jimmyBB comments

Hmm... perhaps a new location for the US Marine Air Station?

The only way Japan even has a shot at changing its demographic profile is by doing something dramatic like saying that if you have three children ALL your children will get free education through college – or something similar.

In 1945 when the Futenma Air Station was built, the surrounding community of Ginowan Village had fewer than 13,000 people. Today Ginowan City has over 93,000. In other words, the population grew up around the base. How is it that the Japanese government doesn't expect the same result in the new "less populated" location for the base.

"The scenario was to prevent enemy forces from taking one of Japan’s southern islands." And the exercises involved fielding 45 tanks which Japan has no way of delivering to "one of Japan's southern islands". It's so odd how the JSDF exercises always seem to be fighting battles other than what they claim the exercises are about.

Follow along with the Japanese gov't: https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/seisakunitsuite/bunya/vaccine_sesshujisseki.html

They are running at about 100,000 shots per day. There are 36 million people in Japan over the age of 65. I am not a mathematician, but if they don't ramp up the vaccinations, we're looking at 360 days to get just the elderly protected.

Fukushima has suffered enough in service to Tokyo's power supply. Bring around a super-tanker and pump all the waste water into it and drive it down to Tokyo Bay and dump it there. 1. It will be kind to the poor people of Fukushima. 2. It will be dumped where the people who use the electric power that caused the problem live. 3. The gov't will make absolutely sure that it's safe to dump (unlike in Fukushima – where we really can't trust that they will actually do what they say they will do). Win win!

Just went to Lime Resort Myoko yesterday to buy coffee beans. It might be the only whole-bean retailer in the area. They have really improved the facility over when we went there years ago when it was under different management. There's more to do in the area than nature walks in the woods. It's closed right now because of the pandemic, but the gondola ride up to the top of the ski lift is gorgeous in the fall: http://www.akr-sky.com/. Beautiful waterfall nearby too. Def worth a visit!

She's not stateless. She's a citizen of the Islamic State.

Could be murder-suicide...

Unfortunately there is no roof design that would make much difference in reducing the danger of snow removal. Even the gasshou-zukuri mentioned above (never mind the ENORMOUS cost of these roofs) requires dangerous snow removal. https://cdn.amanaimages.com/preview640/10383000229.jpg

A seven-year old left on a road would walk down the road in the direction the car that his family is in had gone. It is completely counter-intuitive that he would strike out into the dark and forbidding forest. The probability of a bear coming along in the less than 10 minutes the family claims to have left him, killing him (no blood on the ground) and dragging him away (again, no blood on the ground) is incredibly small. It's also not really how bears behave. I suspect this will develop into something other than how the parents have been describing it.