davidattokyo comments

Posted in: Japanese whaling: Why the West is in the wrong See in context

AnimuX,

No one mentioned the word "traditional" in this post until your (what appears to be copy-and-paste) comment.

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Posted in: Japanese whaling: Why the West is in the wrong See in context

Brandon,

There's humpback meat in the Japanese market, and it's not just because they hit them with their boats like they claim.

Humpback whales have died from time to time in fixed fishing nets along the Japanese coast may be sold legally.

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Posted in: Japanese whaling: Why the West is in the wrong See in context

Brandon, Dave,

As for minke whale numbers, the latest IWC Scientific Committee report indicates that the estimate to be agreed next year is likely to be above 500,000 (the report is on the Whaling commission's homepage).

In any case 500,000 is more than enough for sustainable harvests of a conservative 0.4% a year (e.g. 2,000 whales say), for at least the next 5 years.

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Posted in: Japanese whaling: Why the West is in the wrong See in context

WilliB,

Mr. Clancy falls for the red herring that labelling a whaling ship as a "research" vessel makes whaling research. Talk about being naive....

Yeah, well the IWC Scientific Committee itself is using the Japanese data, so he Clancy naive, or it it the people who believe all the commercial anti-whaling industry propaganda who are naive?

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Posted in: Japanese whaling: Why the West is in the wrong See in context

smithinjapan,

how does killing them make them more 'consensus friendly' than simply spotting them if they have to spot them to kill them in the first place?

Because the biological samples reveal information that can not be gathered simply by spotting the whale.

The IWC's own scientific committee is using data from Japan's data as an input to statistical catch-at-age models. You can confirm this for yourself if you care to read the latest IWC Scientific Committee report (around section 10 or thereabouts).

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Posted in: Japanese whaling: Why the West is in the wrong See in context

Faceless1,

One thing is for certain though; without the whalers, slaughtering whales for no good reason, there would be no anti-whaler crowd to fault for anything.

But whales are slaughtered for very good reason.

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Posted in: Japanese whaling: Why the West is in the wrong See in context

Brandon,

Regarding your black market claims etc, if it's illegal to sell whale in the US, then the US authorities have the responsibility to enforce their own laws. In Japan, the whale meat can be legally sold.

And it has nothing to do with research whaling anyway. The research whaling is supposed to offload the meat for full utilisation in accordance with the whaling convention.

If anything, that whale meat is in demand in places like the US argues in favourable of regulating sustainable whaling, not mindlessly banning it without basis, as has been the case at the IWC thanks to the commercial anti-whaling industry.

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Posted in: Japanese whaling: Why the West is in the wrong See in context

Brandon LaBeet,

My population estimate concerning the 14-16 percent was in relation to humpbacks

Just FYI, you appear to have confused a estimates of an increase in population abundance within a specific area with an increase in the size of a biological population. Two different things.

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Posted in: Japanese whaling: Why the West is in the wrong See in context

Dave Rideough,

Same arguments, same aggression, same inability to see anyone elses point?

There's no aggression in my response. That comes just about entirely from you confabulating me with this other David.

There's no aggression here either, you wouldn't believe the amount of this nonsense I put up with for simply posting factual information about Japan's whaling research, and the whaling convention here. It's hardly worth it, I warn you...

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Posted in: Federer beats Nishikori to win Swiss Indoors title See in context

Yeah he already has. Shuzo's PB ranking was 46 IIRC. Nishikori missed the better part of the previous two seasons due to injuries so good to see him coming through now.

But go FedEx in the next tourny!

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Posted in: Brigitte Bardot urges Japan to stop whaling See in context

Spidapig24,

Let's just try to help the moderators keep the playing field level by refraining from impolite comments, shall we? One impolite comment tends to draw another, so if we are both able to refrain from rudeness, problem solved.

That comment was in reference to your comment "How is intolerance for other food cultures showing compassion or brains?"

That Japan's food culture includes whales is not inconsistent with the history of whaling in the Antarctic whaling grounds.

In any case the whaling convention is the relevant international law, and it doesn't prescribe discrimination against Japan's whaling activities in the Antarctic whaling grounds. In my opinion suggesting otherwise is to demonstrate intolerance of Japan's food culture, which includes whales, which can be harvested in the Antarctic whaling grounds (which is why there is a whaling convention).

I know you personally are against whaling in the Antarctic whaling grounds, you are quite entitled to that opinion.

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Posted in: Brigitte Bardot urges Japan to stop whaling See in context

Yet more impolite comments from Spidapig24, but let's let it slide.

Just out of curiosity how many hundreds of years does Japans tradition of whaling in Antarctica stretch back for?

That appears to be of no relevance to the whaling convention.

But seeing as you mention the notion of arbitrary discrimination against certain signatories of the whaling convention, it ought be recognised that the whaling convention does say that whaling regulations shall NOT involve restrictions on the nationality of those vessels involved in whaling.

The whaling regulations also "shall take into consideration the interests of the consumers of whale products and the whaling industry".

There is nothing in the whaling convention that you can use to discriminate against Japan's whaling. Without the law on your side, all you are really able to claim is that you don't like Japan's whaling. And you are welcome to your personal opinion, but that ought not be confused with international law, which must guide us in resolving disputes. Clearly Japan is in the right.

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Posted in: Brigitte Bardot urges Japan to stop whaling See in context

Japan's whale eating culture and desire to conduct commercial whaling (not only in the Antarctic but also the North Pacific) are 100% consistent.

Indeed Japan was allocated quotas for such whaling for decades until the rise of intolerance in anti-whaling nations in around the 1970's culminated in devious imposition of a de-facto whaling ban in the guise of "moratorium" on whaling in 1982.

To question the notion of such a harvest now is to ignore historical facts and international law.

We can never lose sight of the fact that the whaling convention was created for the purpose of regulating whaling of whale stocks, for the benefit of whale product consumers and the whaling industry.

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Posted in: Brigitte Bardot urges Japan to stop whaling See in context

How is intolerance for other food cultures showing compassion or brains?

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Posted in: Brigitte Bardot urges Japan to stop whaling See in context

Spigapig24, how did you slip that sort of comment past the moderators? Very impolite to other users.

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Posted in: Brigitte Bardot urges Japan to stop whaling See in context

all the more for the rest of us ebisen :)

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Posted in: Brigitte Bardot urges Japan to stop whaling See in context

Cricky, if the "waste of money" is an issue for you then why not let's abolish the long-invalid commercial whaling moratorium, and let private business people risk their own money on it? This would then reduce the cost to protecting citizens from going about their legal business from lawless bandits. I'd prefer that too, it'd probably make the cost of a meal a bit cheaper.

Christina, I like to see them both wild and free as well as on my plate (You aren't expected to eat them if you don't want to). This is what the whaling convention is all about - conserving whale stocks and developing the whaling industry.

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Posted in: Brigitte Bardot urges Japan to stop whaling See in context

Sea Shepherd themselves deny that they are a protest organization, so that line of argumentation doesn't stand up to proper scrutiny.

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Posted in: Brigitte Bardot urges Japan to stop whaling See in context

smithinjapan,

Call them what you will, but it's the eco-terrorists' lack of respect for the law (UNCLOS and ICRW) that is the root of the problem. Blaming the Japanese government for protecting it's citizens who are going about their legal business from outlaws is simple common practice.

And for your information, coastal Tohoku is one region of Japan with close links to Japan's whale culture. I doubt they of all Japanese would be siding with Sea Shepherd on the issue...

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Posted in: Brigitte Bardot urges Japan to stop whaling See in context

Patrick Smash,

Unfortunately the only way to make whaling fund itself again would be for the anti-whalers to agree to let the whaling commission lift it's invalid "moratorium" provision, and then use commercial whaling license fees to fund any public-good research that is necessary to facilitate it's development, thus eliminating the current need for public support.

By the way, it doesn't seem to be the case that a majority of African and Asian nations are upset about people eating whales, so at best your idea that "every country on earth" has a problem with it is a whale of an exaggeration.

NetNinja,

Right there, you captured it. So they can feel natsukashii. They want to go back to the way things were. It's not cause whale tastes good, it's because it's symbolic. We own the sea, we capture and destroy the beasts. Under Imperial Japan the Emperor declared that all the Pacific would be the Empire of Japan. Our ships and boats would dominate the world.

Mmmm, but none of the people I eat whale with are old men nor even Japanese in some cases, and we do eat it because it tastes good. I sure wouldn't pay money to eat it if I didn't like it.

Let's remember that what's important is that the whaling industry be given the chance to develop in the context of conservation of whale stocks, in accordance with the spirit and letter of the whaling convention.

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Posted in: Brigitte Bardot urges Japan to stop whaling See in context

If a washed-up 1960s sex kitten believes “Whales are endangered" then maybe Japan should stop whaling huh.

That's the best excuse I've seen round here lately.

Commercial whaling is banned under an international treaty

It isn't banned, commercial catch limits are just temporarily set at zero right now.

She said the government should use the $27 million that it intends to spend on protecting the whaling fleet to help people affected by the tsunami and to “come to the aid of animals condemned to die in terrible conditions.”

It's the eco-terrorists that are precluding this option.

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Posted in: Occupy Wall Street movement flexes muscles one month on See in context

HumanTarget,

I see. Interesting logic. Of course if they try it and it works, that'd be great. But my personal experiences me that it'd end in tears (just my personal opinion mind, I'd love it if I were wrong, but I think there's a lot of people who feel the same way as me and seeing this stuff go on makes us less confident).

I don't think jobs is only on the consumer side. Consumers will buy stuff but only if that stuff exists and they want it. iPhones weren't developed because millions of people wanted them, Apple had to take the risks of bringing their ideas to the market. So we need to make it easy for businesses to take more risks so that we get more good products come out, which will help stimulate demand.

Possibly the answer is a mix of policy, maybe then everyone will feel better.

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Posted in: Occupy Wall Street movement flexes muscles one month on See in context

I see that student-loan debt is one of the issues for OWS.

So who do they think should be paying off their debts, other than they, the recipients of their education?

Well if I take a guess, the students should pay the debts off themselves, because they opted to take the risk they took to spend money to better themselves.

To do this, they need jobs. How do they get jobs? They can either start a business themselves using their great education (and become one of the top 1% even) or pray that the government stops holding businesses back from job-creation with their excessive regulations and unconventional monetary policies which have created uncertainty in the economic system.

If the government were for example to "bail out" the students then that will inevitably result in unintended consequences such as the housing bubble that we are currently sitting in the splat of.

Hopefully we'll learn.

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Posted in: Occupy Wall Street movement flexes muscles one month on See in context

HumanTarget,

The 1% pays a "disproportionate chunk of the taxes"?

Yes, a disproportionate chunk. They aren't paying only 1% of the taxes don't you know. (By the way I'm not a "Republican", and I never intend to be.)

You should, like me, thank goodness for these wealthy people throughout the world because without them we'd all be living like the poor North Koreans.

As for America's jobs problem, the problem as I see it is the US government leadership and monetary policy officialdom. Creating massive wads of new regulations and unconventional monetary policy together has created huge uncertainty in the markets, which makes the environment for job-creation worse.

Democratic governments have proved that they can not successfully micro-manage economies, they can only succeed by establishing a healthy environment within which economies can operate. The problem with politicians is that they pander to their interest groups which simply put, screws everything up. (US tax code is, speaking of this, a good example.)

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Posted in: All Blacks batter Australia 20-6 to advance to Rugby World Cup final See in context

All QC needs to do is fess up and admit that he put a cheap shot on Richie, apologise for it, and then promise to put on a good exciting display for the kiwi fans in the crowd at the 3rd/4th game.

Kiwis will forgive him if he would but show a little humility rather than endless arrogance. The biggest problem he has is that he has his supporters, and he cowers behind them rather than stand up and be a man. He's still only 23 though and obviously not the brightest lightbulb in the appliance store.

As for the game - a telling same came straight after the Haka. The ABs turned and went straight for their marks, whereas the Aussies were still standing there in a line, trying to do their post-Haka "stare-them-done" crap. The All Blacks were there to get straight down to the business of playing a world cup semi-final, whereas the Aussies were trying to play mind games. That was a big difference.

They had also been softened up the previous week by the Boks, although the All Blacks have had their fair share of injuries...

Beware the French going feral in the final... they've beaten the English, have no one expecting them to win, they'll go out and play the game of their lives now.

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Posted in: Occupy Wall Street movement flexes muscles one month on See in context

anger at economic disparities between the top one percent and the other 99 percent.

Yeah with 1% of the people paying such a huge disproportionate chunk of the taxes that the government sucks in to run the country, and creating the jobs that employ millions of other Americans, who wouldn't be angry about disparity.

The biggest problem with capitalism is that it produces poor results when "elites" in government who "know what's best" start to meddle with the markets (as they did with the housing market, which is largely the reason we find ourselves in the current mess).

Still, it has produced better results than redistributionist socialism ever has, and it will again in future, unless some really REALLY elite people can dream up a better system (not holding my breath).

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Posted in: Noda confirms Japan will send SDF engineering team to South Sudan See in context

to help the African nation build badly needed infrastructure such as roads, bridges and harbors.

Forgive my ignorance but will South Sudan actually be needing any harbor infrastructure? They don't seem to have any sea border but they might have a big old river I guess...

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Posted in: NZ, Australia condemn Japan's plan to go ahead with whaling See in context

l am opposed to whaling full stop in the Southern Ocean.

Yes, I know this already. So it's established that you don't want whaling in the Southern Ocean, or as in your prior post, in the breeding grounds either.

If this means whaling on the migratory routes and its controlled so be it. However l will not accept anything less than a complete stop to whaling in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary. I cant say it any clearer than that now can l.

Let me confirm... are you saying you'd live with regulated whaling on whales during their migration from the breeding grounds (outside the Southern Ocean) to the feeding grounds (the Southern Ocean whaling grounds / illegal "Sanctuary")?

What do you mean by "controlled"?

David l merely used your own words, its not my fault you flip flopped about your beliefs and said what you did. l merely quoted what you have said

I never said anything about conservation in my statement, you quoted it for yourself but then took it to mean something about what I think about conservation. You are accusing me of flip-flopping when you put words into my mouth in the first instance!

That's why I am taking much care above in my question to you about your beliefs about hunting whales on their migratory routes between their breeding and feeding grounds... I don't want to assume anything - I want to hear it from you first, and I'm giving you every chance to clarify what you mean by "controlled".

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Posted in: NZ, Australia condemn Japan's plan to go ahead with whaling See in context

Spidapig24,

please tell me where exactly l said not to protect the breeding grounds.

Oh sorry, my bad... I assumed that you're talking about one or the other. So you actually meant to protect whales on the feeding grounds AS WELL AS their breeding grounds... (the whaling industry will be even less happy...)

That leaves the migration routes between the feeding and breeding grounds... So can we catch whales on the migration routes between the feeding and breeding grounds? (I'm guessing your answer is no, but if yes then maybe we still have something to talk about)

David l used your exact wording. I actually quoted you word for word so how is that extrapolating or incorrect.

You extrapolated what I believe about conservation based on my comments about not making it needlessly difficult for business to operate. In my comments (which you quoted) I didn't refer to conservation explicitly, and you exploited this by inserting some completely outrageous statements to me to the effect that I don't believe in one half of the whaling convention's mandate.

But I know that you won't end this until you have vilified me into submission, so on that note, I now leave the final word to you (unless you want to explore that giving the OK to whaling on the migration routes topic, that is):

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Posted in: NZ, Australia condemn Japan's plan to go ahead with whaling See in context

Spidapig24,

So basically you are saying dont worry about conservation lets make it as easy as possible to kill them.

No that's not what I saying "basically". What I said was what I said, not your extrapolated and incorrect version, obviously produced to vilify those who don't share your whale hugging tendencies.

If you hunt whales in their feeding grounds then you can affect the balance, you stress the animals and can scare them off from their food supply. This will then affect their breeding which will decline numbers.

This theory hasn't played out in reality, but you should tell this to the IWC Scientific Committee, and post the response you get, back here. Should be good for a laugh!

Ah the truth, so its now whaling is good because its good for business.

What's wrong with sustainable business?? We need more sustainable business in the 21st century - not less.

We are talking an area that comprises 1/600 of the oceans in the world so l dont understand how you can say that means precluding whaling entirely

Because we already don't hunt whales anywhere except the whaling grounds.

it leaves 335 million sq km for the Japanese to hunt in.

It would be bad to allow whaling on the breeding grounds from a conservation perspective. At least, this is the predominant knowledge. Your idea of protecting on the feeding grounds instead of the breeding grounds is novel, but I think it'd be rejected by all serious whale conservationists.

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