katamari_on_da_sea comments

Posted in: Half of Australians want end to immigration: poll See in context

Can we disregard this article entirely please? As it says so succintly: the TABLOID Daily Telegraph. For those of you who don't know it, it's Australia's written version of Fox News or The Herald Sun in England perhaps? A rubbish read with alternating stabs at politicians 'heartwarming' human interest stories, cancer scares and other rubbish. I don't give a damn if they interviewed 2000 people, the large part of Australia's population is 2-3 generations removed from migrants, and the country was in trouble of 'populate or perish' before that.

Complete twaddle. About as indiciative of Australian society as the translated articles here on JT from the Japanese tabloids about 'Japan getting stupider' and suchlike.

11 ( +11 / -1 )

Posted in: Creating a vision of Japan: Achieving e-government See in context

An interesting article! As someone who works in IT systems development, I was sad to read about '(2) undue emphasis on hardware and failure to take the users’ perspective into account'. This is a classic IT problem in organisations where there is money to burn but no vision to guide it. And it reminds me of the Japanese schools I worked in as a teacher. There was a computer in every classroom, and in almost every classroom it was covered in dust and barely groaned to life when activated. The money got spent on something that depreciates quickly, and it was not used for quality teaching. The only time I ever saw it in use was using Smartboard versions of a textbook (ugh) which more or less made it a glorified overhead projector with cheesy sounds.

There are lots of excellent technicians and engineers in Japan. But entrepreneurs are required to make the internet a real key part of a business model. I remember my old local bank in Japan. They were a smallish prefectural bank, mostly only in Hyogo. Their website looks like something from 1994, and there's no way I'd use my banking details on it for any purpose.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: New drug zaps fat cells in monkeys See in context

Sigh. Cleo, why bother posting when the answers are right here on the internet? Mice are used because:

genetically similar to humans (unlike, say, fruit flies) cheap to house & maintain short life cycle makes it easier to measure disease progress and reactions less outrageous than monkeys easy to work with large litters

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Posted in: Generation that grew up on texting find phone conversations time-wasting See in context

I think it's a bit ridiculous to suggest people don't know how to talk face-to-face. Japanese society is so strongly oriented to group activities, and while giving Your Own Opinion isn't big, kids get lots of chances to interact with others. Are some still socially stunted and painfully shy? Sure. But it's nothing to do with the phones they don't yet have or don't have at school.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Posted in: Why are you trying so hard to fit in, when you were born to stand out? See in context

And I think you guys need to give her a break for putting up the 'homogenous' idea. It's pretty true that Japan is much more homogenous than western nations. Give her some credit for acknowledging it instead of just tearing it down.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Posted in: Why are you trying so hard to fit in, when you were born to stand out? See in context

An interesting article, but I would really like to understand better what made the author feel and be regarded as different. What made you feel not like other Japanese? And what did you start doing overseas that made you happy?

We all seek answers to the question of what we're really after on the inside. Share some details with us ?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Posted in: Nozomi Sasaki's beauty secret - living without stress See in context

So, once she experiences some real stress, will she melt like a baachan left in the sun for too many summers?

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Posted in: Olympus chief Kikukawa resigns amid reports of FBI probe See in context

tiktak, you are either/multiple of the following:

a) incredibly naive b) inexperienced with living in Japan c) not skilled in Japanese language /culture d) an Olympus plant forced to defend his employer.

If you seriously think that the top-level managers of a company that paid 700 million dollars to a company located in the Cayman Islands (hello, tax-dodge haven) are NOT living off company largesse, you really, truly don't know how the other half (and by half, i mean tiny minority) live.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Posted in: Family restaurant Gusto selling hamburger and soup set for Y390 See in context

It's 'hamburg' which is never a hamburger over there....

That said, I really enjoyed Gusto burgers when I got the chance. Yes! I did.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Posted in: Public unsettled on who should challenge Obama See in context

Sadly, Americans seem to think they simply can't afford to pay more taxes when the fact is, you NEED to! Here in Australia the upper limit is 45% on income tax, which is only for people earning some 100k or so. Which may seem very high, but we also have good medicare, student loans for EVERYONE who's a citizen (indexed only to inflation!), and pretty good roads/services otherwise.

Point in case: I pay my taxes as well as $80/month in private health insurance. I am sitting here with a broken foot bone at the moment, and the cost of seeing my local doctor, seeing a specialist and getting a cast fitted was under $400 after rebates. I'm told in America it could be far more than that. Why ??? What on earth happened to you guys that you let medical care become an industry of great profit?

I even got 2 xrays in emergency which cost me nothing.

Stop the panic-merchants who say that government-funded healthcare will roooon 'Murica. It's a good system! I mean, it can't be any worse than what you've got....

As for these candidates, I know that America's medicare costs are disgustingly high, but why is that exactly? Because you let pharmo companies profiteer and gouge prices ? Surely some regulation could rein things in...

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

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