Posted in: Returning Japan Olympians to have smartphones undergo security check See in context
I spoke to soon.
Japanese Paralympians will be provided phones for their campaigns in Beijing. 66 member delegation of 25 athletes. It’s not a sponsorship deal, but that is only a matter of time.
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20220209_22/
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Posted in: Returning Japan Olympians to have smartphones undergo security check See in context
I think this will be a thing going forward. I can see different manufacturers lining up to make sponsorship deals and providing team phones. Timed right, you could make a little profit off it.
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Posted in: Unvaccinated Olympic snowboarder defends choice after quarantine See in context
Kind of a nothing story. 34 year old Olympian fails to medal aft being knocked out in the round of 16. Without her vaccination status, there is no story. She was allowed in, quarantined, participated, finish. Only thing I can get from this is possibly a procedure forward for some international competitions.
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Posted in: Are you watching or do you plan to watch any of the Beijing Winter Olympics on TV? See in context
Not a fan of the IOC or host nation, so highlights and medal counts are the extent I’m going to be watching the olympics.
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Posted in: Argument leads to fatal shooting in checkout line of Florida grocery store See in context
Okay, Coral Gables, Fort Lauderdale, and Orlando.
This is a pretty bad written article. Lauderdale and Gables are just about 40 minutes apart in a the highly dense Miami-Dade county.
Orlando is over 3 hours away and is the seat of a second metropolitan area. This is like saying there was a shooting incident in Tokyo, Yokohama, and just outside of Nagoya (which is not affiliated with Tokyo) then saying that the whole Honshu is dangerous. Please keep things in perspective.
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Posted in: China beats South Korea to win Women's Asian Cup See in context
Not on TV, not on mainstream media. Not on mainstream media, not accessible to common public. Not accessible to common public, little rationale for companies to excessively sponsor the event. No big sponsorships, devalued product. Devalued product, lower rationale to match salaries to male counterparts. This results in some saying the compensation is unfair.
But we did get to watch it on youtube, live for free, so that’s good.
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Posted in: Macron's government seeks to give Islam a French makeover See in context
I’m confused, I thought secularism was a big thing in French governments.
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Posted in: Joe Rogan apologizes for racial slurs after video surfaces See in context
Niel Young owns 50 % of his music catalog and the other half is own by Hipgnosis Song Fund (HSF), which Blackstone has invested in. While Young probably can’t enter any agreement without HSF involvement, and vice versa, they can probably influence each other in renegotiating terms of deals. This is what is happening here.
Finally some advice for music lovers; If you really love the music but hate the politics, buy a CD and copy it to a hard drive. Not as convenient as Spotify, but your library is no longer at the whim of the artist, their politics, interactions, or corporate interests.
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Posted in: Compulsory vaccination rules come into force in Austria See in context
The government is not forcing you to vaccinate, they are just limiting your movements to the point it more beneficial. As Austria is part of the European union, it’s citizens have the option to leave Austria.
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Posted in: Japan's border policy keeping hundreds of thousands of foreigners in limbo See in context
I see the author, the title, and the main advertisement under the article (Japan Human Rights Advocacy) and I know this 'meh' (not an issue). The time, money and energy spent to try to enter a country that has made it clear that it is not open could be better spent ensuring a future in a present location.
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Posted in: Do you think media companies should be held liable for defamatory third-party comments on their Facebook pages or discussion boards? See in context
The simple answer is no.
Easiest analogy;
You are the host of a party. You then invite 11 other people, for a party of 12 people. One member of your party (let's call them W) is not liked by 3 other members (we will call them 'the clique'). During the party, 2 members of 'the clique' talk about W to every other member of the party to the point where some of the other guests dissociate from W. Can blame W blame you for defamation?
I would say yes if any one of these conditions could be met:
(A) You would have to have known about the nature of the relationship between W and 'the clique' prior to inviting all of them to the same party.
(B) You would have to have knowledge of and ignored the actions of 'the clique' during the party.
(C) You would have to have knowledge of and ignored any request W made to limit 'the cliques' actions.
In this situation you are social media, W is a public figure, 'the clique' are bad actors, and the other guests are random users.
Condition A requires websites confirm identities with background checks (Think Chinese internet). This is possible, but expensive for small private sites (like JapanToday) and could be seen as invasive for those who could pull it off (like Alphabet/Google or Meta/Facebook).
Condition B requires that the websites not moderate or monitor what discussions happen between it users. Users are not free to share any kind of content between other users (hi moderators, watch this get edited) on any website. Facebook will take down content it does not like, JapanToday will lock comment sections and delete posts deemed inappropriate.
Condition C requires websites to receive complaints and not act on them. Facebook has historically had no direct phone number but there is a reporting system and again they will delete content. JapanToday has a reporting system in place and does delete comments.
While there is an argument to be made about the decision-making process and timing of editing, moderating, and presenting content, it is hard to argue that a third party can act in a way that exposes a media company to defamation.
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Posted in: Children who wear face masks all the time see their marks go down 20% See in context
Very simple reason for why marks are down; masks are a distraction similar to a hat, hoodie, or fidget spinner. Since we a monitoring 13 years of education (ages 5 to 18) we are going to see younger students be more distracted with items that will factor into testing. At the higher grades, we have to deal with the unpredictability of schedules.
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Posted in: Nadal wins Australian Open for record 21st major title See in context
Great on a Rafa. He is deserving of the championship and the achievement. The men’s single’s AO tournament deserves the asterisk for their handing of Novak (also deserving of disqualification), but every sporting events have controversy and are better for it. Can’t wait for the French Open.
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Posted in: U.S. paying athletes to 'disrupt' Winter Olympics: China state media See in context
If the US government was at the games in any official capacity, US athletes would likely be labeled directly as state sponsored disruptors, so no real difference here.
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Posted in: Success of U.S. transgender woman swimmer sparks controversy See in context
Let’s approach this from the point of fairness and access.
LGBT championships are a good idea, but being Lesbian, Gay, or Bi doesn’t affect physical performance in a way that would disadvantage other athletes. Only in Trans do we have a definite disadvantages so I can’t really get along with this idea.
An OPEN division (all genders, no discriminating factors) is also good but opens the door for performance enhancing drugs / hormone abuse because of the different levels of transitioning that is possible between athletes. I like this option personally for morbid reasons to admit. PED science can be used to help and treat some disabilities, and athletics is a great testing ground, but not if it puts participants at a disadvantage). Another issues here is that we are discussing “Amateur Sports” (NCAA), and opening amateurs up to PED taints the whole well of fairness. So, I would support this option for professional leagues.
The issue with NCAA, and all amateur sports at the moment, is that their isn’t enough players to populate events. It’s like women’s wrestling, in high school we didn’t have a woman’s team but we had a woman on the team so she wrestled guys in her weight class. Eventually we had enough girls to populate a full team and the og moved into that program.
In order for our current situation to not be an issue, the NCAA should create divisions and rule sets that allow for Trans (Males and Females) to compete in their own distinct divisions. That creates a means of access and promotes fairness. Presently the NCAA is promoting access and the cost of fairness.
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Posted in: Success of U.S. transgender woman swimmer sparks controversy See in context
Simple fix, TF division for the women’s team, TM division for men’s team for individually based team sports (track, swimming, tennis, golf). Have the trans compete dispersed among the other athletes and judge them against other trans athletes. Best TM swimmer is the best swimmer among other TM swimmers based on time.
Harder fix for team based sports. Additional roster spots to be added to teams dedicated to TM for men’s teams and TF for women’s teams limited to a composition of 15% of a team or less. This means for example an NCAA basketball ball team would go from 15 players to 17 players with two spots dedicated to trans and only one of those spots being an competition spot.
Finally here is the kicker;
The roster allotments would only exist until a school could fill a team with willing available students. So if in our basketball example; UConn women have 2 TF players and 10 TF players apply to the basketball program, UConn must make create and maintain A UConn TF Basketball program that competes against other TF basketball programs within a year of application. Eventually leagues will form and this mess will fix itself.
Trans will not be happy they have their own league, non trans will not be happy to have to include people, but their is a way to promote the sport to create something self-sustainable.
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Posted in: Symbol of Japan #MeToo movement again awarded damages in rape case See in context
So wish we had a concept of “offsetting penalties” in the legal system. Ito and Yamaguchi both made mistakes, and the judicial system has most definitely not done their job here.
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Posted in: Ian Alexander Jr, only child of Regina King, dies at age 26 See in context
I remember a quote I read about suicide at uni. It read something like:
”Suicide is a act of desperation. If one were so desperate to relive themselves of their life, why not sell off all their possessions, change their identity, and move to Australia?”
In spite of the superficial knock to Australia, I love this sentiment. If one has no reason to live, why not just begin a new life somewhere out of reach of personal history. It’s funny how far a different haircut, different name, and an unknown reference can affect an individual.
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Posted in: Ex-lawmaker Anri Kawai hospitalized after sleeping pill overdose See in context
Got to say Kawai just panicked. This could have manifested in her overdosing, lashing out on staff, or some other public disturbance. She tried, failed, and now deals with the consequences. Hopefully her network puts forth a better effort to maintain her health.
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Posted in: Prosecutors drop vandalism case against singer Onitsuka See in context
Onitsuka toxicology screen come up with nothing and was asked to give an informal apology….or toxicology screen came up with something and she is working with police to root out the things that made her friend “unwell”. I want to say more the former and less the latter.
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Posted in: Osaka, Barty advance toward Australian Open showdown See in context
Interesting to see a sporting event hold what is essentially a private awareness holiday during their event. I’m cool with it, as long as the festivities don’t take too much away from the matches and keep a celebratory tone.
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Posted in: Golf goes to Netflix See in context
The F1 series is horrible….if you are hoping for it to depict the sport of racing. It’s wonderful if you like sports based soap operas. The show was a good way to get back into F1.
I’m not a fan of golf, but I bet there are some good stories to tell.
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Posted in: Microsoft to buy gaming giant Activision Blizzard for $69 bil See in context
I wonder how much the BA drama affected the 68 billion price tag. I could see it costing Activision at least a percentage or 2.
Also would like to see what’s going to happen with EA and Microsoft’s relationship. EA origin is a service promoted on Xbox live.
Before the Comcast/Universal merger and the Disney/Fox Studios aquistion, I would have said the Feds would stop this. Now I see everything going ahead and no real changes felt till 2026.
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Posted in: 3 stabbed at University of Tokyo ahead of entrance exams See in context
It’s a shame these “crab mentality” outbursts are becoming more frequent.
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Posted in: People use me in different ways. Some people are lonesome. Some feel it's a shame to go somewhere (interesting) alone — they want someone to share their impressions with. What's amazing is the huge variety of personalities, circumstances and situations. See in context
Maybe the second oldest profession in the world.
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Posted in: 49ers stun Rams in OT to reach playoffs; Raiders edge Chargers See in context
The collective Yinzer nation just rode one of the wildest rides. Good luck in the playoffs.
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Posted in: Police ask public not to use 110 number for non-urgent calls See in context
4 pressed buttons for emergencies
5 pressed buttons for non-urgent issues.
Most will likely continue to use #110 as it is easier to remember and more convenient than #9110.
AustPaul is spot on with the solution.
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Posted in: Mask mandates imposed by governments and employers: Persecution or protection? See in context
Both
On the government end;
Wouldn’t need mandates if people complied with reasonable requests.
On the business end;
Negative brand image and litigation can kill a business. Mandates are designed to protect the business which in turn funds peoples’ lives.
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Posted in: Forced off TV, have the Golden Globes lost their luster? See in context
This is the second story in as many weeks of an awards show that has been supposedly shunned by Hollywood. So yeah, I would say the Golden Globes are and will still be relevant as long as people continue to distance themselves from the awards and make it known they are distancing themselves from the awards.
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Posted in: Japanese prosecutors conduct remote questioning due to pandemic See in context
I wonder whose privacy is being protected here, the accused or the states. Remote interviews allow for recordings and that lends itself to transparency. Something most judicial systems really don’t like in this day and age.
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I find it very hard to believe a 3 year old child could climb over a 135 cm high railing…
Posted in: 3-year-old girl falls to her death from balcony of high-rise apartment in Hiroshima
Posted in: It's the first drug shown to slow Alzheimer's. Why is is it off to a slow start?
Posted in: U.S. ambassador to Japan says boosting arms industry ties is key to stronger security alliance
Posted in: Foreign English teachers in Japan pick their favorite Japanese-language phrases