darkbob comments

And no, Thorium is plentiful and cheaper to power up. Please do your research before making comments that it is more expensive because it is pure fallacy and misleading. Development costs are the only stumbling block here but the Chinese will sell us back the Thorium nuclear technology in a few years ...

Sorry, I should have posted; Google Kirk Sorensen NASA physicist for information on Thorium.

There is clean, safe nuclear energy that is 4 times as plentiful as uranium. Easier to handle, requires no water nearby for cooling and the plants require a fraction of the size to build. it's called Thorium. The reason it wasn't developed before is because Plutonium couldn't be extracted for the weapons industry. Google Kirk Thorensen former NASA physicist and Thorium advocate. The Chinese are quietly forging ahead with its development with 5 thorium reactors coming on line in a few years. Why quietly? Because they're going to sell us the technology because we're too stupid to have seized the opportunity when we had it.

I have a medical technologist friend and he said recently that it's well know Olympus is a dodgy company. Their repair fees are according to him, exorbitantly high. And whilst the product is good, not necessarily any better than other makers. That's what he's said at least.

The whole situation is both deplorable and a cynical reminder of the obstinacy and cynicism of the Japanese to use donations for the disaster relief as funding for this stupidity. Anyway, the anti whaling movement will win the battle and there is absolutely no doubt about that. The pity is they have to resort to these means.

Too much misinformation floating around here. 'people disappear In Japanese prisons' etc. What utter nonsense and baloney. What does happen is that people go to these places to be punished strictly & usually 'fairly'. They also have many opportunities to learn trades and other skills. And unlike the prisons in the West, have lower rates of recidivism. We have a few things to learn ...

Whenever society is unstable, financial disarray and growing discontent these idiots will attract the gullible, the disenfranchised but more to the point; they attract those that neither think nor read. And that's why they can grow ...

Hardly reassuring knowing the keystones have bungled things again. They don't have even one ounce of my trust I'm afraid.

'Hop on one foot and pour a drink'. Not at the same time, surely? Not the sharpest robot in the old box then ....

Des, that's now quite what I meant. Anyway, the best to you.

The tragedy here is that Olympus is a very good product. They make superb optical devices and always have. The Olympus Pen cameras of the late 60s were way ahead of their time and the company was innovative. One hopes there is still a future without the meatballs at the top.

Des, if you think you can navigate this thing called 'life' without a guide, you do that. I know with absolute certainty you can't.

If he's against abortion and homosexuality he's correct. People of that persuasion shouldn't be harassed or discriminated agains but neither should they be elevated as is their wish. It's good to see him in this area giving a bit of a hand but make no mistake, he's a political representative of his culture and its survival. They'll do well with the Hollywood set. Plenty of money from them for sure.

Des, as I've said, he's a good man in my opinion but he's also not telling the full story. Either about the medieval condition the Lamas kept the country in for hundreds of years, the deep schisms, sometimes violence between feuding Lama sects and only fessed up on the notorious problems of sexual abuse by Lamas against gullible Western female believers. These are serious issues but the Hollywood set don't want to hear it. It's all 'compassion' and I say; show me where this compassion is? They have a few hospices here and there but primarily it's identical to the Roman Catholic Church and riddled with mumbo-jumbo. More to do with shamanism than anything else. Nice bloke though, but that's all he is; just a bloke.

Ditto ebisen.

A purely spiritual role you say? Excuse my cynicism but this bloke is very political and interested primarily in the survival of Lamaism in Tibet. He shrugs off the dark truth that the Lamas held the place to ransom in a similar way Catholics once did with Europe in the Middle Ages; primarily through fear of the afterlife bogymen and exorbitant taxes. A nice enough bloke, I agree, but without doubt a political one.

Yakuza re like flies. swish at them with a rolled up newspaper and they just fly off and land somewhere else. Yubaru, you're a blatant liar or a halfwit... then again probably both. Just the fact that you can say drivel like, "the ones I know are pretty decent folk' proves to me at least you don't know what your talking about and using this forum to aggrandize and fantasize. Nobody gets involved with these people, at least not 'normal' people so where does that put you?

@Ultrack. I see you've bought the hype hook, line and sinker. He's a good man I agree, but don't forget he's just that; a man. Like all of us his primary motivation is survival. And in his case that also means by proxy, the survival of a TIbetan culture in exile. It sounds to me like you're having a moment of metaphysical confusion. A good man, nothing else. If he's that 'enlightened' why not put an end to the schisms and often violent clashes between his followers and the followers of the Dorje sect. Not everybody in Tibet wants to see him come back either.

This bloke wears me down ... I've read many of his books, listened to him and find it all lacking. There's a smugness about Lamaism in particular that I can't quite explain. Much like Catholic smugness actually and that they feed on the neuroses of Westerners bothers me. So drone on about 'compassion' and 'suffering' and rope in more converts to support your cause I suppose. Not me ...

That organized crime is behind this is pretty obvious. The questions begs; for what? This a serious pile of money, was it laundering, calling the fly-blown garbage otherwise name yakuza away from shareholders meetings and if so, why? More unanswered questions that will unfold in the next few months. For Olympus to try to palm this foreign CEO off as one who 'doesn't understand our culture' is a chestnut from the 80s and 90s. More indicative of hiding something than anything else ...

Sure enough, the muslims try once again to impose their medieval ways and superstitions on a rational society and before the 'racist' 'bigot' labels are handed out, let me say this is fact and a calling a spade a spade. The religion is primitive, intolerant and illogical. Time to move forward, not back to the 12th century. Well done France, enough is enough.

One can only wonder how much time this weird place run on the whims and by nutty Kim family has left? The end won't be pretty with millions of brainwashed, undereducated, under nourished wanting the good life in the South. Not pretty at all.

A good headline which should have just read; "Noda won't last long" Nobody ever does. This is a revolving door job as the world knows. Who's next?

Back up what I say? I'm not a scientists but I am savvy enough to do research and learn. Thorium is without question the future, safe 'green' nuclear energy but blocked by the vested interests of the current nuclear industry. Uranium was only chosen over thorium which is every bit as powerful by the US military, as plutonium for weapons can be extracted. Experimental? Not at all... it's operational and the Chinese are readying their technology for it's implementation within the next four years. india also has built working reactors but stymied but the lack of interest. this is not pie-in-the-sky but here and now. THe problem is only that it's ignored.

Nuclear is the best answer for Japan and the rest of the world. I'm talking about 'green nuclear' that China is so quietly pushing ahead with. They'll develop operational LFTR reactors in a year or so then sell the technology to the world. Safe, smaller, in the same situation as Fukushima they would have sputtered out instead of going haywire. Nobody seems to want to know about thorium reactors which can actually utilize the waste from uranium reactors Infinitely safer, no plutonium, just as powerful and 4 times as plentiful. Google TED talks Kirk Sorensen former NASA designer and let him explain it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2vzotsvvkw

This an odd phenomena everywhere. I recall a couple of cases in the US where the 'doctor' was only discovered years later, with numerous patients treated. And 'cured'. Nothing new here just an idiot who wants to 'help' but goes about it in the wrong way. I'm sure we'd all be surprised just how many 'doctors' there are in this world who have never been to medical school. More than a few I think ...

@OnlyAGaijin: Zen again, anger knows to types, controlled and uncontrolled. Kawashima has every right to feel anger but in contradiction, as someone here has also has posted he should never react. It simply gets the reaction the baiters wanted. Eric Cantona 'lost it' with these morons and there seems to be a real abundance of them in the 'silly game'. Cantona must have regretted it.

Part of the 'beautiful game', a moniker they gave themselves (pffffft ...) soccer has always attracted the basest, boorish, most violent of supporters and my theory has in part to do with at least, the low scoring rate. A stupid game and terribly overrated. Japan seems to be one of the few countries where it is played with any genuine sportsmanship. Ditto Japanese rugby, the level of sportsmanship is wonderful.

Johnny is one old and very wobbly dude ... the stories throughout the years that pop up in the news about this sleazy character and his couch casting are out there if you look for them.

Thankfully, Japan will never, every become a military power again and for that the world can feel at ease. Yes, losing is tough but the problem here is the same as it's always been; collective amnesia. Once there is a full recognition of the horror perpetrated by the Imperial Army et. al. we can move on. Germany did it, so can Japan. It's the only way left as Japan slowly lumbers in the sleepwalk to oblivion that Its now on. Rich and irrelevant, just like Switzerland. So the old GI I saw in suit, veteran's cap and can who shouted out "We gotcha, Tojo yer f****r!" at this same event one year ago can rest old wounds and we can truly as they say: all move on.