GalapagosnoGairaishu comments

Posted in: Anti-Semitic fliers appear on campuses across U.S. See in context

Whatever else one might think of Jews, they have made a major contribution to American intellectual life. They are well represented in the professions -- law, medicine, the sciences, finance, business, teaching, etc., and something like 60% are college educated. I've seen figures to the effect that they make up 20% of the faculty members at elite US institutions. Any treatment, covert or overt, that attempts to alienate them would seem counter-productive to the extreme. That it happened at all in this day and age reflects shamefully on US academia.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Posted in: Message service Line entering carrier business in Japan See in context

Sigh. Another new drug pusher has just moved into the block. The cell phone zombies should be ecstatic at the prospect of a cheaper high from their mobile devices.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Posted in: Cruz calls Trump a 'sniveling coward' for threatening his wife on Twitter See in context

I'm reminded of the Jerry Springer show, except politicians are even better than rank amateurs when it comes to entertainment value.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Posted in: Car chased by police crashes into taxi, killing cabbie See in context

His family will probably have to sell off their assets to pay compensation to the deceased and the other injured parties.

About 20 years ago a friend of mine got run over, killed instantly, by a college student on a speeding motorcycle. My friend was in a pedestrian crosswalk and there were no extenuating circumstances. The kid did prison time (4 years if memory serves me correct) and his family will be supporting my friend's widow and their child for the rest of their natural lives.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Posted in: 10 things foreigners in Japan notice about Japanese phone culture See in context

The sight of hordes of shuffling, self-absorbed zombies totally immersed in their smartphones reminds me of scenes from The Night of the Living Dead, and is just as terrifying.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Posted in: Pricey gold samurai helmets on sale for Japanese boys See in context

May 5th was originally Boys' Day

The Chinese origins had nothing to do with either gender. Just goes to show how holidays can mutate over the millennia. Like Christmas, from its pagan origins.

From Wiki: The story best known in modern China holds that the festival commemorates the death of the poet and minister Qu Yuan (c. 340–278 BC) of the ancient state of Chu during the Warring States period of the Zhou Dynasty.A cadet member of the Chu royal house, Qu served in high offices. However, when the king decided to ally with the increasingly powerful state of Qin, Qu was banished for opposing the alliance and even accused of treason. During his exile, Qu Yuan wrote a great deal of poetry. Twenty-eight years later, Qin captured Ying, the Chu capital. In despair, Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River.

It is said that the local people, who admired him, raced out in their boats to save him or at least retrieve his body. This is said to have been the origin of dragon boat races. When his body could not be found, they dropped balls of sticky rice into the river so that the fish would eat them instead of Qu Yuan's body. This is said to be the origin of zongzi.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: N Korea sentences U.S. student to 15 years hard labor See in context

I tremble thinking what the sentence might be if he'd tried to pull a similar stunt in Saudi Arabia.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Posted in: AI beats human Go grandmaster... again See in context

Yesterday I played Othello against a computer and won two games out of three.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: Chinese-language free newspapers full of questionable ads, get-rich-quick schemes See in context

@Strangerland. But to make it have the meaning of excluding Chinese, the hyphen would have to be moved so that the headline reads: "Chinese language-free newspapers," no?

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Posted in: Chinese-language free newspapers full of questionable ads, get-rich-quick schemes See in context

Sensato@I must disagree. If you split free and newspapers it is more confusing than putting the two words next to each other. Moreover "Free newspaper" is a widely understood term. Here is how Wikipedia defines it: Free newspapers are distributed free of charge, either in central places in cities and towns, on public transport, with other newspapers, or separately door-to-door. The revenues of such newspapers are based on advertising. Some are dailies, some are weeklies.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

Posted in: Some Republicans see Cruz as best alternative to Trump See in context

Frank Bruni in the NY Times described Cruz as a "knight in sliming armor." His whole life has been focused on getting into the White House, and he'll say anything to make that happen, principles be damned. If being liked or respected doesn't matter, then Cruz may very well emerge as the New Nixon.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Posted in: Romney calls Trump phony, fraud; urges Republicans to shun him See in context

I deluded myself for a long time that American voters' innate decency and common sense would immunize them from this kind of demagoguery. If Romney's speech serves as a wake-up call, then all the better. (He may even go down in history for it.) Loyalty to the nation surely counts for more than loyalty to the party. When the US faced a constitutional crisis in 1974 over Nixon's role in Watergate, it was Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater (who was also a general in the Air National Guard) who convinced him that the healing process could not begin unless Nixon resigned. Of course while all this goes on, we may rely on FOX News to keep throwing more gasoline on the conflagration.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Posted in: 76 hungry Boko Haram members surrender to Nigerian military See in context

Hunger is what happens when you keep murdering farmers and other people in the food supply chain. Idiots.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Posted in: Trump, Clinton heavy favorites going in to Super Tuesday See in context

Thanks for the civics lesson@wanderlust, but I don't see your point. Basically if Trump accumulates enough districts in enough states, he'll be the next president. That's the way the system was intended to work. Electors can resign if they don't want to cast their ballot for a winner they don't like, but I hope you're not implying they could overturn the election.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Posted in: Virginia policewoman killed on her 1st day on job; army sergeant charged See in context

This is very, very sad. I hope I never have to read another story like this again.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Posted in: Would you like to see Donald Trump become the next U.S. president? See in context

With Trump in the White House, you'll soon hear two sounds: America's death rattle, and Fox News' Rupert Murdoch cackling with glee -- all the way to the bank.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

Posted in: Trump's march stirs growing sense of dread among U.S. Republicans See in context

I was looking at some old YouTube newsreels and struck by the remarkable similarities in body language, facial expressions and gestures between Trump and Benito Mussolini. I wonder, though, if Trump could make the trains run on time...

0 ( +4 / -4 )

Posted in: 4 dead, 14 wounded in Kansas shootings See in context

Once upon a time, there were people living in an open-carry state in America... ... and they died happily ever after.

6 ( +9 / -3 )

Posted in: Rubio, Cruz go after Trump in debate See in context

The news channel owned by the billionaire Australian media magnate has pronounced Trump The Anointed One, so there's hardly any point in holding an election, let alone state primaries.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Posted in: Trump momentum grows ahead of Super Tuesday next week See in context

I guess soon enough, I'll be saying "My country, right or wrong, wrong, wrong."

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Posted in: Mysterious thieves on bizarre train strap binge See in context

HollisBrown, it occurred to me that nobody would pay attention to someone wearing worker fatigues, who detached them in plain sight. Of course on late evening trains, most of the passengers are either likely to be sleeping off the effects of booze or totally immersed in their cell phones.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Posted in: Chinese phones go global after pushing aside Apple, Samsung See in context

However, don't look to China be exporting autos, appliances or electronics any time soon.

It's true that Haier, which is sold here, has not made much of a penetration under its own brand name. But if a Japanese-owned or joint venture factory in China sells its products in Japan, does that count as a China export? If you go to a mass retailer like BIC Camera or Yodobashi or LABI, etc. many of the air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines and other "white goods" are made in China or Southeast Asia, even if the brand nameplate reads Hitachi or Toshiba. These days mostly the high-end products carry a Made in Japan label.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Posted in: Rubio, Cruz look to derail Trump's lead in Republican race See in context

There's a strong likelihood that the results of the upcoming primaries and the November election will be decided by the propagandizing efforts of a TV network owned by an Australian billionaire.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Posted in: 'Torture works,' Trump says as South Carolina primary looms See in context

It's torture watching this creep campaign. Please, JT, I'll confess to anything -- just make him stop.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Posted in: 5 Palestinians killed while attacking Israelis See in context

Let's just focus on, say, how inclusive the Tel Aviv YMCA is, as proof it's all sweetness and light.

Wrong acronym@Sense. You obviously have never heard of the YMHA, founded in the 1870s in New York. There are about 500 branches in Israel.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Posted in: Obscure at home, 'Texas Daddy' is a right-wing darling in Japan See in context

For the past several years Marano, along with Henry Scott Stokes and Kent Gilbert, have been appearing frequently in the Yukan Fuji and several right-wing opinion magazines like the Sankei Shimbun's Shokun and WiLL. They have also published books, the contents of which would have almost certainly got them hanged had they published or broadcasted them in wartime. (Try googling "Lord Haw-haw.) Of these foreign mercenaries, Marano is the most extreme since he's never lived in Japan and has zero qualifications as a journalist, academic or opinion leader. I think Yukan Fuji is defrauding its readers by publishing columns that profess to air Marano's views when they are merely ghostwritten by history trolls who are out to deny the Nanjing Massacre, atrocities against allied POWs, etc. The same crowd also blames Roosevelt for "tricking" Japan into attacking Pearl Harbor. These people learned their history lessons at the knee of Josef Goebbels and for Marano to lend his name to them and accept money for it is shameful. What's really remarkable is why Japanese would even want to take the writings of foreign mercenaries without questioning their motives (money? shameless self promotion?), when they have nothing whatsoever to offer. The rightists have been making exactly the same claims since the occupation ended.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Posted in: Chinese tour groups give love hotels a boost See in context

Because guests never register, love hotels have long been known to be notorious tax cheaters (sushi shops and pachinko parlours being the other two in the top three). Not sure this place would expect to cook the books with a busload of foreigners paid for by one source. No doubt he'll find a way tho...

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Posted in: Trump, Sanders face challenges in more diverse states See in context

The pattern for many years in US politics was for the incumbent VP take up the outgoing president's mantle in elections. Truman (due to Roosevelt's death), LBJ, Nixon, Ford, and Bush 41. So if you look at consecutive US elections over the past two decades, it says something about the lack of receptivity toward incumbent VPs: Gore, Cheney and Biden. Three different reasons for the three men not becoming president, of course, but taken together it represents a divergence from earlier times. I haven't read much commentary on this subject, but it's an interesting phenomenon.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: Russian gangs set sights on 2020 Olympic opportunities See in context

It might help if the writer tried working from an outline in the future.

That would take some doing, since it's a translation of an article appearing in the Japanese-language newspaper Nikkan Gendai.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Posted in: Boko Haram burns kids alive in Nigeria; 86 dead See in context

The Guardian ran an article about how Nigeria's population is projected to exceed the US by 2050. That may also make it the largest English-speaking country in the world. (It's in 2nd place now.)

theguardian.com/global-development/2013/jun/13/nigeria-larger-population-us-2050

I would hope that the Boko Haram problem will be eliminated by then.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Recent Comments

Popular

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites


©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.