Bungle comments

The woman should be thankful that the sword wasn't made of steel.

...and know the risk you're taking if you get into an accident or pulled over.

It's not just you taking the risk, though is it, darknuts? Save it for the track.

Who knows, perhaps they are operated by the North's Navy.

Of course they are. Crewing a "fishing boat" with marines is common practice for Oriental despots. Just ask the Filipinos.

He has admitted to causing the accident but said he does not know how fast his car was going at the time, according to the police.

Frankly speaking, most people driving at 150 on the back roads would need to have a clean change of underwear ready - most roads are really not that good, even the highways.

Presuming the speeding car was going in a straight line, you’d think he could have realised the danger of such a fast approaching vehicle and not pulled out.

Well, indeed. On the one hand, you'd expect a driver to look before pulling out into traffic, on the other hand, you wouldn't expect oncoming vehicles to be doing almost 150 in a 60 zone.

Freedom of speech means defending the right to say what one finds objectionable (incitement to violence excepted), not the right to create a totalitarian discourse in the guise of a happy-clappy safe space.

Inside job - these things always are. Nevertheless, the employee may not have been in on it.

Years ago I worked at service station which kept the week's taking in a safe which was unlocked with a key. Now, only the manager and assistant manager were allowed possession of the key, which was not normally a problem because usually either one or both were on site. However, on one occasion both were away, and this obviously posed the problem about what to do with the key.

As it transpired, the assistant manager decided to leave the key on site for the next shift to pick up (the store was security alarmed, so she figured this a safer solution than making one of the minions responsible for the key), and, lo and behold, during the night the site was burgled with the contents of the safe emptied. Thieves broke through one of the extractor fans at the back of the store, evaded the motion sensors, and grabbed the safe key from the office.

Later on the perps were apprehended and it turned out that they were former employees, and that coincidentally, one of their buddies had been working the last shift before the store closed the previous night. We suspected that he had noticed the key in the office and tipped of his buddies, though I don't think it was proven.

A native of Hong Kong, Agnes Miling Chan, who took her singing career to Japan in 1972 when she was 17, started as a teenage pop idol and ended up as an advocate for children in her 40 on-and-off years in Japan.

She married her former manager, a Japanese man, and is a mother of three boys who all grew up in an unconventional home and went on to Stanford University, the same institution where she entered a Ph.D. program in education while working and getting ready to have her second son.

So, Chan is yet another bien pensant upper middle-class liberal.

Pass.

...where she addresses her own haters but also calls out those who attack the LGBTQ community.

Frankly speaking, regarding the LGBTQ community as a homogenous bloc is so utterly patronising. What exactly do the alphabet communities have in common with each other? I suppose if I were being naughty I might say "narcissism", but other than that...

Newer cars are being fitted with lidar and automatic braking - I think this technology should be mandatory in all HGVS.

She was referred to prosecutors on suspicion of violating Nagoya city's regulations on outdoor advertisements, which prohibit individuals from putting flyers on utility poles, but she was not indicted.

Unjder the circumstances, prosecuting the woman was never going to be in the public interest, and the cops involved should have been disciplined for their total lack of common sense.

Pornographic films aside, sex scenes are never necessary.

Which is exactly what he should have done - rule in accordance to law and legal logic. Judges that rule based on "feel good" are dangerous.

I never argued that point, Kazuaki, hence straw man. Read this again (my emboldening):

One such ruling came in March, when a court in Nagoya acquitted a father accused of raping his 19-year-old daughter.

According to a copy of the verdict seen by Reuters, the court recognized that the sex was non-consensual, that the father had physically and sexually abused the victim when she was younger and that he had used force. But the judges concluded that doubt remained as to whether she had no option other than to submit. The case is under appeal.

This young woman has suffered a catalogue of abuse at the hands of her father, and yet he excapes conviction on a technicality.

Anyone who is okay with this is a moral coward.

According to a copy of the verdict seen by Reuters, the court recognized that the sex was non-consensual, that the father had physically and sexually abused the victim when she was younger and that he had used force. But the judges concluded that doubt remained as to whether she had no option other than to submit. The case is under appeal.

I'm afraid this outcome is inetirely consitent with Japanese feeling obliged to follow the rules (law) even if doing so creates an undesirable outcome. I've never had much truck with such block-headed thinking, so I guess I'm in the wrong country.

Blame the pilot. How very convenient.

It's funny, because earlier in the day, I was chatting with Ayumi in the supermarket. Another customer noticed that she was holding a barcode, and then asked us if we were an item...

I find his disingenuously obsequious faux ‘apologies’ more offensive than him smoking grass.

I guess they can still refuse to give him a passport on the harm to national interest bit since his last trip cost the government quite a bit.

It cost the government nothing. I did, however, cost we taxpayers "quite a bit".

This doesn't make sense. He's not planning to go to Turkey, it's not a destination country.

Then I guess the Foreign Office thinks that he might be lying about his travel plans.

It is the right decision. If he is captured again, it will result in both negative press for the government, and secondly, pressure groups will demand his freedom is bought. Who knows, it might even be a novel ruse to raise funds for the terrorists.

For Japanese gentlemen, wearing the western shoes is not comfortable thing at all. Foot shapes of Japanese and the westerners are different. It is tight. hot and unclean.

Might I suggest you try on the shoes for size and fit before purchasing them?

Go and take a look in your dictionary at the definition of “micro-management” and you’ll see an illustration of Japan.

Incidentally, the women in the above photograph are not actually wearing high heels...

Fact: there have been fewer than 200 cases of vCJD in the U.K. since the BSE outbreak of the late 80s / early 90s, thus the whole response to BSE/vCJD thing has been utterly hysterical, both in the U.K. and abroad. It's been nigh on thirty years since peak BSE and you'd think we'd all be dropping like flies by now.

 The incubation period for CJD could be upwards of 50 years

BREAKING NEWS: LIFE KILLS YA!

I agree with her sentiments. Mentally challenged sports pundits are forever asking the most banal questions. She should just give them the bird.

The state also said it was not obliged to pay compensation due to the 20-year statute of limitations on demands for damages under the Civil Code, pointing out that the victims underwent surgery more than 40 years ago.

Irrelevant as the eugenics law was still in place up to 1996. Now if the courts had argued that compo had been denied because it was more than twenty years since since the law was repealed, that would be rational. But Japanese aren’t rational.

Keeping Rover in a cage for extended periods will drive any dog nuts. This guy was probably breeding his Tosa as fighting dogs, which, given their 'occupation' and dire accommodation resulted in a pretty predictable ending.

And yes, someone must have grassed them up.

I see what you did there. Have a recommend.

I wouldn't want to be accosted by any of them on a dark night - and that includes the one in the bikini.

No, Seinfeld was.

Frasier gets my vote.

I can understand the green and white plate regs, but if you running a company that takes money, surly the bus is run commercially, ie for hire and reward.. since its run commercially shouldn't all of the licence plates be green and the bus driver have a suitable licence for driving a commercial vehicle?

Well, if they're using drivers who are unlicensed, perhaps the company are cutting other corners as well? Heck, the brakes on the bus may even have been defective.

I suppose there could be a distinction made that the bus is not being run commercially because passengers are paying for a tour, not specifically to get from A to B. Hotel shuttle buses probably fall in this category as well.

If anything, the Japanese government artificially holds down the price of drugs.

Pull the other one.

A quick check of Boots' online store reveals that generic aspirin can be bought for £0.59 32 tablets, or about ￥85, whereas the list (non-discounted) price for 40 tablets of Bufferin on Amazon is ￥1,253.

Price per tablet:

Boots generic = ￥2.7

Amazon Bufferin = ￥31

If my maths is correct, that's an increase of almost 1,050%!

With credit to the late, great Rik Mayall:

"Pheromone sex scent. Women cannot resist this powerful love smell. Scientifically distilled from mystical African orchids." Wow! Oh look, it's medically proven. "This stuff attracts women like you would not believe - Karachi Medical Gazette. Available at all good sex shops."