Neo_Rio comments

2) I wouldn't call it "weak". A massively uninformed decision without basis in any kind of science perhaps...

Uninformed perhaps, but then there hasn't been much accurate information now has there? Perhaps leaving is a smart, risk averse, conservative move - given that many fly-jin noticed that they were getting lied to on day one of the crisis, and that the situation could become MUCH worse.

It's simple "game theory" to make the decision to run. There are four logical possibilities:- a) you don't run and the crisis gets worse and contaminates you with radiation b) you don't run but it doesn't get worse and nothing happens c) you do run and the crisis gets worse but you're not going to get irradiated because you're not even close, d) you do run, and the crisis doesn't get worse, but you're safe anyway.

Less risk is on the side of "GTFO of Japan.", ... but what pushes it even further in favour of leaving is that it's impossible to tell even if there's contamination or not given all the misinformation from the government and Tepco, and additionally there's no word on when the crisis is even going to end and not get worse!

The logical decision, if you value you health and safety above all else, including living in Japan, is to leave.

All that needs to happen is for the site to become completely contaminated to the point where workers can't even decommission the site in 30-40 years without dying early, and then things are going to get a LOT worse. The initial INES 7 is going to look like a tiny spill.

The Titanic might be a nice ship, but if you've spotted a leak starting to fill the boat, now might be a good time to start heading to those life-rafts... unless you believe the captain that they can bucket out all the incoming water.

What evidence did they find exactly that the Assad regime perpetrated the attack, and not some other force operating within Syria? I think the US taxpayers have a right to know.

In Cluedo, you can't win the game if you only guess the location and the murder weapon. You'd want evidence directly linking the attack back to the Assad chain of command. I see no mention of this.

Maybe there were chemical attacks in Syria. The question is.... who ordered it?

Just proving that there were chemical weapons is easy enough. Who gave the order for that, however... is where the real proof actually lies.

“My children and home are important to me” (Don't want to get caught and lose them); “It’s unthinkable from a moral point of view” (I've trapped myself with my twisted beliefs); “I love my husband” (Don't want to lose his paycheck); “I haven’t met anyone” (but would like to) “I’m afraid my husband would find out” (Don't want to get caught).

Essentially we can say that 100% of them would love to have an affair if there was no moral rule in place preventing them, no threat of the man leaving, they have no chance of ever being discovered, and if they had time to meet a new guy.

Korea won't get over it because even today they cannot stand how coldly the Japanese treat them.

....well Korea, get in line with the rest of us.

One thing's for certain... Dai-ichi will outlast the pyramids.

"it's what you make out of it" Meaning that it's intrinsically pointless

"you have to work at it" Meaning that it's no fun.

I think that women get better treatment in the workplace in Australia than Japanese women do in Japan.

Anyway Gillard is eyeing a complete wipeout in an election later this year due to continued policy failure, and this is her last "hail mary" distraction attempt to win support by cutting a fresh wound into the already childish battle-of-the-sexes gender war that's slowly ruining the country. She's shown herself up to be a misandrist and is playing victim once again.

All our governments spy on our communications. This may be embarrassing for the USA, but even if you aren't in the USA, your friendly neighborhood spooks are spying on you.

How about female on male abuse? That is something that is mostly ignored or laughed at. Any abuse is vile but we keep seeing man = bad, women = victims.

not to condone any violence (because smart men walk away and don't stick around to take emotional abuse from women)... but there never seems to be any examination or consideration as to what the woman was doing prior to violence occurring.

In murder and assault cases, there is usually a motive. Here, that motive is conveniently ignored and swept under the carpet. Maybe there are multiple factors (cultural, economic for example) involved in these cases that are just not being examined.

There is only a certain amount of male demonization a society can withstand before all the decent guys start thinking "There's no reward for being nice to women, so I'll start abusing them because it makes no difference to how poorly I am being treated"... and that's a slippery slope.

Lets face it, marriage is an old and tired institution that should have been put out to pasture long ago.

Hear hear... .... and I'm not ready to go into an institution!

Marriage was originally invented so that men could purchase and own wives to ensure that he knew children would be his (to work on his farm). Wives, being unhappy about being treated as property, twisted the meaning of marriage and the social order by and introducing concepts of love, romance, and chivalry to trap a man into willingly being her slave and working his entire life to make her happy.... if she was going to get married at all.

Since then, societies where marriage is predominant the world over have a terribly broken concept of male-female relationships, and it's no surprise that a lot of people can't figure them out and don't understand why they often fall apart.

Why gay couples are recently wanting in on this disaster is beyond my comprehension.

Yes.

Next question....

Jesus there are a lot of stereotypes about Japanese wives here, and no one dishing out any accurate information. I've been married to a Japanese girl for a decade, and she's been an amazing wife.

Nobody's saying that there aren't agreeable women in Japan, but you can only marry one (at a time anyway), and maybe you did OK out of that. I just tend to believe that the exceptions in your case prove the rule. Some of us have really been "around the block" so to speak in the dating department, and I know that women that are truly suitable for marriage are rare. "A good woman who can find?" as a certain religious book makes a point of saying.

Her husband was like a samurai lord... he expected her to wait on him, forced her to quit her job when they were married to have kids (then left her when she had her son)... he was basically as I wrote above.

Whose to say that women can't make bad decisions about future husbands too? Without knowing all the details it's difficult to judge. Did she drive this guy around the twist and not give him the peace he wanted? Did she not understand that he wanted kids and for her to eventually look after them? Maybe the man had mental problems beforehand and she ignored them for his paycheck? We just don't know..... but let's get one thing straight: Men aren't domestic pets, and as such, they are not burdened by pregnancy or sticking around to look after kids. In fact, if they are treated like crap and have a backbone, they may just decide to up and leave!

I want to puke every time I meet some women who says "all men are terrible". Really? All men? Have they met ALL men? In the world? No? Then shut up....!

The whole "It's all men's fault" is a cliched nonsense argument in these times of supposed "equality" where both sides need to assess their own role in the problems. (although one wonders how "different" sexes can truly be "equal" anyway)

Office romances never last...

No romance lasts forever. The trouble is, the heart promises so much, but can only deliver temporary excitement. Our own lives are the same. We all want to live forever, but we're only here for a brief moment.

I reckon the person bringing cash home is the one to be cherished in any way possible. all depends on which tasks both fulfil.

It's just then that marriage is no different to being legal prostitution (which really, it is) where the woman isn't even obligated to have sex, and the man still has to pay for her, for the rest of his life! If he tries to escape a bad situation he cops the financial penalties in divorce (and in the west, divorce is 60% of the time initiated by women).

Doesn't matter if the woman works or not herself. Her money is her money, and his money is said to be "our" money!

Where's the "love"? Anyone?

Men who stay boys and were so smothered by their mothers that they did not grow up knowing how to be a man. Some of the blame for this also goes to fathers, too busy or too lazy to bring their boys up to be men not metrosexuals without proper identity.

Close, but not quite IMHO.

It's boys who are raised by their mothers to be just as much a subservient slave as their father is, and who will eventually turn into a mirror image of their father, being the well-trained slave.... and so the cycle of life repeats. Eventually society breeds a whole generation of buys genetically predisposed to be herbivore men -- which is what we all see prevalent today.

As for the absent father--- again, he is too busy working and making money for his wife to be present in his children's upbringing, and perhaps give them an education on how to break free of impending domestication. Again, the father is a subservient man himself and doesn't really have much of a clue anyway.

So... if there's a patriarchy in Japan, can someone please point it out to me?

I'm really not seeing any upsides to tying the knot... but, I won't be telling that to my girlfriend anytime soon.

There are good ones out there, but in my experience they are very few and far between. Also, if they are really good, either way you will end up paying for them if you want to keep them interested over the long term.... otherwise no matter how much they like you, they'll gravitate away from you and to another man who is not being cheap and is offering them moolah.

Thing is, there are many useless women in Japan who won't do anything for you in a relationship, but think that spending a man's money + spreading their legs and lying there = you owe them commissio.... ahem .... commitment.

What do does everyone think? Does the environment encourage that, perhaps?

Aren't we just forgetting that a lot of women only marry so that they can have a bread winner and don't have to work?

It then gets really easy to see how "monster wives" are created. Lured in by the "forbidden fruit" of happy married life that the woman seems to suggest, or maybe blackmailed by the woman using her unborn child as a hostage to trap him, the man soon discovers that he is being whipped like a slave from his wife to go out to work - while simultaneously being told that he is the one responsible for looking after her and the family. Meanwhile the woman sits around the house doing very little, takes the bulk of his paycheck, and gives him only enough to survive on. Also he is given the carrot/stick treatment in the bedroom. Let's not get started on how the wife is in a position to "rock the cradle" with children at an early age to teach them to look after herself and beat up on daddy... and the fact that the woman's kitchen is her power base to control what the man eats (or doesn't eat) every day.

But yeah ladies... it's all the man's fault. He shouldn't have got married!

The spectre of WW2, and that of religion, has hovered over everyone for too long a time. We need to move on.

unlicensed pirate weather girl police

Sounds like the name of a Japanese all-girl punk band

There's nothing erotic about it. Mind you, the creepy camera zoom in of her mouth while eating it might tempt people to think that something funny is going on.

It's a shame Windows 8 gets a bad rap, because really, the desktop in Windows 8 fast, smooth, and is the best yet. What brings it down is all the unnecessary Metro start menu nonsense which is only really useful on a touchscreen device and can't be disabled for us desktop users.

In order to make Windows 8 usable on a non-touchscreen computer, I had to install the free "classic shell" program and change the default video and photo programs to the old desktop versions,as the new defaults select the Windows 8 "app" versions, and they just take over the entire screen whether you like it or not.

As long as I never leave the comfortable womb of the desktop I'm OK. Once you get used to Windows 8's quirks, it's not really all that bad.

People who love guns grew up in environments where owning one was essential for their own survival.

For the rest of us who don't live in such a culture, where for us, owning a gun is completely inessential, and .... well.... pointless, we clearly don't get it. Our fear of guns comes from the fact that they are solely used to kill things.

The issue is a cultural one alright. How do you reverse a culture where having a gun is essential when everyone already has guns? Nobody will want to put their toys away.

The LDP strategy in regard to educational curricula seems to be how to provide basic education without nurturing critical thinking and independent-minded citizens and the strategy seems to be working quite well. They can't completely prevent an informed minority of Japanese from trying to speak out, but they are incredibly successful at keeping the masses 'in tune'.

Totally agree. They want people smart enough to use the machines, but not clever enough to realize how they're getting done over by Japan's business elites. Or.... to use a metaphor that English teachers will instantly recognize.... good enough at English to be able to use it in business, but not so familiar with it that their contact with foreigners will enables them to escape the working conditions of "Japan Inc.", or become critical of their own society.

The whole notion that this "ware ware nihonjin" and Japan's special "group oriented" way of doing things only really ever serves the elites, and it's interesting how the Japanese themselves don't seem to notice because of their instilled inferiority complex and their willingness to accept that they are lucky that any company would ever employ them.

This whole willingness by the Japanese to enslave themselves like this has been worn away over time, but clearly the elites want to reverse the trend.

To the contrary, it works trememdously well. Just look at the world-wide growth of islam and the increasing number of societies which are submitting under Shariah law.

A lot is said about "the world wide growth of islam" as if it's actually happening, but the numbers don't back it up. I don't have the time nor platform to show you the details, but you might like to refer to the book "How Civilizations Die" for some stats, to see that - in fact - Islam is submerging in a demographic time-bomb much like Europe is already suffering. As Muslim women become more educated (something that the Taliban cannot stand, mind you), the less likely they are to want to marry, and the less children they have. The reason is, you guessed it - they're only getting married as a means of survival in a harsh world, and not because they want to. This leaves lots of ineligible male bachelors around, and with China driving up prices for basic necessities, the middle east is experiencing the culmination of these problems right now.

The modern, scientific world is raining down upon Islam and unless Muslims can find a balance between science and their beliefs, their only rationale is to try and turn everything into their shallow version of Islam as only they can imagine it. It's going to be messy, and Muslims are going to try and take the west down with it as it blows itself up. The west is going to fend you off long enough until you do.

Admittedly, our ignorant politicians, who for inexplicable reasons support the islamists (remember the much-touted "Arab Spring" aka Shariah takeover) are partly at fault, but still --- where do you see that it does not work? As a political scheme to take over, political islam is on a winning spree.

Are the UAE and Qatar shariah nations? I mean, they're doing pretty well for themselves, but Sweden still beats them in quality of life indexes.

I don't know what it will take for Muslims to understand that Islam as a political doctrine together with Sharia doesn't actually work. If anything it produces dictators that trample everyone's rights and who have to be overthrown on a regular basis.

Honestly, if it worked, the west would have adopted Sharia wholesale by now. We haven't because we've learnt from our own history that the mixing of religion and politics is a recipie for social disaster.

To try something over and over and over again and expecting a different outcome is,... well.... madness.

I thought dinner dates were something you only did once you are already sleeping together? Otherwise they're just setting themselves up to be unpaid male-escorts. I guess that's what happens when men don't put a value on themselves or their time.

How can Japan be a patriarchy when the men work so hard just to throw the spoils at random women?

To be fair, people is Myslim countries all share a belief in Allah, there are several Islamic majority countries in which the civilians are killing each other, and some of these societies are stratified by different sects of Islam.

Still has nothing to do with Japan hosting the Olympics though....

It's not that capitalism is a failure, but our means of exchange that have been hijacked.

Technically it's not lying if you just leave important bits of the truth out.