Airion comments

Evidently some people don't realize that Funashi is not a mascot. He's a parody of mascots. The hideousness is the joke.

4K resolution isn't going to benefit most people. You need a very large screen and/or sit very close.

More than 4K broadcasts, I think 4K panels will be good for high quality glasses-free 3D.

Seems like everyone has a different idea of what Godzilla should be. I think these fans should just relax and watch the film to enjoy it rather than to judge it. And definitely don't judge it based on a trailer.

As the article says, they made 438.65 billion yen in a year, but lost 685.3 billion yen the year before.

The fact is, they need to make money in order to compensate the victims and continue the clean up. Thinking simplistically, every yen of profit should go to paying for those. Realistically, that would mean they permanently operate on the brink of financial collapse. One temporary dip in the market and they'd be needing another bailout from the government.

If it turns out that executives are taking bonuses because of this, then that's another thing. But generally speaking, it's important that the company can make money to fulfill it's many obligations in the years to come, and do so without further bailouts.

The US wrote Article 9, but Japan has owned it and they've chosen to keep it- so far at least. So that part makes sense to me.

I'm not sure where I fall on this issue, but I have to admit that it's a smart campaign, whether it gets the prize or not. Just getting people to think about if it deserves the prize is a win for them.

This doesn't mean you now have to love TEPCO or nuclear power, but at least accept it for what it is: genuinely good news.

I think we should applaud the J-league and Urawa Reds for these actions in response to a few xenophobic racists. No one is making excuses. They're not ignoring the problem or trying to divert attention away from it. Quite the opposite in fact.

StormR, that sentence you quoted does look ripe for misunderstanding, but I think the president was simply stating the facts of the case rather than endorsing what happened.

Good for them, deciding to trust science and help people rather be consumed with blind fear.

Basic necessities such as food are good if they can be delivered where they're needed in the hours and days following a disaster. After a few weeks though, money is the most helpful aid. Dealing with the storage and disposal of unnecessary or unusable aid is an unfortunate added logistical headache for them to deal with. I think more people should be made aware of this. It will enable those who want to help to be more helpful.

The internal clock of teenagers is not the same as young children or adults. Leaving home at 6:00 would be like leaving home at 4:00 or earlier for an adult. Unfortunately most people (coaches, teachers, parents) who are responsible for telling the students when to come to school aren't aware of that scientific fact. Good on the Nagano legislators for paying attention to how the students are feeling and taking it seriously.

I think that's a good comparison, Kubotasan.

Problems are revealed daily, but that's going to continue until the site is decommissioned and fully decontaminated. I think people need to take a step back and take a wider view, instead of getting upset every day about every setback (especially today's here, which is trivial). Compare the situation now to what it was in the hours, days, and weeks following the tsunami, when things were most definitely out of control. Relatively speaking, it's under control now. But far from over.

This barrier is around undamaged reactors and there's no contaminated water being stored there. This barrier probably isn't very necessary in the first place. But a hole was found, TEPCO reported it, and presumably it'll be fixed.

There's a lot of serious issues going with TEPCO and the plant. This isn't one of them.

Very well said, both Thunderbird2 and Disillusioned!

Clearly there's a proble, but haha, some of the comments here. We hear of a little steam, and we're off the deep end. Conspiracies! Massive explosions! (Read below for more.)

Yakuza are not the only people that have tatoos. That says it all to me. It's a stupid rule.

Evidently the onsen operators were afraid that their Japanese patrons would see the woman and think "that foreigner is a yakuza!" Common sense says she's obviously not a yakuza, and no one would think so. This kind of rigid thinking this tatoos needs to go, especially when the misconceptions of others are deemed more important than an individual's identity and rights.

My problem with the (first) cartoon is that it's neither funny nor clever. If it was actually funny, I'd agree that Japanese officials should lighten up, but it's not. It's all good to shine light on the Fukushima problem, but mostly it looks to me like the French here just being jerks about it. I'm afraid that will be counterproductive.

Considering there's a good chance he made the story up, I wouldn't use this to analyze Japanese society and culture.

Imagine the blisters he'd get and how difficult it would be to keep up the pace day after day. This trading card game collector probably didn't do your survival training.

Possible, yes. Plausible, I think no.

At 7km per hour he would have to walk at that pace for an average of 18 hours a day. He wouldn't have anything else to do other than walk and sleep a little, but it would be quite the physical feat for someone who had no plans to do so, and do it with only 2000 yen for provisions.

It's more likely there's more to the story, such as some hitchhiking mixed in.

I researched a little to find out how far a healthy person could walk in a day. At 3 miles (4.8 km) per hour, walking 24 hours every day, you could cover these 1400 kilometers in 12 days. For a lot of reasons, this isn't realistic.

Moderator: It is a true story.

Unfortunately the article doesn't actually answer the question of "how dangerous?" Perhaps that isn't really known at this point.

This usefulness of this technology relies on a major seismic event being identified and transmitted very fast. By definition it can't wait for people to patiently confirm it. Too late. This is very difficult, cutting edge technology. It's not surprising that we got a false alarm.

It worked on 3.11, as well as numerous times since then. I'd say if it's accurate about a moderate or stronger earthquake half the time, it will be worth it. The danger is if there are too many false alarms or warnings for minor quakes. In that case, people will learn to ignore it.

So far it still works for me. When I hear that tone from the TV or my cellphone, I find I'm preparing (turning off the stove, opening the front door, etc) before I really grasp what's going on. It works on an instinctual level. Scary and stressful, but life saving.

Squirrel!!

:-O

I don't think people are trying to "defend" the 787. They're just trying to keep things in perspective and not get carried away with the media.

Yes, I read the article. I found it unfortunate that the tone of the article is on the side radiation paranoia.

Personally I don't worry about Fukushima products. There's no 100% guarantee that it's 100% safe, but no food ever is. If others feel there's a risk, that's fine, it's everyone's own choice to make.

Good on Abe for putting science before fear.

Shiningfinger-

You should read the last 3 paragraphs of the link Laguna gave.

Generally speaking, you shouldn't apply anecdotal experiences to this crash, because it's an exceedingly rare event. If you truly believe you have useful knowledge, share it with the investigation. Otherwise, don't blow smoke.

Thunderbird2, while I agree that the Concorde crash was mostly due to bad luck, you should Google "concorde incidents." It had its share of prior problems and incidents. The 787 is not unique in this regard.