AlternateUniverse comments

sweeping many victims away as they slept.

So does the prediction include a failure to issue a tsunami alert, or does it assume a great number will go back to sleep, or what?

If I lived on the coast, and I felt a quake, I don't think I would be hanging around waiting for a tsunami alert. The hell of it is, you won't feel the quake if it was thousands of miles away and sent a tsunami your direction.

When was the last time a tsunami hit the west coast of Japan?

Thank you Aspara! I should have said east coast.

“He can’t fix the economy because he doesn’t know how it was built,” Boehner said to roars of approval.

Anyone who thinks a pack of politicians, much less two, can fix the economy, does not know how the economy was built.

He may however know how to get a room full of morons worked up with words.

Horrible. We shall see about that bit about the brakes failing.

Preventative action for a tsunami is not really all that hard. The answer is to MOVE INLAND. I would not live within sight of the west coast of Japan if it was all expenses paid, not even on a mountaintop (got to come down sometime!)

One of the big questions being skated around here is if these Afghan soldiers are doing this of their own accord or being blackmailed or promised money to do this by some group.

People and super heroes move on.

Glad to see the one man/one woman/one love dopey ideal dumped. Goodbye Lois Lane. Goodbye Bruce Wayne. Superman and Wonderwoman are moving on and found eachother...until they too break up and move on again.

New love is a wonderful thing. To each their own. Not knocking permanent monogamy here. Just saying that as an ideal, for most of us, its the road to extreme disappointment boredom. For those that find it, great, but its no better than what anybody else has.

I am not really sure its a racial thing so much. Back in the 18th century, everything French was in vogue. If the French were black, I have no doubt people of the world, men and women alike, would have used dark make-up instead of white, to emulate the French.

White faces say "America" to the Japanese. That's about it.

They need to just completely reopen the case of the murder and stop dragging their feet. The woman was murdered in 1997 for Pete's sake!

Its not really about bullying. Its about a lack of acceptance and a lack of freedom to pursue their personal dreams and desires. A child or teen who has those things can brush off bullying, and also won't run away from home.

Trouble is, even the foreigners posting here generally have trouble accepting what acceptance can mean, and what dreams and desires young people have. The parents and boards of education here are even less open minded.

Japan is not the only country with which China is triggering territorials disputes

And Japan has territorial disputes with ALL her neighbors. Every last one! China just has more neighbors. China is dead center of Asia. Japan is just an island chain on the edge.

And China did not trigger all disputes. Everyone in these disputes holds some guilt. Anyone with an eye truth can see that. Anyone pointing fingers at only one has interest in the truth.

Clinton needs to stop giving lip service to slogans of peace

Slogans? Aside from some words, some trespassing, and some boats bumping into each other, there is peace! You have something against peace?

SemperFi, be always loyal to truth and peace, not governments and men.

There is almost a nice view on the floor panels!

If this drags out any slower, not only will the polonium have decayed, but so will I!

This must be the 8th article talking about a big help in the search for alien life I have seen in the last 3 years. And we still have not found any.

Could we tone it down, just a notch. I don't much like hype.

cue paranoid drivel about radiation...

At least one incinerator has already reported ash over allowed radiation limits. Its in Kashiwa. They could not even contain and store the ash. http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/radioactive-ash-causes-shutdown-of-kashiwa-incinerators

Did you explain the geography, the location of Iwate-ken with reference to Fukushima to your sister?

Maybe he did, explaining that Japan is the size of an American state, and a prefecture is the size of county. Its not really so hard to think that since the main plume of the explosion went northwest with the wind, that plenty of radioactive materials might have traveled straight north, over one county and into another, since we have been told that is how Kashiwa, to the south, got their hotspots. (Kashiwa again!) And do you know which way Pacific currents flow in Japan? That's right, north from Fukushima to Iwate! What has been picked up since 3/11 has had plenty of time to get contaminated with the sea water that was dumped into the ocean from the Fukushima reactors.

All it is going to take is a few greedy, careless people with some greedy, careless friends working night shift at the incinerator for some stuff to get burnt that shouldn't.

And there is no reason to move anything from such an empty place as Iwate to be burnt anyway, except again, greed. There is big money to be had in transporting and burning, and none to be had in piling it up on some empty useless mountain land away from everybody within Iwate to be disposed of locally and slowly.

When you do things for no good reason, bad things happen. Like in Kashiwa. Did the radioactive particles fly there by themselves you think? Or was it related to the incinerator? Paranoid drivel you say? When you live in Oz, its not at all strange to wonder what the hell is behind the curtain, and not trust the wizard.

and further promoting the sexual degradation of young women in Japan.

Sounds like mindless repetition of a slogan with little to no thought behind it to me. I cannot tell you if I ever saw a woman "sexually degraded". Degraded sexually, yes, but not "sexually degraded". What does that even mean?

Some women have assets valuable to men. If they choose to cash in on those assets, so what? Its an option like any other, and they have many more.

Mostly I am wondering how badly the combination of all that neon and straining to see the ladies damages the eyes.

Far be it for me to diss robotic women. I just hope for them to be more practical and soft to the touch.

What, are they trying to catch up with Iran and China?

Given Iraq's past, they may be ahead of Iran already. They don't get a clean slate just because Saddam is gone. And this news shows why.

Whats with the slick hair look?

Elementary. Her husband likes big hair!

She retired. That is the proper English word for it.

If a man failed to take care of his own funeral plans and expenses, and the relative charged with his care wants to bury him in the mountains, why not give him permission and call it a day?

Heck, how about a ban on Hollywood movies where they use tons of gasoline blowing up stuff, lol.

Or just require CG effects from now on? Sounds good!

Just because I said ban Humvees does not mean I want to do it totalitarian style. I would be happy with banning sales of new ones and leave the ones on the road today alone. The average joe does not need a humvee or 3/4 ton any more than he needs handgrenades. Still plenty of ways to make up for having a mini-sausage without them.

I think this is kind of asking the wrong questions. I have not forgotten my culture. I have learned and adapted myself to the point where I accept what is better and reject what is worse whereever I am, something like Lawrence of Arabia refused to shake hands with anyone because it just isn't clean.

More neutral things I might not do reflexively, but that does not mean I have forgotten. I am just not in that particular groove. But for me not much is neutral. Generally something is better and I do it whether it is the local culture or not.

For example, my tastes in food have changed, but it is because of experiencing more variety and having a better understanding of what is actually good. I sure do not fancy cheap American chocolate as I once did. Of course just aging might have an effect as well. Hard to say. I still crave soda even though I am no longer addicted to caffeine. Never drink tea.

The taste in women thing is also hard to tell. But I tend to think its less to do with exposure to culture and more to do with natural changes as you age and also and again, experience.

I used to like the hourglass shape. My dad always liked slender, but he never left America. Never understood him until several years ago. Now I also like slender, but not boney. But I have been in and out of Japan for a very long time. And while I always did like short, I was attracted to meatier women when I first came, rare as they may be in Japan. I dated a few. So maybe now I just want something new. But I don't think the culture has affected me much if any on that score. I still like dark skin, even though I appreciate light skin more than before.

I always wonder what my tastes would be like in a situation of complete freedom where I could try any woman I see. That would be the only way to know my true tastes unaffected by anything. Unfortunately, I will never know.

I am willing to believe that certain kinds of pollution could help drive a food chain. After all, poop in the water would also be pollution, but the catfish would love it.

But to suggest it was natural or good or should be continued or renewed? Forget it. If they need to feed the ecosystem clean nutrients to get more fish, okay. We do that on farm land every day. But just have industry dump their waste again? No.

The idea of a free market is that the consumers decide and companies provide what the consumers demand.

Maybe you should take some time to also look into the ideas of mass extinction?

I don't see nukes, fully automatic assault rifles, or cyanide on the free market either.

And you cannot drive certain vehicles if they don't pass emission standards.

Fact is, total freedom is not possible. Try it, and you get a pirate ship, or Somalia. Rules and restrictions are necessary to a point, or it all collapses. Horribly polluting vehicles are just not worth the enviromental degredation. Sorry.

Here we go. Its the governments going at it, not the countries. Hate both governments all you like. Ordinary Chinese and Japanese citizens and businessmen should still remain friendly.

The article seems to want us to believe that the natural source of nitrogen and phosphorus was industrial pollution.

Not buying it.

What tack will she take in her speeches I wonder? Truth and justice? Biased support of allies? Diplomatic feel-good nonsense?

I really can't say. I just wish it was going to be straight truth and justice for sure, and to hell with people's petty pride and little feelings.

Its about time. But we also need a ban on rampant gas guzzlers like the Humvee...today.

Plus we need to crack down on industry much more than personal transportation. Industry is where most of the greenhouse gas emissions come from, along with all the other environmental pollution.

Cesium seems to be the only thing the government and TEPCO know about. Packs of useless morons.