facto ambassador to Taiwan offered a personal apology to
Taiwan on Friday for substantial losses suffered by Taiwanese companies
in anti-China protests and violence in Vietnam."
THEJAPANTIME:
"Vietnam violence ups stakes for U.S.
WASHINGTON/BEIJING/HANOI – The outbreak of deadly protests against China in Vietnam raises the stakes for the United States, which has rallied behind Beijing’s neighbors but faces ugly new realities."
TUOITRENEWS:
"China uses vessels, fighter jet to bully Vietnam in oil rig tension
A photo collection by Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper’s two on-site journalists shows Chinese vessels and a fighter jet chasing, intimidating, and firing water cannons at Vietnamese ships around Beijing’s illegal oil rig Haiyang Shiyou 981 illegally placed in Vietnamese waters in the East Vietnam Sea."
Oh God ! China please stops bullying your own neighbor !
Thursday, May 15, 2014
[Asia Pacific] Chinese Action in South China Sea is 'Provocative': Susan Rice
Source: http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/chinese-action-in-south-china-sea-is-provocative-susan-rice-524700
NDTV:
"Washington: A top American official has said the recent Chinese action in South China Sea is provocative and unhelpful, warning Beijing against isolation over its tense standoff with Vietnam.
"We've been clear that what China has done vis-a-vis this latest incident of putting down an oil rig and both sides then employing shows of force to react in response to that is provocative and unhelpful," US National Security Advisor Susan Rice yesterday.
"What you saw beyond closed doors at the ASEAN meeting last weekend was a great deal of anxiety which doesn't serve China well. China has every interest in the countries of that region wanting to partner with it, not to be talking behind closed doors about how to counter it," Rice said in response to a question at a Women's Foreign Policy Group Discussion.
The US, she said, has been very clear that the only way to resolve these territorial disputes over sovereignty or through the mechanisms of international law and peaceful resolution, whether it's the Law of the Sea convention or other international legal instruments.
"We have never have, taken a position on the sovereignty of these disputed territories, but we have been very clear that provocative actions, intimidation, steps to create facts on the ground that complicate the prospect for diplomatic resolution are completely unhelpful," she said.
"That was the message that the president took, in part, during our recent trip to Asia. And it won wide support from each of the countries he visited, where in fact what we're seeing in Southeast Asia are countries that want good and constructive relationships with China, but are increasingly unnerved and put off by what they view as provocative and aggressive actions by China," she said.
One thing that can be said about China is it wants to be welcomed and accepted as a major player, not just in its own neighbourhood but on the global stage, Rice said.
"And to the extent that it is becoming more isolated and the subject of concern and opposition within its own neighbourhood can't be a welcome development from the Chinese point of view," she noted.
Rice said that having spent time recently in Asia and in Europe where the US has had very close consultation and communication with some of its closest allies and partners, she said: "I can tell you that they all continue to look to the US as their principal partner, friend and source of strength and protection. And those alliances are mutually reinforcing and mutually beneficial.""
NDTV:
"Washington: A top American official has said the recent Chinese action in South China Sea is provocative and unhelpful, warning Beijing against isolation over its tense standoff with Vietnam.
"We've been clear that what China has done vis-a-vis this latest incident of putting down an oil rig and both sides then employing shows of force to react in response to that is provocative and unhelpful," US National Security Advisor Susan Rice yesterday.
"What you saw beyond closed doors at the ASEAN meeting last weekend was a great deal of anxiety which doesn't serve China well. China has every interest in the countries of that region wanting to partner with it, not to be talking behind closed doors about how to counter it," Rice said in response to a question at a Women's Foreign Policy Group Discussion.
The US, she said, has been very clear that the only way to resolve these territorial disputes over sovereignty or through the mechanisms of international law and peaceful resolution, whether it's the Law of the Sea convention or other international legal instruments.
"We have never have, taken a position on the sovereignty of these disputed territories, but we have been very clear that provocative actions, intimidation, steps to create facts on the ground that complicate the prospect for diplomatic resolution are completely unhelpful," she said.
"That was the message that the president took, in part, during our recent trip to Asia. And it won wide support from each of the countries he visited, where in fact what we're seeing in Southeast Asia are countries that want good and constructive relationships with China, but are increasingly unnerved and put off by what they view as provocative and aggressive actions by China," she said.
One thing that can be said about China is it wants to be welcomed and accepted as a major player, not just in its own neighbourhood but on the global stage, Rice said.
"And to the extent that it is becoming more isolated and the subject of concern and opposition within its own neighbourhood can't be a welcome development from the Chinese point of view," she noted.
Rice said that having spent time recently in Asia and in Europe where the US has had very close consultation and communication with some of its closest allies and partners, she said: "I can tell you that they all continue to look to the US as their principal partner, friend and source of strength and protection. And those alliances are mutually reinforcing and mutually beneficial.""
[Asia Pacific] The Last Time China Got Into a Fight With Vietnam, It Was a Disaster
TIME:
"Current
Sino-Vietnamese tensions are merely the latest in a series of bitter
conflicts between the two countries. The last time Hanoi and Beijing
pushed each other to the brink, tens of thousands perished" (more details)
REUTERS:
"(Reuters) - The U.S.
navy renewed calls on Thursday for more ship visits to Vietnam against
the backdrop of a dramatic breakdown in relations between Vietnam and
its giant neighbor, China." (more details)
"(Reuters) - The
United States sees China's introduction of an oil rig and several
government vessels in waters disputed with Vietnam as "provocative",
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told China's foreign minister in a
telephone call on Monday." (more details)
"(Reuters) - More
than 20 people were killed in Vietnam and a huge foreign steel project
set ablaze as anti-China riots spread to the centre of the country a day
after arson and looting in the south, a doctor and company officials
said on Thursday." (more details)
NIKKEL:
"BEIJING -- An oil rig being built in waters also claimed by Vietnam is
among China's latest moves to tighten its grip over disputed territories
in the South China Sea, as it looks to both appease hawks in Beijing
and test the U.S.'s mettle." (more details)
 |
| China's construction on the disputed Johnson South Reef is one of the latest in a string of moves aimed at asserting greater control in the region. |
TUOITRENEWS:
The 'Atlas Universel de Geographie' (World Atlas of Geography) by
Belgian geographer/ cartographer Philippe Vandermaelen published back in
1827, which proves Vietnam’s sovereignty over its Hoang Sa (Paracel)
and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagos
(Ministry of Information and Communications)"
World on Fire Stream QA
Source:
http://world-of-ru.livejournal.com/3281269.html
For The Record
Hello everyone,
there was yet another WG stream and Maiorboltach from the RU LJ community was kind enough to post some tidbits said in it.
- Havok is closed to the end of the year than to today
- there will also be ammo rack special effects for TD’s and SPG’s (flames from crew hatches)
- in 9.1, new engine graphic effect will come (the amount of exhaust smoke will depend on the engine RPM)
- in 9.1, the tank explosion effect will be reworked (more smoke, more flames, new sound)
- the sound will be generally reworked a lot in 9.1
- it’s possible that the Stronghold mode will not appear in 9.1, since WG wants to fix bugs completely first
http://world-of-ru.livejournal.com/3281269.html
For The Record
Hello everyone,
there was yet another WG stream and Maiorboltach from the RU LJ community was kind enough to post some tidbits said in it.
- Havok is closed to the end of the year than to today
- there will also be ammo rack special effects for TD’s and SPG’s (flames from crew hatches)
- in 9.1, new engine graphic effect will come (the amount of exhaust smoke will depend on the engine RPM)
- in 9.1, the tank explosion effect will be reworked (more smoke, more flames, new sound)
- the sound will be generally reworked a lot in 9.1
- it’s possible that the Stronghold mode will not appear in 9.1, since WG wants to fix bugs completely first
9.1 Map Changes and New Map: Kharkov
Source:
wot-news.com
http://world-of-ru.livejournal.com/3279553.html
For The Record
Arctic Region
Windstorm
North-West
Tundra
Komarin
New Map: Kharkov
wot-news.com
http://world-of-ru.livejournal.com/3279553.html
For The Record
9.1 Map Changes:
Windstorm
North-West
Tundra
Komarin
New Map: Kharkov
[SEA] Client-Server Patch 9.0.4
Source: SEA Forum
Dear Players.
We appreciate your continued patience while we upgraded to the new 9.x foundation in preparation for future updates and features scheduled throughout the rest of the year,
Tanitha, on 23 April 2014 - 05:01 PM, said:
Dear Players.
Client-Server Patch 9.0.4 to ASIA realm will be released Friday 16th May (05.00-06.00 SGT)
And will make improvements to the following areas.
- ∙Fixed performance drop down when shooting automatic guns.
- ∙Fixed activation of EnableBalanceCPU setting that may cause kicking from server as well as server access issues in case of some CPU models.
- ∙Fixed some issues with minimum rendering range.
- ∙Fixed displaying of flat non-transparent surfaces of trees and bushes on some configurations.
- ∙Fixed memory leaks that may appear when displaying HD vehicles
- ∙Fixed some memory leaks and crashes
- ∙Improved performance on Hidden Village map.
We appreciate your continued patience while we upgraded to the new 9.x foundation in preparation for future updates and features scheduled throughout the rest of the year,
Tanitha, on 23 April 2014 - 05:01 PM, said:
Dear Players.
As you all
know 9.0 is an update which sets the foundation for all the future
updates and features scheduled for the rest of the year, some of which
being Havok, Strongholds, More Historical Battles, World of Fire
campaign, and many more new and exciting features to be announced
shortly.
There were
major functional changes that had to occur in this update to make way
for these future improvements. This unfortunately led to issues for some
players in the way of game instability. (Some crashes and some FPS
reduction).
We have already identified some of the issues and currently have a series of patches in progress and in QA testing.
These up coming patches will address many of the game crashes and issues currently in place.
We will get
these up coming patches out as soon as possible with regular frequency,
and each update will address multiple instability issues, until WOT is
back to the stable project you all enjoyed pre 9.0 but with the added
new improvements and features..
The first
patch 9.0.1 is currently estimated to arrive overnight Friday/Saturday,
so is likely to be installed very early Saturday morning on the Asia
server.
This date
and the content of the patch is not currently fixed, The date is subject
to change depending on QA testing, and the patch will include as many
fixes as are fully prepared by each update.
We are also
aware that some players have a reduction in FPS rates, we will be
releasing a guide to the new graphics settings shortly to help with
these issues short term, while we continue with optimization.
We apologize
for the disruption this update may have caused you, however we look
forward to the advances that this patch will allow.
Thank you all for your patience.
Best Regards
Tanitha
World of Tanks Producer - Asia
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