collegepark30349 comments

Maybe it's just me, but I take issue with a person who has led a sheltered life, who has been given everything and who has never had to work for or earn anything, being called an "adult." He's "older," but not an adult. At least his big sister is washing her own clothes now.

Don't kid yourself. The elder (older) memebers will still run everything. I think "pupped masters" is the term.

Tears me up that this happened in my home state, but unfortunately it isn't the first and won't be the last. Sad history here. Guns, unfortunately, have been used twice at my own high school.

In 1991 (I was a sophmore), a student came in with a shotgun and help the principal and front office staff hostage for a while. Thankfully that is all that happened. Kid was allegedly upset his sister was being bullied. In 2018, on was injured and one was killed in a shooting dring a fight in the parking lot.

Nothing was done then, nothing will be done now. Unfortunately, it will happen again.

I agree with Mr. Kipling - keeps the clunkers off the roads, which has positive all around benefits for traffic. I just got back from Atlanta and could not belive how many traffic delays and jams there were because of breakdowns and stalls on highways and surface streets. Keep cars in good working order, eveyone benefits.

I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is, my values have not changed

I can buy this. While I have never been a politician, I have been involved with many things that can get "political" - BoE meetings in US and Japan, work meetings, PTA, 町内会... I have my values that shape the desired outcomes I want. However, what I desire and what I am actually able to accomplish as rarely the same thing. I can alter or give up some desired outcomes without compromising my values as long as the outcome produces benefits for the majority of those affected while not creating harm, or at least minimizing it (maybe I'm too Utilitarian). Sometimes what I want is not what most people want. In that case, I have to either alter my policy and try to get something, anything done or sit in a corner and stew, get left out and accomplish nothing. I would never, however, go for anything that contradicts my values.

I see her statement as an example of strength and leadership. I would rather her say this than say, "I will never, ever compromise or change even if it means nothing gets done."

I think there is some misunderstanding here. The quote is correct. Sweat, as it evaporates, helps cool the skin. Blood vessels feeding the skin also dilate, which allows warm blood to flow to the skin surface. This helps remove heat from the body core.

The fans blow sweat dry before it has a chance to evaporate and cool the body, thus causing the body to stay hot or get hotter rather than cool.

I've never understood the obsession of "sweat is bad" here. My son had a coach who would have them constatntly towel off sweat and I see people constantly wiping themselves down. They are making things worse for themselves. Sweat is icky, but it has an important purpose.

At the risk of being "that guy"...the 40 homeruns are impressive, but the stolen bases not so much. Rule changes over the past two years have made steals easier: 1) bigger bases - more space to grab, wider slides (= further to reach for tags), shortens the distance between bases 2) pitcher can only make 2 pick off throws per runner - once those are used up, runner can take a big lead 3) pitch clock - once it reaches a certain point, the runner knows the picther has to commit to pitching and can take off. I think a 40 / 60 would be closer to a 40 / 40 pre rule changes.

Not really strange, but two favorites from my college days in Atl: Screaming Cheetah Wheelies and Kathleen Turner Overdrive.

I never got the '90s alternative trend of naming a band after some ramdom inatimate object: Cake, Filter, Sponge, Bush, Tool....

Late to the party on this one:

this character is a racist - let's give him a Southern accent

this character is uneducated / primitive - let's give him a Southern accent

this character is a religious zealot - let's give him a Southern accent

this character is the best shot ever with a gun - let's give him a Southern accent

this character can drive and fix any type of vehicle - let's give him a Southern accent

this character is a tough coach / prison guard / commanding officer - let's give him a Southern accent

this character is any combination of the above - let's give him a Southern accent

Last one - let's make sure that when we introduce the bad guy, we start with a shot of his feet and thin pan the camera upwards

Like Eastmann said, many people here in Okayama see the blue bike lanes as parking areas and there is no enforcement.

Not familiar with this book (so hard to be well read these days), but there are some fabulous older Japanese mystery / detective writers from the 60's - 90's. Hasn't been much translation work on them, so you'd need to read them in Japanese. Among my favorites

Kojo Ko (高城　高) - very much in the vein of Hemingway and Ross MacDonald

Kono Tensei (河野典生) - I think some of his more famous works are in English

Hara Ryo (原　尞) - excellent hard boiled detective work like Raymond Chandler

Yuki Shoji (結城　昌治) - see above

Early work by Kirino Natsuo - the Murano Miro series - is great hard boiled work and is early Miyabe Miyuki.

One I don't get is Higashino Keigo. While the plots are intricate and well thought out, he can't write his way out of a bag. Horrendous dialog - right out of みんなの日本語 Vol. 1, flat, one-dimensional characters, prose equivalent to a grammar book and the world's worst pacing. That and his penchant for sudden endings completely out of nowhere makes him a chore to read.

I could do without some of the old, aristocratic events such as equestrian events and modern pentathalon, as well as some of the events that already have their own major championships that are more prestigious than the Olympics: soccer, tennis, rugby...

Would love to see billiards and its various forms added, maybe squash.

As someone from south Georgia in the US, Japanese summers still have a ways to go. I've been in weather where the ground and roads get so hot that they will steam as it is raining - rain and evaporation at the same time.

Didn't Yu Darvish get caught smoking underage and playing pachinko? I think it was right after he got drafted, but was still in high school. I think the punishment was something like, "Naughty boy, don't ever get caught again." I guess if she were a male in a more popular sport, she'd not be in trouble.

Also, I can't go along with this idea the Japanese authorities have of "you can't do anything that is illegal in Japan when you are abroad even if what you are doing is legal in the country you are in." I wonder if this idea has ever been challenged in court. If a 20-year old from the US drinks a beer in Japan, even though the legal age in most places is 21, that person would not get in any trouble. Heck, an 18-year old from another state can go to Texas and have a beer (18 is legal drinking age in Texas) and not get in any trouble in their home state.

Because they only focus on making the lives of the parents better. There is no focus on making the lives of the children better. A lot of people here did not particularly enjoy their childhoods and do not want to visit the same thing on their children: over crowded classrooms, 70-year-old school buildings, busy work disguised as "education," juken, ridiculous bukatsu schedules, bullying, commuting 90 min to high school because it is the only one that had the course you wanted to take, crazy school and society rules... . They did not enjoy being young and know nothing will change - it hasn't in 70 years. Why force your children into something you did not like? Make the lives of 5 - 18 year olds better and more people will want children.

Build a society, says Mogi, in which individuals can live as they please, economically secure and embracing the lifestyle that suits them

Amen

signaling that voters have positively evaluated her policies centered on quality of life and political competence over the past eight years.

That's quite the spin. I think is has more to do with Renho and Ishimaru splitting the protest vote.

Board games at schools in Japan are surging in popularity as an extracurricular activity.

I think this is wonderful. I'm a proud Board Game Geek with over 100 games at home and can be pretty Evangelical about them. We have family game night at home every Saturday and there is nothing better - spending time together, talking and, depending on the game, competing or cooperating. I've tried to get a club going at my university but so far no takers. Kids seem to have the gaming skills from computer games, but not the social skills required for board games. I also wish there were more of a selection in Japanese stores. There is more to life than Catan, Life and Clue.

This is absolutely bonkers:

The criminal procedure law stipulates that a retrial will be opened if there is "clear evidence to find the accused not guilty." But it lacks provisions on the disclosure of information that is in possession of prosecutors and investigators for retrials, preventing easy access to evidence that could favor the convicted, experts say.

OK. So, one, the burden of proof is on the accused. You have to prove your innocence instead of them having to prove that you are guilty. Two, there is no rule of discovery for the prosecution. Three, because there is no discovery, the prosecution can hide exculpatory evidence, thus preventing you from "providing clear evidence" that you are not guilty. Talk about home court advantage for the prosecution.

And as I have always stated, if they are absolutely sure this guy is guilty, why has no Justice Minister signed his execution papers in 40+ years? 134 executions in Japan since 1993, yet this man has yet to be executed. They obviously don't think he is guilty and do not want blood on their hands. They were probably hoping he would die in prison of natural causes. I imagine now they are hoping he dies before the trial and verdict so that even if he is found innocent, they can way "well, we did not execute an innocent man."

There are two parts to this ruling that scare me.

*The chief justice also made clear that the lower courts cannot take into account Trump’s motives when determining the difference between official versus unofficial acts while in office.*

How in the world can motive not be taken into account? The President is the Commander in Chief of the armed forces. He is up for re-election. His rival has huge lead in the polls. He knows he is going to lose, but wants to stay in power. He declares his opponent a threat to the nation. Orders the army to assassinate him.

Yes, that is an official act as commander in chief. But does the motive make him immune? Assassinating someone like Bin-Laden is fine. But,....

*coupled with its decision to* return key questions about the scope of Trump's immunity to lower courts to resolve

So they just created a yo-yo. Lower court says a president can be prosecuted. President appeals .... and on and on.

*Roberts cited the need for presidents to "execute the duties of his office fearlessly and fairly" without the threat of prosecution.*

How about faithfully?

There are a ton of reasons as mentioned above. I think a more recent cause is the adoption of the "For me to win, you have to lose" mentality of individuals and parties. The idea of, "I don't care if I don't get what I want. As long as I can stop you from getting what you want, then I win." This is neither productive or helpful to anyone except for giving people something to run on. Compromise - RIP.

My grandmother and mother to me, and me to my kids: "Only stupid people get bored."

This kind of goes both ways. Students should be free to explore and follow their curiosity and interests. On the other hand, there is a long list of things that I was "made" to study and do that I would not have bothered with on my own. Many of the things on that list sparked my curiosity and have been beneficial to my life. The key is finding a balance.

I got a wage increase. Unfortunately, I had to get a second job for it to happen.

One thing that I think would help the economy would be to let high school students (16 and over) have part-time jobs. I don't understand the prohibition. Let the kids earn and spend their own money (and pay taxes). I've always felt this is a huge untapped market here. In the US and other countries, go to a supermarket, restaurant or mall at night or on the weekend and most part-timers are high school kids. They take the money they make and go out, but clothes....

As a parent, I see no difference between spending 4 hours after school, and double that amount on weekends, doing club activities, and spending the same amount of time working part-time. Pick up some good life and social skills as well. Yes, there would have to be rules (no working more than 4 hours a shift on weekdays, finish by 9:30...etc. But, there is a large segment of the population that can, but does not, participate in the economy.

Two things. One, there are far more Japanese national tax and pension cheats than there are permanent resident cheats (and there are plenty of those). My Japanese sister-in-law has been skating on her taxes for years (small business but does a lot of cash-and-carry that she does not report - even lives in public housing!).

Two, the employers need to be held responsible for this as well. They often don't report or enroll foreign employees properly. Years ago, I worked for one of the "Big Three" eikawa schools. They provided all of their foreign teachers with travel insurance and did not enroll them in the national insurance or pension, which was not legal. Got away with it for years since most people finished their contracts and went back to their country. I did not. They did not renew my contract and I had a four month wait until my new job here started. Since it was their choice not to renew, I decided to file for unemployment and join the national health insurance. City hall was stunned to find out I had been living and working in Japan for four years without paying insurance and pension premiums and that the company was not enrolling us and only providing travel insurance. That company got in trouble and had to change the way they do things. I'm sure similar things are happening now with other companies. If you go after one, go after everyone.

I mainly do boring academic translations, so I have no dog in this fight. However, I don't see how AI translation of manga can work. A lot of the dialog in manga is dependent on the illustrations and vice-versa. Sometimes the words support the illustrations, sometimes they contradict, sometime the illustrations are used for emphasis, sarcasm, humor... Has AI gotten to the point where it can "read" the illustrations and see their relationship with the words? Or, is it just translating the words. If it is the latter, that is no good for anyone. Imagine taking a "Calvin and Hobbes" dialog and translating it without the pictures and then putting it into the strip. There is a 50-50 chance you'd be completely off the mark.

"Japanese has more than 10 ways to say “father,”

Good thing English doesn't, right Dad, Pop, Papa, Pa, Daddy, Old Man, Pops, Pappy, ...

I've recently stared a quest to collect the entire run of the "Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators" series. Loved then as a kid. I used to collect football cards. Still have a few with some decent: Jerry Rice, Dan Marino and Barry Sanders rookie cards, plus all of the cards of my idol Anthony Munoz.

I've seen several, but the one that stands out most is The Phantom of the Opera with Lon Chaney. It was at the Fox Theater in Atlanta and the house organist played accompanying music throughout the film - yes, including Toccata and Fuge in D minor. Just fantastic.

Sven Asai

BTW, those restrictions and prompting limitations are already massively applied, but can be and are obviously easily avoided ... although it doesn't answer those bad questions by original limited or restricted algorithm.

Thank you for the information. I did not know this. I'm curious as to who comes up with the prompting limitations and restricted algorithms. I don't think there are government regulations. Are the companies basically self-policing?

I think this is going to be the next big ethical debate. How or should we monitor / restrict / report what people are asking AI to do? And who should do the monitoring / restricting / reporting? I don't have much experience with AI but I can see some nut case asking questions such at "How can I make an untraceable poison?" or "What is the easiest way to poison a barn full of rats?" (When they really mean office full of co-workers). "What materials are necessary to build a pipe bomb?" I know that info is already out there on dark web and such, but AI will make it even easier. Scary.

At a university. To actually do my job, not much. To get ahead in my job, you need it. I've gotten ahead of more experienced and accomplished colleagues (ex. being given leadership / management / head of committee positions) because of my Japanese ability. Being able to speak isn't enough; keigo, reading and writing is what'll get you ahead.