ambrosia comments

Wc626: Bicycles? Wow, really? Why not focus their efforts on Bosozuka like Bloodaxe mentioned. Im sure they're shadier than the average citizen on a friggn' bicycle.

Where in the article does it say that they won't continue to arrest Bosozuka who break the law? Where in the article does it say that they can only focus on one type of law-breaker? Just because a law has been passed outlining what behavior is not allowed whilst on a bicycle and what the punishment will be for breaking said law, does not mean people breaking other laws will get a pass. Do robbers get a pass because murder is a more serious crime? Do the police where ever you're from only deal with people breaking one specific law? How hard is it to understand that the police can actually deal with a gamut of law breakers and the enactment of this law doesn't come at the expense of dealing with other illegal behavior? Bicyclists may be low down the criminal pecking order but those who ride illegally not only create a great deal of daily stress for pedestrians and drivers but they also injure (and on occasion kill) pedestrians and cause traffic accidents. They shouldn't continue getting a pass just because there are more serious crimes. They may not bother you but if you read the comments whenever this topic comes up, you'll get a good idea of the near misses, accidents, injuries and headaches they cause many, many of the other posters.

It's ME: So are taking photos while holding a tamed Koala or similar. ;)

That's a fair question but birds are meant to fly. That's what most of us love and admire about them; their ability to reach heights and soar majestically. Something we mere humans can only imagine being able to do. I can't imagine these owls are getting much flying time in, even when the cafe is closed, can you? At least a koala can still hang out in a tree much of the day, even if people do spend time holding it and taking photos with it.

Cyclists who don't follow the - already established rules - or common sense, put themselves, pedestrians and drivers at risk. If you have to slam your brakes on because some stupid cyclist has just come out in front of you, you risk having the car behind you slam into you. That's dangerous and preventable.

maxjpank: I wish the police would make more of an effort to stop motorists ignoring red traffic signals, instead of focusing on the much easier to bully cyclists.

You find that to be true because it is. Numerous studies have proven this to be true and still, many people I talk to here about this, refuse to believe it.

http://brenthugh.com/piano/bikesafetyfactsheet.html https://onelesscar.wordpress.com/2008/06/11/risks-of-sidewalk-versus-road-bicycling/ http://www.bike.cornell.edu/pdfs/Sidewalk_biking_FAQ.pdf

Sensato: I wish they would do something about those cyclist riding on often-crowded sidewalks who, silently, come right up behind pedestrians and then suddenly ring their bell incessantly. This has happened to me many times, and I jump out of my skin every time.

It is illegal to ring your bell, except in the case of an emergency and I don't think "Get out of my way! I want to go faster." qualifies as an emergency. As with most cycling laws here, it's a matter of lack of enforcement.

FrankThornton: They should start by teaching the police how to ride a bicycle.

That would help but the ideal would be to teach children how to ride properly and to encourage them to do so. I honestly think that for most adults, the concept of using common sense and obeying the laws (of which they usually know nothing), is a lost cause. Sort the kids out, make sure their parents are fined heavily when the young ones break the cycling laws and eventually cyclists here will learn.

kickboard: A bit ironic considering the brits are usually the first ones to pull out the racism card.

A bit ironic anyone is complaining at all considering you can buy sumo costumes at Tokyu Hands, or are those only intended for Japanese customers?

Call it whatever you want, army, peace keeping force, self-defense force, whatever but Japan's got the 6th largest military budget in the world.

Additionally, the nation reserves the right to defend itself. I'm not saying that's a bad thing but the definition of pacifism is the belief that it is wrong to settle disputes with war or violence. If attacked, Japan can and should defend itself, and would be within it's constitutional rights to do so. Having said that, how does that make them pacifists?

"I wanted to show that one could eradicate these pesky felines. I recognize that uploading that clip was brash, and I've since reflected on the callousness of my actions," he was quoted as saying.

Is he apologizing for killing the cat or posting the video of him killing the cat?

Those smoking rooms are disgusting. Not only are they often placed in the same area as vending machines, stinking up the immediate area around them and making you want to run in and out of the vending machine area as quickly as possible, but the people who use them stink to high heaven. I hate working with people who go into those stupid smoking rooms because they just reek. It'd be far better if they went out by a back door and smoked outside so the smell would dissipate a bit.

myjt2014: He is not a dirty old man, he just need some companionship.

Then he should get it from someone who reciprocates his feelings.

Not that he harassed or stalked someone haft of his age, for god shake she is 80.

So, what's your point? Is it okay to stalk and harass someone who's elderly?

Not sure what she got on mind but still play hard to get at the age of 80 it is a hard act to follow.

Seriously? Rejecting unwanted advances amounts to "playing hard to get"? If you're serious, I strongly suggest you get some counseling before you find yourself in a heap of trouble because that is some sick thinking.

Magnus Roe, I agree. You don't get a pass on stalking, breaking and entering and scaring someone just because you're elderly. You don't know what kind of physical condition he's in or how strong he is. The woman was in the hospital so we may assume that at 80, she may well have been no match for him had he tried to harm her in any way. My sister's father-in-law was chopping wood, shoveling and cutting the grass into his early 90s. This man may be lonely but he clearly has no idea what is acceptable behavior.

It was a swimming class. How big of a pool was this that 53 kids were in it at the same time and able to learn to swim? There should never have been that many kids in the pool at the same time with only two adults to supervise them. If one or both of the teachers were in the pool with the kids that's even worse because their overview of the pool would have been severely limited. To say this was just an accident is wrong and that kind of attitude is what prevents people from actually thinking for themselves and using a little foresight to prevent such a tragedy from happening. What people lazily like to call "accidents" are usually the result of carelessness, stupidity and cowardliness.

Isn't # 3 just a courier? In any event, #s 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 certainly exist outside Japan. As for #2, it's a job pretty much because Mr. Uchibori says it is. While I don't know what his qualifications are, there are other "vinegar experts" out there. So much for another "Oh! Isn't Japan just so crazy and unique?" column.

http://www.intota.com/experts.asp?strSearchType=all&strQuery=vinegar

comanteer: Not so sure about that. It's easy to be an expert when it's all hypothetical.

Sorry, but having kids doesn't make you an expert on kids either. It doesn't even seem to make many parents an expert on their own kids. Sensible people, those with children and those without, understand and acknowledge that.

gaihinheiwa: I'm not really sure what the point of the article is.

It's a promotion for Bvlgari Jewelry. What's to not get?

She's rich and foreign, so what?

She's famous and beautiful and a spokesmodel for Bvlgari. That's why she's wearing the jewelry. It's nothing to do with her being foreign. Lena Fujii is a spokesmodel for Peach John, Liu Wen was a spokesmodel for Revlon, Nicole Kidman was a spokesmodel for Chanel and so on.

I mean I think she earned the right to wear expensive jewelry if she is that rich.

It's unlikely the jewelry is hers. Again, she's acting as a spokesmodel so she's likely being paid to wear and promote the jewelry. It's a very common practice and a little surprising you seem not to have heard of it.

fightingviking: Thank you Mummy ! But I seem to have been always doing all that anyway ! Next "lesson" ?

You may well be polite and already have known all this but there's clearly a huge number of people out there to whom this is all new. I can't tell you the number of times I've tried to get off an elevator only to have someone push their way in before I'm half-way out. As for holding doors, ha! The general door rule here seems to be - pull it open only wide enough for yourself to squeeze through and don't look back! The only pity is that the ones who should be the target audience for this sensible article will likely never come across it.

It's obviously amusing to many to make fun of a cop being a peeping tom but cop or not, he'd likely have scared the hell out of anyone who caught him looking in on them. Besides that, while not all peeping toms, exhibitionists and underwear thieves end up as serial rapists, a large number of serial rapists start out with such "minor crimes" as voyeurism, underwear theft and exhibitionism. They are too often deemed "losers" incapable of doing anything more dangerous and thus, go on to commit more serious crimes when they gain confidence or no longer get a thrill from committing the lesser offenses. Many rapists admit in their statements to police that before they break into a home and rape a woman, they often scout out the home and her movements first. So, yes, it's all good fun to have a laugh at the policeman who got caught peeping in a woman's window but this type of crime should be taken very seriously particularly as he was a policeman, entrusted with protecting the public and in a position to take advantage of that trust. It's really quite frightening when you consider what he could have done or may have gotten away with in the past.

She got old? Really? Do you know anyone who hasn't gotten old because if you do, they're dead. She's 44 and looks great! She's probably exhausted from the flight and time difference and still manages to look better than most 34 year olds.

While it doesn't say that these guys were involved in all of the egg throwing incidents, it does say that they threw eggs at foreign students on numerous occasions. In a prefecture where foreigners comprise .4% of the population and foreign students a mere .03%, this would clearly seem to be a racist act. Had they simply wanted to engage in "youthful pranks" the obvious and easiest target would have been Japanese given how they far outnumber foreigners.

As for the notion that hate crime laws are "Orwellian", having a hate crime law on the books certainly doesn't mean you're not entitled to keep hating and thinking hateful thoughts, if that's what you want. You just can't act on it.

magnet: I find the movies in your list all quite disturbing, or at the very least, depressing. Cannes seems to reward violent, provocateur style movies with disturbing or depressing storylines

I understand that those movies aren't to everyone's taste but then again I never understood the appeal of movies such as Dumb and Dumber or Animal House, much to many of my friend's dismay. I certainly don't like everything that comes out of Cannes however, most all of the movies I listed were quite successful at the box office so even if they were disturbing people that wasn't stopping them from going to see them. Personally, I find a lot of thrasher/horror films to be quite disturbing for the amount of gratuitous violence, usually devoid of any realistic or thought-provoking context and often at the expense of some "helpless" woman. Don't even get me started on action films where the bullets fly non-stop with seemingly very few repercussions to those they're aimed at or innocent bystanders. Those too seem to be "rewarded" at the box office so I have to question how "disturbing" movies from Cannes really are regardless of how many articles have been written on the subject. If movies such as Saw, which had at least 7 in its series, Hell Raiser, Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The Last Boy Scout, Point Break and the oft-quoted Scarface can make multiple millions each the movie-going public is far less sensitive to violence than they ought to be.

Just on a side note, ever notice how NSFW almost always refers to nudity and or sex but rarely to violence?

You didn't offend me but thank you for the consideration. You can't be that thin-skinned if you're going to post on sites like this.

Magnet: Cannes, where all weird movies go to receive praise from the pretentious art crowd.

Yeah, "weird" movies like The Third Man, The Conversation, Taxi Driver, Apocalypse Now, The Mission, Pulp Fiction, The Piano, Secrets and Lies and so on - all past Palme d'Or winners, by the way. Heaven forbid someone try to make movies that don't involve super heros, CG so expensive it could lift an entire country out of poverty or jokes revolving around bodily fluids. I'm all for the occasional blockbuster and silly comedy but how dull would going to the movies be if that were all that were offered? You may not like or understand all cinema but calling people pretentious just because they have different tastes is very narrow-minded. I'm grateful for and admire people with a vision different than anything I could possibly imagine, regardless of whether or not I like or understand all that they create. Variety is great and making people think is great.

damien15: Meth is done by people who are either poor and hopeless, or rich so no need to work. People with daily jobs don't, can't do meth. Just because they can't finction.

First, people with jobs do meth. I've known a few. They're called functional addicts. Second, getting addicted to a drug like meth and doing nothing about that addiction is a good way to end up poor and homeless.

I say let the rich do whatever they want. It's their lives, they are responsible of their choices, they need to learn how to deal with addiction, or die. For poor people, who have no jobs and no hope, well, they are the problem.

I guess I'm a little confused. Are you advocating a different set of drug laws for the rich and the poor?

gogogo: ambrosia: this is the problem with the Japanese justice system you just tell a sob story and you get a lighter sentence. Total BS if you ask me... can't do the time don't do the crime!

No one is talking about a "lighter sentence" so please explain what you mean and what it has to do with my response to Carcharadon's crude comment.

Equality: I'm still trying to figure out the point of this article. Since it's an advert, why all the detailed analysis by the writer and judgement by netizens? Do the latter thing that the models, incomes, and home purchase are real?

Exactly! It seems like the point of the advertisement is that you don't have to be rich or even make as much as you might think you do, in order to be able to afford to buy a decent home. It may not be a mansion in the English sense of the word but there's nothing wrong with that for a young couple not making millions.

Makeup or not, Zach Efron is hot!

gogogo: Aint going to work if minimum wage is like 750 yen an hour, nearly half of the the US and Australia

The US federal minimum wage is $7.25 and the highest state minimum wage is in Washington at $9.32.

knowbetter: So those on here who agree that Mc D's workers should get 1500 yen/hr are fine with then paying double of current Mc D's meal prices to cover those doubling of wages? Right, I am sure you are.

Unless you can prove otherwise, there is no economic data to indicate that prices at McDonald's would double if workers' salaries were doubled.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/08/02/the-real-change-in-the-cost-of-a-big-mac-if-mcdonalds-workers-were-paid-15-an-hour-nothing/?&_suid=140020684318408337895171716809

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-08-02/this-is-what-would-happen-if-fast-food-workers-got-raises

abenhorsenaube: Why do those Ronald McDonald masks have a tear under his right eye? That's a Russian Mafia symbol showing that they've killed someone...

Just a wild guess but I don't think these protestors are Russian mafia, do you? I also don't think that everyone knows that a tear tattoo under ones eye indicates one has killed someone, do you? Why not go for the obvious then and assume that the tear is meant to indicate the universal symbol for sadness? Occam's Razor ring any bells?

bad2dbone: @ambrosia , I do understand his intentions , its great! , but with all the bad luck all male Kennedy have....just saying

Kennedy, accompanied by her 21-year-old son John Schlossberg,

kittychosen: And never, ever go for any man who has an opinion on your outfit: he more than likely bats for the other side.

Seriously? So a guy who likes or doesn't like what you're wearing or has the temerity to actually answer the "does this make me look fat" question is gay? Talk about stereotyping!

carcharodon: and if he's lucky he'll get to be the be the special slot for another prisoners slot machine.

No doubt this guy is a criminal who deserves to be punished but why would you make fun of the potential for him to be raped in prison? I'm not sure about others but I don't really think rape is humorous, no matter who the victim is.

Apparently the guy thought it would be a good way to keep it in the forefront of people's minds and to show that his generation cares about the situation in Fukushima. Maybe he's just a thoughtful young guy who wanted to offer a little show of support to the people affected by the disaster. Go figure.

Schlossberg, who is 21, said, "I hope my peers, my generation in the United States will keep Fukushima in mind and understand that there is still work to be done and we can all do something to help."

kickboard: Asians are much more likely to be supertasters than caucasians,

So are women, South Americans and Africans so you've got at least 50 percent of any population right there.

thus the dislike of very sweet chocolate.

First off, strong chocolate means dark chocolate which is typically much less sweet than lighter chocolates. Second, chocolate isn't a food that is associated with a negative taste for supertasters.

Whether you're a non-taster or a supertaster or somewhere in-between depends on your sensitivity to a bitter chemical called 6-n-propylthiouracil (PROP). Non-tasters can't taste the bitterness of PROP at all. Medium tasters sense the bitterness but don't mind it, while supertasters find the taste of PROP revolting.

PROP tasters and non-tasters showed the same hedonic response to sweetened caffeine solutions and did not differ in their sensory responses to chocolate. Genetic taste markers may have only a minor impact on the consumption of such foods as sweetened coffee or chocolate.

http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/5373664/prop-6-n-propylthiouracil-tasting-sensory-responses-caffeine-sucrose-neohesperidin-dihydrochalcone-chocolate