bigfujiyama comments

given that Covid is already endemic

No. By every definition it is still a pandemic.

You can't learn to live with a pandemic.

The flu is endemic, Covid-19 is still a pandemic. Maybe it will evolve to be endemic, but at the moment it is not.

@Larr Flint

That's fine, but it's not all about you.

Fortunately the silent majority understand this.

They don't act like petulant teenagers.

"Various forms of covid, just like the flu will be with us for decades."

Maybe so. Some researchers think that the common cold evolved from a very old pandemic.

Saying that, covid isn't a cold or flu yet as some would like to imagine.

We are not in the endemic stage - small localized outbreaks - it is still a pandemic and we have to trust the science to get us through with the minimum of damage.

In a span of a week or two, there was an earthquake in the Burma/Indian border area, Japan, and now here in Ecuador. Coincidence or no?

There are quakes everyday all over the world. No it is not a coincidence.

The number of quakes over 7 in 2015 was around the average. 2016 is following the same path.

Opposite side of the Pacific plate to Japan, probably related to the Kyushu quake?

Ecuador isn't even on the Pacific plate.

Educator60 is right. A Tokyo university seismologist just said because of its makeup that area is susceptible to more aftershocks than other areas.

There are also foreshocks that precede larger quakes. It is impossible to tell them apart. The only thing you can do is be prepared.

No it isn't....we rarely get earthquakes in this area. Compared to other areas of the nation, it's one of the safest.

No it isn't. There are a large number of active faults in central Kyushu because the Japan Median Tectonic Line runs straight through there. Just because there haven't been any large quakes there in recent years means nothing in tectonic terms. Anywhere along the Median Tectonic Line has the the potential to produce large quakes.

I always notice it when Japanese people pick up their phones with chopsticks and put them on top of the rice.

The Meteorological Agency announced it was a plate boundary earthquake - not the type I like to see.

Plate boundary earthquakes are usually stronger than fault quakes and are what caused the Tsunami in 2011.

@WC626

Or maybe "pride" got the best of them. In Japanese culture the shame of "defeat" is intolerable. And because they aren't christian, they never "forgive" one another

Since when do Christians have a monopoly on forgiveness? I see plenty of then baying for Muslim blood.

News just in...

We are all going to die.

Anyone who tries to build the a future basec on tradition needs a good kick in the cobblers.

Many studies have shown that children who grow up in an environment with animals have a much stronger immune system that those who don't.

One piece of research showed that house dust in a residence with dogs prevented a certain type of childhood asthma. Other research has linked a reduction in allergies with keeping pets.

If you run around afraid of all bacteria you will probably die from a stress-related heart attack.

Tradition is never an excuse for anything.

Anyone who excepts tradition without questioning its worth should not be involved in tradition in any way.

@cardsfan5

But the Japanese public voted them in. They had a chance to get rid of Abe, but he won a landslide victory and people knew his policies then.

Perhaps the silent majority agree with him.

The German army has no limitations left that were imposed by the Allies.

Why is it such a big deal when Japan tries to lift them.

It seems to me that some people can differentiate Nazis and Germans, but they can't do the same with modern Japan and Imperial Japan.

so much for all the scientific communities monitoring expertise

It is thanks to the scientific community that there were no people at the crater when it erupted. Mt. Aso has had restricted access to the crater area for a while. They can't predict exactly when an eruption will occur, but there are many factors that show the possibility of one.

It is very easy to dismiss something of which you have no knowledge.

I'm deeply thankful that none of them are deployed overseas yet. They need all the manpower they have.

A few thousand are taking part. They have 250,000 SDF troops and 56,000 reserves. They are hardly overstretched.

You can watch Netflix from any region with a Japanese account.

If Sakurajima throws rocks and has a pyroclastic flow that reaches 50km it is not just the nuclear plant that will be affected, it will be global event.

The last time Sakurajima had a proper eruption was n the 1980s. Then is threw 2m sized rocks about 2km. 50km is not in the danger zone.

Most Japanese people I have spoken to don't realize that the systems of ancestor worship and responsibility for family graves was forced by the Shogunate to control the ordinary people.

Keep them plebs in one place. Stop 'em from moving around too much.

Such is the 'jimusho' system in Japanese entertainment.

If you look at the channel this video is hosted on you will see many, many mediocre comedians mostly with single trick acts. The agency pumps them out in the hope that one out of a hundred will go super boom and payoff. The majority are like this act - awful and an insult to the genuinely funny comedians out there.

I am all for following your dreams, but you have to realise when you aren't very good at something like this act.

Earthquake scales are pretty much all meaningless from a safety point of view, because the shaking will start a few seconds after the initial warning. If fact, there was no warning for this quake because the system is set to send warnings for quakes under 150 km depth.

Magnitude is not meaningless. The moment magnitude scale represents the amount of energy released. If there is an 8.5 quake at a shallow depth out to sea, there is a very real possibility of a tsunami. Once I saw the depth of this one I knew there was no chance of a tsunami or aftershocks. Deep-focus quakes are scary because they are felt over a wide area, but in reality they are far less dangerous than shallow quakes.

Still, a deep-focus quake of M 8.1 is a very rare event. The largest one ever recorded is 8.3.

My dog looked at me in a funny way yesterday, a frog was heard to recite poetry in Manchester, and there is a butter shortage.

All the signs are there people. Big quake coming soon.

I applaud the government's swift action on banning these things.

I was recently attacked by a flock of feral drones In Shibuya. I was treated for mental stress and minor chafing.

The danger they pose cannot be exaggerated.

Marshmallow? Voluptuous? Plus size?

They ate all the pies and are fat.

They should be denied health insurance until they get off their blubber butts and take some exercise.

And don't give me metabolism and all that crap. They are porkers because they eat too much and don't exercise. They should also have to pay for double seats on airplanes because I don't want their sweaty tsunamis of lard overflowing into my restricted space.

As for Cosplay? Oh Jesus. Hippos in maid costumes. Save my eyes and my sanity.

More than the race issue, my first thoughts were, 'What? They are still doing beauty pageants?"

The Japanese press are reporting she had an air embolism, similar decompression syndrome (the bends) that divers get.

The Japanese press also said she was conscious and eating, but still not fully recovered.

avigatorNOV. 24, 2014 - 09:10AM JST I would not be surprised this is related with Japan's impasse in signing the TPP agreement through HAARP extortion.

No. It's due to Japan having thousands of active faults all over the country. You silly sausage.