mistie710 comments

Posted in: 24 confirmed dead in Noto quake as more damage reports come in See in context

What a way to start the new year! Hope everyone is OK and my condolences to those deprived of their loved ones.

5 ( +9 / -4 )

Posted in: Gov't eyes spring or summer for Fukushima plant water release See in context

It has been said by the powers that be that the water in question will be no more contaminated than that put out by other nuclear plants around the world. That should be OK, but I have my doubts.

The water will not be completely uncontaminated. It will still have tritium in it which I am informed cannot be removed. Are there any consequences of dumping such a chemical into the open sea?

Whether it is completely, partially or totally unsafe, as far as the fish trade is concerned this is a matter of perception and the Japanese fishermen in the region are right to be worried, even untrusting of what is being proposed considering how bad the trade got after the original disaster. Nobody wants to eat fish caught in radioactive waters, so if the consumers think that the waters around Fukushima are contaminated, regardless of whether they are or not, they will avoid buying.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: Has the coronavirus made you rethink what's important in your life? See in context

I can't give an actual response yes or no as I think this is something that I'll evaluate after the event.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Posted in: We recreate the delicious-looking meatball stew from 'Laputa: Castle in the Sky' See in context

Looks good. Mind you, you could make a series of this out of Yurucamp!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: T-Mobile, Sprint see Huawei trouble as chance to clinch U.S. deal See in context

I always wondered about this whole business of stopping Huawei getting into the US market. While I've heard them blather on about Chinese Government spying and such, I've never seen any proof of these accusations. All I've seen is the usual US anti-competitive rhetoric. Surely, if the US has proof of Huawei equipment doing such things, not to mention Xiaoumi or even Foxconn... er Apple, then it would be best to publish the details instead of doing what they are doing which makes it look like Merka is playing protectionism.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: T-Mobile, Sprint see Huawei trouble as chance to clinch U.S. deal See in context

I always wondered about this whole business of stopping Huawei getting into the US market. While I've heard them blather on about Chinese Government spying and such, I've never seen any proof of these accusations. All I've seen is the usual US anti-competitive rhetoric. Surely, if the US has proof of Huawei equipment doing such things, not to mention Xiaoumi or even Foxconn... er Apple, then it would be best to publish the details instead of doing what they are doing which makes it look like Merka is playing protectionism.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: 4-year-old boy falls to his death from 7th-floor apartment See in context

I used to work for a housing department, albeit in an IT position, where something similar to this happened. A child crawled through a a window and fell twelve floors to its death. That was in the 1980s! The director of said department then issued an edict that no window in any property above the third floor should be able to open to a point where a child could get through.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: Do you think ordinances designed to restrict hate speech and eliminate discrimination infringe on freedom of speech? See in context

The important word here is "speech". Inevitably, banning hate speech has to be viewed as censorship. The question isn't so much one of whether it is a possible infringement of free speech (because it is), it is a matter of whether we want that censorship or not. What are the benefits? What are the losses?

Here we stumble upon the theory of where free speech has a boundary. The commonly accepted idea is that free speech's natural boundary is where it infringes on somebody else's freedom of expression. Thus before we can even start to ban "hate speech", we need to be damn careful that we can define exactly what it is. I've heard too many people raging against "hate speech" merely because they are offended, something that we all have to put up with at some point in our lives.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Posted in: Ig Nobel award winner See in context

Stop it, I'm bored.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: Honda employs 1.5GPa-class high-tensile steel plate for N-Van See in context

Hmm... the steel was a point but the whole centre pillar thing is nothing new. See https://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/ford/b-max# for example.

Mind you, didn't like that car much, either!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Posted in: Crackdown on 'bots' sweeps up people who tweet often See in context

If this person tweets content in bulk that effectively looks the same across all instances, then she might as well be a bot for all the good/bad she might do.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: Japan wins Women's Asian Cup See in context

A goal is a goal! Nice one!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: Abe sends ritual offering to Yasukuni Shrine See in context

It seems that this happens every year yet the Japanese still pay their respects and the Koreans keep expressing their anger. Isn't it about time that the Koreans, rather than complaining about it, should actually have something constructive to say, like how to address this problem rather than just moan about it? Are the Japanese paying their respects at the shrine purely to the war criminals, or is there a deeper, more personal reason behind it? Basically, instead of confronting each other about it, why don't they actually talk about it so we don't keep getting this same story wheeled out every spring and autumn?

7 ( +15 / -8 )

Posted in: Japan's ports bustling with foreign cruise passengers See in context

That's a cruise ship? Looks more like a floating 1960s block of flats. Yuk!

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Posted in: 2 dead, 13 hospitalized in Tokyo after choking on mochi See in context

Let me get this straight.

People are warned annually over the danger of choking on mochi. It is well known for choking people who can't or don't eat mochi in a manner that does not end up possibly choking them. Yet they still end up being choked. Is that right?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Posted in: Suzuki unveils XBee See in context

Looks like an oversized Mini to me...

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: New London pollution tax comes into force See in context

Yes and no. Certainly there are too many cars in London but the amount of reason why a car is needed - the workplaces, tourist attractions, homes coupled with a dubious transport infrastructure including overcrowded underground services and complicated and often slow bus services - make it difficult to justify a car surcharge where no other measures are being taken. It also tends to affect the poorer drivers who drive the sorts of cars that pollute because they cannot afford a cleaner, newer car. The thing is that while you could say that the charge could be a deterrent, you could also say that this is the latest measure to fill corporate and administrative coffers whilst providing limited short term benefits for a comparatively small group of people.

Mind you, I tend to keep away from London these days. It's a sh*t hole, IMHO.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Posted in: WhatsApp unveils plan to make money from businesses See in context

Is this linked with the flood of emails being sent to users asking for money for continued use following their first year? (P.S. If you do get one of those, ignore it. It's a scam.)

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: How to make an entire origami schoolgirl and sailor suit out of a single piece of paper See in context

Why is it that people insist on viewing such things in such a negative light? The portrayal of a schoolgirl is not in and of itself a bad thing - the obsessing about and sexualising of schoolgirls is the bad thing. Can't we just appreciate this for the skill that it took to make it and the overall aesthetics of it rather than get all SJW about it?

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Posted in: Trump arrives in Saudi Arabia as troubles mount at home See in context

Donny the Elephant packed his trunk

And said goodbye to the Whitehouse

Off he went with a Trumpety-Trump

Trump, trump, trump!

^_^

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Posted in: Racism in sports remains worldwide scourge. See in context

Yes, there is certainly an argument here. However there is a side issue in that some people use the racial taunt because they know it will get a result. They are actually looking for something besides the usual questioning of a person's parentage, their containment of fecal matter and their overall intelligence that will goad the target into doing something other than what they are supposed to be doing on the field. I believe the Australians call it "sledging" but whatever the name, it's a way that some people use to try and gain the advantage or, at least, affect the sport in progress.

They know that it's insulting. That's why they do it. Go fig.

Oh, and by the way, this new layout sucks. In my opinion.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Posted in: Do you think the U.S. missile strike against Syria was also a warning to North Korea? See in context

@Theodore Wirth

Kim Jong-Il and his coterie are far more politcally savvy...

But aren't they dead already?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: Why Facebook keeps pushing you to go 'live' with video See in context

I don't use Facebook but this whole business of pushing live streams is hardly confined to Facebook. Youtube are at it as well (consider that Google wants your full attention for its own ads).

Adblock is your friend...

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Posted in: Trump ignites political fight over U.S. banking law reforms See in context

@Strangerland

But Trump was a famous name.

Yup. And he now has four years (at least) to make a complete idiot of himself. Or not. But I suspect that he will.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Posted in: 'Sailor Moon Crystal' set to continue as 4th season announced See in context

Japanese video streaming sight Niconico...

Heh! What a site! ^^;

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Posted in: Trump ignites political fight over U.S. banking law reforms See in context

Forget Clinton for now. She lost. We deal with Drumpf as that's who is there right now.

It is to be expected that he is trying to dismantle Obama's legacy. He built his whole campaign around it. It all confirms the bigoted, corporate-friendly approach that everyone with an ounce of sense was afraid of. The only thing we don't know yet is how much damage he and his cronies will do before the next election.

But then the Democrats can only blame themselves for falling into the whole personality politics thing and picking a candidate that was doomed to be tarred with the same brush as Drumpf. Having a famous name on the ballot is going to fail one way or another most of the time.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Posted in: 'Ghost in the Shell' makers defend Johansson casting See in context

As much as I would like to see a Japanese actress such as Haruka Ayase play the lead role, the truth is Japanese actresses are not well known internationally.

And never will be unless they get attention internationally in the first place.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: Do you regard the U.S. Constitution as a model for the free world? See in context

@mt9334

Would you please expound on what you mean exactly by "Separation of Church and state"?

The US was founded on the idea that it would keep the two entities separate whilst allowing for the practice of any given religious belief free of persecution. This meant that you were free to believe what you wanted to but no given religion would be given as being in control. This is mostly because of what the US was trying to free itself from; consider that all the countries that the US migrants were coming from were controlled by a religion of one type or another, mostly papal or christian derived. It was one reason behind the revolution; the British government was (and still is, really) affiliated with a religious construct (i.e. the monarch and the Church of England), a model that the US wanted to rid themselves of.

Yet we see that religious folk, especially christian types, insist on trying to push their agenda on government in the US at all levels, whether they want or need it or not. Consider that one of the accusations pushed at Barack Obama was that he was assumed to be muslim and that his defence was his christianity. It should not matter which belief he holds when it comes to being the president. Consider what the response would be if, in the future, any given candidate professed an athiest stance!

It's only the tip of the iceberg really, and I'm not going to get bogged down here. Suffice to say that the church has hijacked a fair number of state institutions at one level or another and continues to further its cause including playing the victim when it rightfully gets called out.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Posted in: Do you regard the U.S. Constitution as a model for the free world? See in context

I look at it this way.

In principle, it's a good thing but it is hardly something that the US can hold up as an example to the world, mostly because of some of the things it stands for and some of the things it doesn't stand for.

The biggest problem that I see with the constitution, however, isn't necessarily the document(s) itself, but the people that stand behind it and some of the unconstitutional, as far as this document goes, things that the US holds dear. For example, it has specific parts in it that insist on religious freedom yet we see various groups, especially certain christian sects, hijacking various vital parts of the hierarchy to the extent that the often lauded separation of church and state can easily be called into question.

Don't get me started on the second amendment either - its continued existence is thanks to the large number of paranoid citizens egged on by an industry that fears for its own continuance.

But that's just the US version. And it isn't all bad either. Indeed I suspect that I'll get royally hosed down by the second amendment nutters exercising their first amendment rights. I won't stop them, but I'll exercise the free speech I'm allowed in such a situation to argue the toss. That's one good thing about said document(s), even though it can lead to all sorts of arguments. I'm not sure that I would ever hold up the entire constitution of the US as an example of anything in particular, good or bad, because I don't believe that it is wholly either, but a base line is always a good start in any government to work from so everyone knows where they stand.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Posted in: 2016 begins and ends with music deaths See in context

They forgot quite a few folk, or hadn't known about them. One that came to mind was Jean-Jacques Perrey, a pioneer of electronic music and former partner of Gershon Kingsley (of Popcorn fame), who died of lung cancer at his Swiss home on November 4 this year. If you don't know who he is, look him up! You'll be surprised at what he did!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

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