Bobby Fizzicola comments

Posted in: Japan eyes 35% quota for women political candidates by 2025 See in context

Bjorn TomentionToday 08:39 am JST

It should all be based on merit not on some quota fulfillment, this sort of politics leads to more stupidity.

Were you Bjorn yesterday? Do you think all those LDP politicians are there based on merit? Do you think Abe became prime minister based on merit?

9 ( +13 / -4 )

Posted in: Gov't urges people struggling to cope to seek help after death of actress See in context

Although only tangentially related, Japan's mental health system and policy is a national shame and is stuck in the dark ages. Moreover, the personal stigma of seeking medical help for mental health issues is often still treated as a personal failing rather than a health issue.

8 ( +8 / -0 )

Posted in: New Zealand economy shrinks record 12% See in context

The National supporters commenting here (e.g., Bjorn, Akula) seriously think National are better managers of the economy than Labour? Until the COVID situation, debt as a percantage of GDP had declined compared with when National had left office. So far, National have promised tax cuts for the highest income earners and corporate payers. The second prong of their approach is likely to be more austerity measures for lower income earners (although this is unlikely to be announced unless they are miraculously elected to form a government after the election). Both policies are straight off the neoliberal blueprint and both policies are both known to be failures. It is now well known that the trickle down does not work (unless you enjoy golden shower from a rich person) and there remains little sober analysis that shows austerity does what it promises. Overall, National's policies are yeaterday's ideas for the benefit of those of us already super rich or in positions of power, if you are not in either of these groups (and I suspect you are not), you missed the boat...

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Posted in: New Zealand economy shrinks record 12% See in context

@ i@n: you are wrong, they were for the second quarter of 2020. if the rates of contraction were for the year, it would be an economic catastrophe...

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Posted in: New Zealand economy shrinks record 12% See in context

Bjorn TomentionToday 11:21 am JST

Worst in history, simply destroyed by the muppet.

Australia atleast kept some industries running and will suffer much less damage.

the UK economy recorded a 20.4% contraction in the same period. Japan's economy contracted 27.3 % in the same period. United States economy contracted by almost 33 %. However, NZ is doing terribly. You, Akula and the rest of the red pill brigade are geniuses. Why haven't you all been snapped up as economics advisors to some of these countries.

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Posted in: LDP elects Suga as leader to succeed Abe See in context

Although unlikely, I hope the LDP get a toweling at the next election.

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Posted in: PM contender Suga hints at consumption tax hike See in context

Consumption taxes are well known to have a greater impact on lower earners than higher earners. If confirmed, this is a typical move out of the neo-liberal playbook.

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Posted in: Q&A: Japan's coronavirus-related travel restrictions See in context

Like the government cares about what a bunch of foreigners think. Foreigners do not have a vote...

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Posted in: Democrats pound their message: To oust Trump, you must vote See in context

Hilary garnered about 3 million more votes than Trump at the last election. So it is not only the number of votes, but how they are distributed which is important. The electoral college is a dog of a system and is in need of an overhaul...

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Posted in: Japan criticized for weak response to bulk carrier fuel leak off Mauritius See in context

I know, let's send a team to investigate the damage so we can be seen to be doing something without actually doing anything...

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Posted in: What’s the minimum amount of money Japanese women want their husbands to earn? Survey investigates See in context

RecklessToday 10:03 am JST

The largest group, 30.3 percent of women, said that they’d need their husband to be at least in the 4-4.99 million-yen earning bracket.

This is good news and a reasonable aspiration for foreign English teachers who have private lessons and do some translation work. On the whole, however, I find the basic premise sexist that men are chosen as partners based on their income.

a) Hello? Yes, sexism (and expected gender roles) is a huge problem in Japan and b) if you are here teaching English in Japan, you should probably be thinking about where you went wrong in life. Moreover, if you are a foreigner here, you probably have a 'foreigner advantage' with regards to mate choice so a potential partner might be willing to accept a lower annual salary if you are an English teacher...

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

Posted in: What’s the minimum amount of money Japanese women want their husbands to earn? Survey investigates See in context

MikeHToday 08:03 am JST

Why don’t these gold diggers lazy women work to earn their own money instead of relying on hardworking Japanese men...shame on them! Most foreign women are so hardworking and independent. Japanese women are good for whining, gossiping and wasting husbands hard earned money on cosmetics and fashion. Not all but the average number is so much higher for these women in Japan in comparison to other countries.

Mike, what are you talking about? My wife is a stay-at-home mother and she works very hard and her work is extremely important for our children and me. Although she could work, we are lucky to be in a position where she does not need to, so she can stay at home and bond and teach our children. Perhaps you would prefer your wife to have an awful life where she has no connection with her family and her community? It is well known that children do better if they can hang out with their mother in early life...In my experience, most Japanese women and mothers do not conform to the narrow stereotype you described.

0 ( +6 / -6 )

Posted in: New Zealand PM hits back at Trump's comments on coronavirus 'big surge' See in context

AkulaToday 03:00 pm JST

I'm pretty sure that they know where this current cluster originated. Ardern is hiding the information to avoid a backlash from voters.

You are pretty sure you know? Where do you get your information? It is more likely you are making up rubbish that suits your narrative. People like you are part of the problem why the net is becoming a worthless forum.

ulyssesToday 05:10 pm JST

Don't worry Jacinda, mathematics isn't one of trump's stronger points.

Other than lying he is bad at everything!!!

He is not even a good liar in that his lies are easy to detect. I am surprised people still listen to him. When information becomes unreliable, it is most profitable to discount that source of information...

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Posted in: New Zealand postpones election by 4 weeks after virus outbreak in Auckland See in context

@Antiquesaving: Right, the vaccine remains effective against the virus particles that it was produced to provide protection against. However, flu viruses have 2 antigen proteins (an H and an N antigen) in their virus coats to which the antibodies produced by our B cells bind. These virus antigens constantly mutate slightly over time and thus the antigens that are produced against an old copy of the virus (a process called antigenic drift). However, the vaccine as well as previous infections to influenza do provide more protection to the virus than having never being exposed to it. An example of this when the one or both of the coat antigens switches form which happens roughly every 30 years for each type. When both types change, it can have devastating effects as was seen in the 1918 outbreak. The reason that the 1918 pandemic was so deadly was that the H and the N protein both changed form and so people had no antibodies which could recognized the antigens in the virus protein coat. So it killed lots of people and had a high kill rate. So it is not that the vaccine itself is ineffective after 12 months, it is that the vaccine was produced against a virus at a specific point in time and the virus antigens have changed....

More generally, I agree with you that it may not possible to produce a reliable vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but there are promising signs. A number of research groups have found that their vaccines have led to antibodies being detected in blood samples of subjects meaning subjects were able to neutralize the virus. Moreover, there are effective long-term vaccines against RNA-based viruses. For example, the vaccine for Hepatitis A (which is an RNA-based virus) can give protection which lasts over 25-years if administered correctly. So it is not all doom and dismay as you suggest. There is cause for long-term optimism that we can develop a vaccine although its licensing and large scale roll-out may take a while for sure...

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Posted in: New Zealand postpones election by 4 weeks after virus outbreak in Auckland See in context

@Antiquesaving: you seem to know a lot a RNA viruses. So can you tell me why the flu vaccine only lasts one year?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Posted in: New Zealand's COVID-19 outbreak grows, as Australian cases ease See in context

Eliminate is a rather strong word for any government. To me personally NZ government , the NZ scientist and everyone involved in the decision making process right now seem a bit fake and delusional.

You justify your position using a weak ad hominem attack. I think that means we can all disregard everything you have written. The NZ government, scientific establishment, and decision makers seem a bit fake and delusional. Oh pray tell. How exactly are they delusional given that their method has worked so far. Where are your data? I cannot wait to see what statistics and modelling you have done to justify your position. Oh wait, it is just your feeling which clearly trumps the work of multiple researchers, decision makers and politicians that are more qualified than us both to make policies and manage a pandemic...Take it easy, good night...

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Posted in: New Zealand's COVID-19 outbreak grows, as Australian cases ease See in context

@n1k1, you must understand, the NZ government was undertaking sentinel testing and detected nothing. Therefore, you are possibly holding the NZ government to impossibly high standards in order to suit your argument. If this is the case, there is no point in discussing this with you...

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Posted in: New Zealand's COVID-19 outbreak grows, as Australian cases ease See in context

Well if by eliminate you mean " to the best of their knowledge and withing the PCR test constrains undetectable" .. sure we can pretend it is possible to "eliminate" the virus.

yes, there was likely no community transmission in NZ for a good three months. This means that there were no individuals within the population that were active vectors. Therefore, scientific consensus was that the virus was eliminated from the NZ population (imported cases not withstanding). I am not sure what more you want in order to accept that conjecture...

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Posted in: New Zealand's COVID-19 outbreak grows, as Australian cases ease See in context

n1k1Today 08:00 pm JST

I think the NZers are attempting to eliminate it again as it is a realistic and achievable goal.

It is impossible. In fact, I think even with the vaccine and long after, people (perhaps not a lot) will catch the virus and those with compromised immunity by aging or otherwise will experience problems.

This is clearly wrong. This is a reinfection event that has come into the country after the virus had been eliminated. Clearly, it is possible to eliminate the virus from a community...

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Posted in: New Zealand's COVID-19 outbreak grows, as Australian cases ease See in context

All those people saying that NZ had an easy job because of the population size. Look at what transpired in Ireland. An island country with a similar population size. Almost 1,800 deaths versus 22. Night and day. NZs strategy stopped the virus dead. It reduced cases and deaths. Early in the outbreak they were tracking similarly.

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Posted in: New Zealand's COVID-19 outbreak grows, as Australian cases ease See in context

AkulaToday 04:53 pm JST

New Zealand's outbreak all seems to be within the one cluster, and looks to be well contained.

Contact tracing and so on seems to have worked well. That said, there needs to be an endgame to all this, and at some point we just need to accept that COVID-19 is a thing we have to live with.

I think the NZers are attempting to eliminate it again as it is a realistic and achievable goal. However, they will need to work on containing outbreaks such as this without a whole region or the whole country going into lockdown.

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Posted in: New Zealand's COVID-19 outbreak grows, as Australian cases ease See in context

Simian LaneToday 03:42 pm JST

To all you folk who were praising the socks off NZ last week, and downvoting those of us who were more...realistic perhaps might be the right word? Seriously though, for your own sake, it’s healthy to have a healthy dose of scepticism, especially when the media start praising certain countries and their leaders..this virus is a global problem, and it will only be gone when the whole world defeats it. I think the pint was missed a bit with all the early NZ praise.

NZ deserves kudos. Nothing that has transpired in the last week has changed this assessment. Sure, they were naive with regards with the border worker testing, but they will learn their lesson from this and implement more stringent testing of border worker. This latest cluster is well on the way to being controlled and within another week, it should be well under control. However, what is most concerning is these clowns who feel it is their duty to spread misinformation on FB, twitter, and other social media platforms without any qualification to do so. It is alarming how many people take this nonsense seriously and repost it etc...

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Posted in: New Zealand scrambles to find source of new virus infections See in context

WolfpackToday 01:18 am JST

New Zealand scrambles to find source of new virus infections

Here’s a big hint. China.

The last outbreak of H1N1 (swine flu) was from Mexico by way of the USA. Your point is?

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Posted in: Pandemic could take shine off moving to Tokyo for work See in context

And here I was, thinking that Tokyo could take shine off moving to Tokyo for work...

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Posted in: New Zealand scrambles to find source of new virus infections See in context

kyushubillToday 07:32 pm JST

And just a few days ago Adern Said, "We have been the example on how to handle this virus with our response. Our success shows those who said we were being too restrictive and draconian were speaking duff."

Yeah, who was speaking duff again?

Are you on crack?

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Posted in: New Zealand scrambles to find source of new virus infections See in context

MontyToday 06:39 pm JST

@the resident

Further proof that 'Hard Lockdowns' mandated by so many people on this forum (even though not legally enforceable in Japan) - simply do not work.

100% agree!

This is complete garbage, I am not sure what your agenda is, but if one were able to restrict people's movements and interactions, you stop the virus dead. Simple epidemiology, you know what R0 is right?

> I dont understand why people still scream for Lockdowns.

8 Months experience with the Virus showed us that lockdowns make zero sense.

Why do the people not learn from that experience?

People scream lockdowns because they are an effective way of stopping the spread of any contagion. Look up some case studies before spouting nonsense. This is hardly new knowldge; just over 100 years ago with the "Spanish" flu (it really needs a new name because it had nothing to do with Spain) the advice was that lockdowns would effectively control the flu. People ignored the advice and look at what happened...

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Posted in: New Zealand scrambles to find source of new virus infections See in context

AkulaToday 02:23 pm JST

The man involved worked at a coldstore with good imported from overseas. There is a theory that the virus could have survived on frozen goods imported from the US.

But we all know this was all engineered by Jacinda, right?

> Vanessa CarlisleToday 01:48 pm JST

People got angry at me for saying New Zealand's lockdowns were not going to 100 percent work. Admittedly I am surprised they got this far being as its winter there. But I will predict as I did before, there are going to be more Covid 19 cases in New Zealand. But remember, anger helps you ignore facts but it doesn't delete them. That said I hope those who contracted Covid 19 will be ok.

First of all, the NZ approach has worked and it will continue to work, so nice try. I write this because the overall rate of cases and deaths is relatively low in NZ and they did effectively elimiate the virus from NZ (and they will also do it again). Granted, they are continuously importing the virus by allowing NZers from overseas to enter the country, but they are pretty much on top of this. However, as you write, there will be occasional importation from overseas and occasional outbreaks as there are many ways the virus might enter the country all of which are hard to keep a lid on. Doesn't mean their management and strategy failed. Indeed, you will see the strategy of lockdown, contact tracing, and isolation of infected individuals work again with this latest cluster.

9 ( +17 / -8 )

Posted in: New cases end New Zealand's 'COVID-free' status; Auckland back in lockdown See in context

AkulaToday 12:28 pm JST

@Alfie Noakes - I support Judith Collins (a woman) to be New Zealand's next PM. Pulling misogyny into it as you do, is a way to deflect from Ardern's shortcomings, and that is all. I don't support Ardern because she has performed poorly as PM, and is a Socialist.

You clearly have no understanding of what a socialist is, as no political party in NZ is socialist. Moreover, whilst it is your business who you support, supporting National sets you as soneone who likely thinks property investment is a great way to increase your wealth and is an aspirational millionaire. However, neoliberalism is yesterday's news, trickle down theory is a lie, and there is no empirical evidence that austerity (another favorite of conservative method to screw the poor) has any effect apart. National are going to be destroyed in the next election. Even National running scared and are trying to buy time by suggesting the election be moved to November. However, Judith Collins' reversion to dirty politics will backfire. This will be a catastrophe and although Collins probably did not want the leadership at this time (who would), she will have to carry the can for their destruction. Couldn't happen to a nicer person...

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Posted in: Japan braces for more heavy rain as death toll rises to 66 See in context

Would you all stop with the over righteous outrage towards Ego Sum Lux Mundi. I am sure they would sympathize at the situation and agree that the destruction of property, loss of life, and displacement of people is a tragedy. I read nothing malicious in their comment and simply reflected the daily realities of working people in Tokyo as well the differences in weather among affected areas and Tokyo.

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Posted in: Japan's supercomputer suggests changes to travel, work amid airborne virus threat See in context

Ah, the stupid has arrived en masse. It really is interesting to see how different people can interpret the same information in vastly different ways. It really shows the role that personality and ontogeny has in information processing. This article was about the predictions of a model run using a supercomputer. Yet the comments get twisted by some into how a public health situation is somehow an attack on people's civil liberties. Too bad you can't take your guns into town and parade around town hall. SMH...

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

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