morrison_rm comments

//What's the world's most valuable company again?

Probably something in defence in reality, as we seem to have a lot more wars these days.

But, I digress. Both of the main "tech" companies seem to be having an interesting time these days. Mac because they gave up on their USP of "we have our own operating system" because it's Linux under the hood, so they are trying to get someone to pay for a system that is usually free. MS because they ignored smart phones, are late on the tablet market and Windows 8 isn't currently flying off the shelves.

What's next, probably more of the same, as both companies have the cash to sit it out.

//they just use JAPAN to make money,

On balance, teaching English in South Korea is more profitable as the company mansion is free and the cost of living is lower, so I have some serious doubts that many people come to Japan just to make money.

The problem is not the age, but the maintenance. The Clifton suspension bridge (completed 1864) I used to drive across regularly is still fine, but you have to keep up the maintenance.

Looks like it's written by a guy. On a peripheral note, taking the train would be safer, if it's the first time with an unknown date partner.

Sad truth that Mr Lear (of Lear jets) called his daughter Shanda...

It just looks like the decision of a 5 year old. In reference to the very old joke, politician dreams he meets with god, he gets three questions. First two are solutions to domestic issues and god says "Not in your lifetime", last question is about peace in the middle east, god replies "Not in my lifetime".

I like this, and I am a smoker. The product kills, and the tobacco industry used to get its own way in far too many ways.

ditto Dean Morgan, as they turned me down. I wouldn't employ a teacher like me.

The virtual one is just a heartbreaker anyway, she's already married "Man marries virtual girlfriend!" 2009(?)

Ahh, they should have used the Hello Kitty gatling gun for proper kawaii

To be honest the first part of this idea sounds useful, if it is actually helpful. I'm otaku, so I wasn't exactly a natural with the ladies as a young teen and perhaps it would be useful to find out that talking about all the Gundam cards he has might not win him the lady of his dreams?

Someone mentioned ask a friend for advice, which is ok, unless your friends are otaku too...

//suspicion of public indecency after he allegedly walked around naked in an Internet cafe.

I'm more interested in the "suspicion" part...it's not something you can fake. Unless he was wearing a false body.

//A democratic military?

To be honest the military model is weird, not being either a business or a political model. CEO's seem to go on a merry-go-round but when was the last time you heard about an army recruiting a general from outside their own army? People jump up and down screaming when their legal rights are threatened but it's fine for martial law apply to soldiers when they aren't even on a battlefield?

//Nature over powers man any time - except smallpox, the dodo...

"It’s tsunami-resistant, not tsunami-proof,” I'm glad he said that otherwise it's just tempting fate.

If you want to split hairs, this has already happened. The South African military were doing a drill with an automated AA gun and it just started shooting the soldiers. 9 died.

Got caught up in the debate about this one elsewhere, some say until Elmo testifies under oath we won't get to the bottom of this one.

March this year, saw a gold-plated Lambo driving through Akiba. Still trying to work out if it was for real, or not, but considering the price of the car, a little gold plate probably wouldn't add much to the price.

I read that as "short stilts"...my brain is not playing ball

//Party of the Sun

I wonder if their party flag is going to resemble, by sheer chance, another Japanese flag - the one guaranteed to annoy the rest of East Asia?

He'll claim he was hacked.

Ahh, they missed the "Hello Sadako" spin-off market..

You mean there's not a button on the ticket machine that says "Rob the bank"? And Japan is supposed to be such an organised country...

I'm going to be very suspicious of free mineral water hand-outs from now on...

//limp fish ’n chips, beer mats, darts, quiz nights and large-screen TVs.

That sounds all too authentic to me. I remember one writer digressing in his book to write about how awful were the ingredients in British food over a couple of pages of his book.

The writer was Karl Marx, and it's the bit about how the really cheap bread was made in "Das Kapital".

//Japan however is the place you will get paid the most

Erm, I did find when I worked in South Korea I got basically the same salary, but the school paid for the (not great) apartment, so I did make more money, and stuff is cheaper over there.

//morrison_rm - did you have a point to make concerning the story or are you just eager to have everyone know you read Thomas Harris books?

Yes, to the first part. Although Plutarch is also depressingly bloodthirsty, I mean, just look at Procrustes. But I digress. I seriously doubt if any information contained in a manual on how to hunt people has not already turned up in some fictional story somewhere. That was my point.

//had files on his computer detailing how to kidnap and kill people

Better make sure you don't have just about any Thomas Harris books on you...

//One publication was entitled “Man Trapping” and showed how to hunt and trap humans, she said

Gosh, and I was going to take The Day of the Jackal to read next time I'm on a plane. That only tells you how to get a fake passport, do disguises, make a concealed weapon...

//taking a page from long-time rival Apple Inc

If that includes them ditching their own OS for Linux, like Apple, it gets my vote.

I'm not sure what the point of the article is at all...he had a smoke grenade, I agree as carry on luggage that is potentially dangerous, He's wearing fireproof pants, who cares?

//such vests could be armed with new generations of plastic or flammable explosives

That would be a strange strategy, I will board a plane wearing something very conspicuous to distract people from the dangerous stuff I have concealed in the errr, very conspicuous item I am wearing.

//You would be perfectly fine with someone getting on a plane wearing a bullet proof vest?

Yes, it's not a weapon. I have taken a (really cheap and nasty) katana through Narita, and unlike Kill Bill, they wouldn't let me take it on as hand-luggage, I was shocked I can tell you. Tarantino you big usotske.

Generally all kinds of weird stuff gets taken on planes, I used to hang around with some oil workers in the Middle East and one of them had to bring a sonar probe on the plane, which looks like exactly like an air-to-air missile...one other person I met worked for an unnamed courier company at an airport and a customer, presumably a medical person, had come to collect the human head...