Moonraker comments

@ThonThaddeo.

While I am grateful you have associated me with such a perceptive comment, I have to say, it wasn't me that made it. I appreciate your posts though.

I wonder how, when presented with this evidence, the Trump minions will deal with the cognitive dissonance? Just what would make them see him for what he really is? Maybe a good shaking.

COP29 conference in oil-and-gas-rich Azerbaijan

Shouldn't waste time assigning blame indeed. Maybe because it is clear where the blame lies. What a joke! Dracula is now in charge of the blood bank.

$100 billion a year in "climate finance"

Hell, the oil and gas industry should be paying for this out of their trillion dollar a year (10 times the figure here, for the arithmetically challenged) profits.

Ads should never be too subtle in Japan or they will be easily misunderstood. Ideally they should just appeal to simplistic sentiments and impressions and inanely repeat the name of the company in a cutesy voice. Often they must include somebody doing a silly dance (or gesture), ideally someone like an old lady or cop who you would not expect to dance. More sophisticated ones might have someone looking into space as if in wonder about the product. An hour watching them and I would gladly tell my captors anything.

Mitsubishi Legnum?

There was also the whole Nissan family of Cedric, Gloria and Violet.

And it's best not to look up what Pajero means in Spanish.

@proxy

I just don't believe your characterisation of a deliberately anti-male school system. But it's funny how men finally show an interest in alleged biases when they can characterise themselves as victims. It's funny how when they are clearly shown to be wanting on so many scales they blame the system rather than themselves yet have no interest in blaming the system (they created) when it is others who are losing out. I am a male and I can see how utterly deficient so many of us are when our privileges are removed and how much we really howl about it. Man up! Deal with it. Be smart. Be magnanimous.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning saying at a press conference, "All our actions are carried out in accordance with laws and regulations."

Yes, laws and regulations made specifically for odious purposes. I mean who does she think she is fooling? These spokesminions repeatedly underrate the critical abilities of their audience. Is it because they have no theory of mind? Or have no critical abilities themselves? There is never any sophistication about Chinese lies. That's what I always find so amazing.

Most master's degrees are a waste of time anyway

and few people, men included, really need a masters degree.

That is for those who do them to decide; not you. Some may like learning. Not everything is done for instrumental or economic reasons, thank god.

There is a generation of young men who were pushed down by the female dominated education system

My heart bleeds. Such weakness. Men bellyaching after years of privilege is laughable. Yet there are still boys who prevail in spite of your allegations. How come? I had mostly female teachers in elementary school and I am glad I did because the males were mostly inept and in some cases violent. So what if nurses are still women in Nordic countries? It just shows their adaptability.

In my experience, women are smarter than men. And it seems more obvious now in countries where there is more equal opportunity and girls regularly out-perform boys. Men seem to be desperately holding on to their former privileges in some spheres and countries by sophistry and denigrating women, even with remarks such as highlighted in this article, but given an equal playing field in education it would be men crying out for special assistance after a while. Men really need to be pulling their socks up instead of spending ridiculous energy on keeping women down. We need all the talent we can muster to get us through the hard times which, let's face it, have been mostly created by inept men.

I wonder if those who disagree that the shopping ecosystem in "The West" and convenience stores in Japan is very different have actually been out of the country (or their rooms) and seen this.

Most people basically believe what they wanna believe, based on their unexamined emotions, and either find the evidence to suit or make it up. Simple.

criticized online trolling of the female captain

The manosphere is an unsavoury, little corner of the internet catering to insecure and isolated individuals, feeding them a unsatisfying diet to make them permanently angry. They need more love in their lives, I guess.

And, sadly, this is but one trauma we may have suffered in addition to physical, mental and emotional abuse. We could be so much better if we could stop the cycle of abuse. But our way of life seems dependent upon traumatised people and, at best, either offers a band aid or actively exploits them.

Comparison of convenience stores in Japan with those in "The West" always seems a little off the mark to me; like comparing chalk and cheese. I almost never use convenience stores in "The West" because it is a totally different shopping ecosystem with so many supermarkets open 24 hours - at least where I go - and their goods beats a convenience store hands down in quality and variety, from fresh bread to SIM cards. Hell, you can even get petrol at many supermarkets in "The West". Similarly, I don't need a convenience store to do many of the things I can do online in "The West"

"one of those about their own wages"

Inflation-hit voters in Japan hope for higher wages

And yet, only two people grumble about inflation and one of those about wages. There seem to be no poll numbers or any evidence at all that Japanese are unhappy at all with losing out to inflation or are likely to give the LDP a bloody nose at the ballot box. In fact, it might be an absurd position to take but I don't think they will either. The LDP are part of the fabric of tradition and identity which always wins out against economic circumstances or mutterings about corruption.

We sent ventilators.

Yeah right. What kind of fool would exchange test kits for a Russian ventilator? It boggles the mind.

About time. I remember decades ago wondering how ageing eyes could even see the ball travelling at such speed, let alone know where it landed. The players definitely seem to trust the tech more than the humans.

These are the everyday trolls who share false content for a variety of reasons, none of which are benevolent.

Trollism seems to have become a stance. I often wonder how much people actually believe what they are posting on sites. Hell, some posters are not even human.

Everyone else is paying the costs for the profits of companies making harmful products. Perhaps we could even regard all profits as simply costs that can be displaced onto others. If we view the economy that way we might not be so enthusiastic about the system we have created and its benevolence might not seem so clear. Perhaps the focus should be on how much a company really costs us as a whole rather than lauding its profits, which, in any case, disproportionately benefit a small strata.

It's sad how the world is going. It's quite obvious targetting supply is never-ending and possibly a self-perpetuating job. Perhaps the world needs better solutions, which must surely include asking why so many lives are so unsatisfying and dysfunctional that drugs have become the solution. Do we all go out high on meth and coke as rich greed trashes the planet?

It's a disgrace but not surprising. 14 years of Tory austerity and funnelling of wealth to the rich has recreated the Dickensian era. The UK has had the lowest top personal tax rate and lowest overall tax receipts as a proportion of GDP among leading European countries since 2000 and that strategy has totally failed to produce increases in productivity or growth. Labour room for manoeuvre is limited by the main beneficiaries of Tory largesse.

Trump served his country as President

Yes, but that country was Russia.

Yes, I guess that might be true, K3PO, but it says "harassment by visitors," implying those visiting, not harassment by citizens, and doesn't explicitly mention online harassment.

How does someone only knowing my surname lessen my chance of being harassed?

Peace should be central to all the big religions so they should always be a default option for the peace prize. Oh to dream! But where are they? Where are the leaders putting themselves about to stop wars or campaign for a just world and end the exploitation and destruction that is storing up violence for the future. Some are even actively promoting violence and narrow-minded nationalism and have done so regularly in the past.

Nice but transparent spin by prosecutors: we should be appealing because "the ruling is absolutely unacceptable" but, out of humanitarian considerations, we won't. I guess they hope to manage to kid enough of the don't-cares and oblivious that they didn't really fabricate the evidence or rough Hakamada up during questioning.

Regardless of the effect on anyone else, Trump will do what is best for him in the short term. That is precisely his MO and it has been clear for all to see. It is insane to believe that he can ever change.

This guy strikes me as a typical product of the tiktok or tiktok-adjacent generation: desperate for notoriety (i.e. attention) and willing to do anything to get it.

You might be right, Some dude, but maybe it is right that he should be taken at his words. That might get him to reflect on them but it might also bring out the sense of victimhood that lurks in dark hearts too, especially those of narcissists.