2020hindsight comments

Hydroelectric may not be practical either in an earthquake-prone nation because dams and other water containment structures could fail in a sudden and spectacular way.

Easy, just don't locate it on a fault line.

I like the number of experts on this tread that say that solar power is viable. It isn't.

cleo

Two things that turn me off a man are the testosterone-fueled 'tough guy' image, the tendency to call the better-groomed 'ladyboys' and pride in a 'masculine' hairy back.

As yes, I'm pretty sure you prefer non-meat eating herbivores... ;-)

Men are hairy? White men mostly. I am mixed race with almost no hair any where and women love it. But being in shape helps that too. And it ain't a testosterone thing either.

High testosterone = Bald

I must admit that the J-scout hairdo thing that these guys wear is strange to me. They don't project masculinity. It projects 'someone who spends too much time in the mirror'. But yeah, that's metrosexual I guess.

That's OK. I think women look for something else, so let these guys preen themselves. I think guys who groom naturally will be more successful.

well one thing they have in common.. all did the deeds in the US. Maybe the air there is contagious.

The point being they got caught in the US. In Europe, it's not treated as such a big deal and if DSK got caught doing what he did in Europe, the consequences would probably not be as severe.

Look at Silvio Berlusconi... I wonder if he will finally go down for his (more outrageous) transgressions or he'll dodge that one as well.

Now if the woman had been allowed to legally have a gun in her home, she might well have managed to shoot this creep when he came at her with a knife, or he might have thought twice before trying this.

Oh no, Japan doesn't need to go there. No guns is the only sensible policy. Look at death rates in the US due to too many people having guns. Scary.

I hope she is OK. The guy was obsessed and needed someone to snap him out of it. Maybe Caesar Milan could have helped.

Hmm, she may have had Alzheimers...

I did the math...I actually took a picture of a car coming toward me at about 77 kms with my cell phone. It came out clear. If I took a picture of jet moving faster coming toward me, it would probably come out clear too.

I can't see any math that you have been doing here.

500mph is over 700ft/s, so if the frame rate is 24 fps the plane has traveled 25+ feet during the exposure of that frame. It would be a blur at the very best and may not show up at all.

Now there is some math.

But who cares if there are or there aren't any photos. You know a plane smacked into the Pentagon from the aftermath. You know, plane bits lying around and stuff.

It's pretty hard to argue with someone who believes that a lack of evidence supporting their theory is actually evidence of how good a conspiracy it is.

A favorite saying of mine: "You can't reason someone out of a position that they didn't reason themselves into in the first place." It pretty much sums up conspiracy theorists.

"the paranoid mind is far more coherent than the real world." Richard Hofstadter

Spoony

And what about the people that DID trust Tepco and the Government, that they were being forthright about the issues and possible meltdown at Fukushima in the early days. Now the Conspiracy theorists are being proven right.. Tepco lied and there was a meltdown.

1- Nobody ever trusted TEPCO.

2- Conspiracy theorists are not being proven right. TEPCO didn't lie.

3- TEPCO only found out about the meltdown days ago, so no withholding of information.

I think the point was that the parents should have taught them some moral values, not that they should have followed them around everywhere.

Sorry, I thought you were blaming the poor boy's parents. Agree.

Responsibility for this falls straight on the absent parents.

I wouldn't say so. At 14 my parents didn't accompany me to and from soccer practice. I went by myself.

Acupuncture (Eastern) and blood letting (Western) were techniques that were used in the past based on what they thought at the time. These days they know more. So that's why blood letting isn't practiced these days. Not sure why acupuncture still is because it has been proven to be as bogus as blood letting. I guess it has the distinction as being one of the best placebos.

A mix of eastern(preventative) and western for serious cases is best, IMHO.

I would agree, if the Eastern medicine is proven to work by careful scientific studies. There may be kampo out there that works and if so, create well designed studies to determine if does work and publish them for peer review. At that stage I will believe.

Many such studies have been published for acupuncture and the conclusions are at best a good placebo. The placebo effect tends to be better the more intrusive it is. So needles are better than sugar pills.

Please, show where the articles gone wrong.

Don't believe everything you read on the InterWebs. Especially if they have an agenda. If you want to read high quality impartial reviews of alternative medecines, you could do worse than reading what the Cochrane Collaboration come up with.

Google Cochrane Collaboration and when at their site, search acupuncture. The have the results of many studies.

what YOU don't get that the approaches/benefit are different and serve different needs.

Really? Can you elaborate about why?

Wrong there, check the findings from Universities worldwide.

That's the thing. Many studies have been made on acupuncture, but not by the practitioners of acupuncture. Because if they did, they would find out that acupuncture is purely placebo effect.

Traditional meds can be found in native cuisine, spices, etc too, there are reasons why certain foods and spices are used seasonally only. Next time you use a room-refresher or a bath-additive ask why it works.

OK, it's true that many traditional remedies work and that's why they use them. Willow bark was known as a pain killer for many years. After some research apsrin was invented based on willow bark. The difference is that western medicine has a rigorous approach on studying the results of remedies that eastern medicine lacks.

Most of the western medicine comes from traditional/native medicines.

Yes. True. However, the difference is that western medicine works. The difference being a solid process of ensuring the efficacy of treatments that eastern medicine lacks. Acupuncture, homeopathy, herbal medicine have been proven to be completely bogus.

Why not Best Cottonist?

Personally I think fuel is part of their overall costs and should be included in the total price of the ticket.

Totally agree. It's not as if I can say, 'I think I'll not bother with the optional extra of fuel' and pay a lower price.

Just factor it into the total price of the ticket and be done.

may as well run this photo as a recruitment advert for anti-US terrorists. This won't be seen as a defeat and watching these morons whoop and hollering will just stoke the fire further.

Agree. Look what happened when there was a rumor of a Koran burning. We don't need to add any more gasoline. Expect reprisals.

Apparently, Bin Laden's body was already been given a sea burial, within accordance of Islamic rituals, apparently to prevent anyone from recovering it.

Don't believe everything you read on the InterWebs.

Absolutely sickening. I don't care who the man was -- and he was without a doubt among the worst (if not THE worst) scum on the planet -- you don't go out and celebrate a person's murder with parades and fireworks or what have you.

Couldn't agree more. I'm glad that he's dead because it will bring closure to a lot of people and he can't terrorize anymore. But to party about it...

Don't these guys have anything other else than rating others!!

No they don't. They're a ratings agency. That's what they do.

It must be terrible for them. In the first place having the disease, but then having the ridicule heaped on them. I can see how this could make the effects of the disease worse.

In the 70's in New Zealand, guess what the most controversial power projects were? Yes, you guessed it: hydo-electric power. Big environmental change. The big environmental concern now is carbon and global warming. Nuclear is a clear winner here because it doesn't emit greenhouse gasses. Wind and solar are not going to make a dent in the energy footprint anytime soon.

Two of the whistle blowers have spoken and written in detail on TEPCO activities, including forging test data, covering up the malformation of a reactor containment vessel, editing damage/ fault videos, falsifying welding tests, etc.. One admitted to taking part in the covering up.

Yes, but this is old news and not relevant to the current crisis.

J-SOX also exists therefore if the CEO and other top executives do not take responsibility for this disaster, who should?

Yes, but that is only a financial law. Probably doesn't include engineering items. TEPCO have been found guilty before and reprimanded. In this case I can't see where they have been negligent. I would say they are not.

piglet

Let me remember you a few things:

They covered-up some malfunctioning parts and filled falsified reports (on this fact alone, criminal charges can be brought)

They refused to take into account some of the reports and recommendations to reevaluate the risks

They did not comply with the Labour Standards Law (hired minors, did not respect the hiring rules, ....)

There might be some links for organized crime in some cases (some former employees were "convinced" to keep quiet).

They did not respect many of the Nuclear Safety rules

Yes, but this is old news and has nothing to do with the current crisis.

A real journalist.

A real idiot more like it.

Key word here for the moment is "allegedly". Maybe he did, maybe he didn't, who knows.

Well, if he didn't I think he should come up with a better defense than "I can't remember".