Anthony Momiroski comments

My thoughts exactly Sven. Too many physics articles talking on 'Spacetime', and use it as a mumbojumbo term without understanding it. There's no difference in what they are saying here, versus a heavy boat creating a ripple effect when going through ocean waters with the trail behind it. Why even call it spacetime, when its material displacement?

Is time somehow distorting because of the 'heavy material' travelling through this 'spacetime'...that would be the inference, but there's no way to measure/verify. From what is written, its purely material displacement (which isn't a new concept), and there is nothing to suggest its anything more. The claim 'MAY' be the case, but when the premises don't reach the conclusion, then the claim isn't substantiable.

Well done. It was a shame the other night with Canada, the girls were in front. That aside, very nice win for the Japanese. They should be proud of Takagi. Great job!

Definitely not losers in my book. Fact is, even being there (Olympics) is a massive achievement. Getting a medal is epic. Pulling the gold is amazing in terms of sporting glory. Well done. Bronze is still better than 99.9% of the sporting population in that particular sport will ever accomplish (let alone compared to regular citizens). Sometimes its good to keep it all in perspective. Well done!

Very happy for the Japanese squad. If anything, it shows just how much the rest of the world has to step up their game (and just how good the Japanese are at this - well done!).

A little friendly competition never hurt though. Here in Melbourne, just coming out of our fifth lockdown, the Olympics are just what the doctor ordered. Thanks for pushing through. I feel a little bad for the Tokyo-ites that didn't want this. Staying focused though - congrats to the Japanese Judo team. Well done. Nagase's fight was impressive from a strategic sense: stall, stall, stall, frustrate...boom! Victory.

Don't blink! Great implementation of strategy. Great viewing.

This is pretty awesome. Always loved Thailand's outside the box thinking on things. Very left field, but clever!

It's stuff like this that makes me miss Japan!

What an absolute 'boss'! Totally unwilling to lie down and accept the cards she's been handed! Gotta love it. Some of the oldies are really built out of granite. Got to tip my hat to the old girl.

Impressive. A few different styles of beats in there too.

She looks like she's having fun as well while doing it (flipping the drumsticks around). Loved the 'more cowbell' bit as well.

Good luck to her and her career.

This is the Japan I love!

I hope they make a velociraptor with a katana strapped to its hip for reception at one of the hotels...to be served by that...well, surely my life would be complete. I tip my hat to these guys. Impressive stuff!

I'm not seeing the problem. As others said, the donation is 'voluntary'. Given that, 50% is pretty impressive, voting rates in most non-compulsory countries aren't that high, so the donation rate here is fairly high all things considered.

I agree with the statement that other people made though, if 50% isn't sufficient, there is no use whining, just make it compulsory. Why say it's 'only' 50%, when you can mandate: 'any use of the mountain requires a 1,000yen entry fee'. It's not like other international locations don't do it.

It's possible that there is a place for all this stuff in the West. The amount of 'you are so lucky' I hear from people regarding having lived in Japan, surprises me.

A select crowd of people in my home country Australia would jump for this stuff (the Comicon crowd jump for all the anime stuff, there are Japanophiles too who would love all this too - there's room with regular audiences too), but it has to be: accessible, convenient, reasonably priced and different. If it can hit those characteristics in any basic area, no amount of 'to cool for school' attitude that some groups have is going to matter; it will get attention.

This has been a dicey affair from the start.

Having lived in Japan for a while, I can say from the people I dealt with, they don't know altogether the full extent of what the Japanese did in WWII (whether it was Darwin, Nauru, Shanghai, or the numerous atrocities of Unit 731). Despite this, the naivety on their part cant' be helped when they are kept in the dark by the government (the bigger issue here).

We all should theoretically know about the San Francisco peace treaty, which should have left this issue done and dusted. From the observations I made while in Japan researching the topic, the Japanese government in some capacity have formally apologized no less than 15 times all in all.

However, what is problematic is the nature of the apologies (especially for the Chinese and the Koreans), and I can totally agree (sympathize) with this. For every Japanese minister that steps forth and says "Sorry for those deeds," there is another that will say "the events can't be proven." It should be noted, I don't need to prove this point, its well documented (Abe presently functions as a denialist for that point).

Given this, if one were on the receiving end of such an apology, I can't imagine any person would take it as legitimate. All in all, it's more than just a tad half ***ed when you can't get any national uniformity. This is why praise is lavished on the Germans for their war time reparations; the recognition is universal from them and its constant.

I can't speak for the Koreans or Chinese, but being on the receiving end of intermittent apologies and then denials (making for inconsistency), doesn't help to make any apology look genuine. Regrettably, this is where things stand.

I think, as these Pulitzer prize scholar guys said, there are errors occurring on all parties' part here. For as bad as the constant denial following the initial apology is (on the Japanese side), the action of using this as a point to try and embarrass Japan hardly makes them (Chinese and Koreans) look noble either. The actions of both states actually work to belittle the suffering of the women involved; that saddens me too. This isn't to say that what the Japanese and Koreans are doing is as significant in magnitude as the Japanese, its merely to point out, that they are also committing acts which aren't noble.

I have no vested interest one way or the other, but letting the facts be seen for what they are 'should' be the objective here. From what I've observed, there are interesting/curious facts to note on the side of the Koreans assisting the Japanese, as well as with the actions of the Japanese soldiers themselves...both parties it would seem should hang their heads in shame....however guilty some of the Koreans may have been in this, it doesn't take away from the suffering of the women. Even if the claims that they were whores before the war are true...being forced to serve as a military whore 'against their will' doesn't seem legally just or fair. This is the issue! Denial of their 'will' should never have been permitted. Those that had oppressed these women and denied them freedom of choice should be made known and judged accordingly (looking at you Yasukuni Shrine).

The argument on both sides is obviously more complicated than what a few paragraphs may encompass, but I hope I've hit the crux of the matter here. Essentially, there is a lot of grey in the discussion, the wrongdoing to the women involved is not one of them (that's black and white). I hope you guys can keep that in mind in all the nationalistic rhetoric.

On with the discussion!

I've seen Nutella and banana pizzas here in Melbourne. Not sure what the big fuss is here. They aren't massively popular, but they do exist here and they've been here for a while (Jessie's Pizza chain).