PleasureGelf comments

If he's still in high school at 19 and likes looking at naked boys, his chances for sexual reproduction are not very good.

Sing the old natsukashi songs and lighten up. No one is going to convert you unless you want to be.

We don't need to lighten up, the article presents a problem many atheists face every year and offers some practical solutions.

Having a 'christmas' party with your family or friends just to meet, eat and have a good time is not a big deal for atheists, it can be a fun day too, just like Halloween. Having a Christmas party with your deeply religious family or friends is like a Halloween with people who believe the witches and skeletons ringing your doorbell are real.

At best you're just treated as a lost sheep which will find its way eventually. As an atheist coming from a religious environment I too learned to keep my mouth open for the delicious christmas dishes only. But still there are other things you just can't avoid, the constant gentle pressure to conform to customs when everybody else is singing carols, going to the church or saying 'grace', 'amen', or 'praised be the lord'.

I prefer the 'don't ask don't tell' policy when it comes to beliefs but the downside is other people just assume you're a Christian because you come from a Christian country. It may be not seen by the believers as pushing religion down your throat, but it's pretty close. If you don't think so try imaging being expected to say 'praised by Allah' or enjoy Ramadan.

Every year I hear stories of a crazy, knife-wielding man in the streets of Atsubetsu-ku, but I always thought it's just an urban myth. This year it actually happened. Whodda thunk?

I'd say first work on the society to reduce social pressures, change the attitude to suicide, stop paying insurance to suicide families, help the desperate, support the broke, crack down on bullying in schools and then hang some nice blue lights for decoration, which by the way will make more harm than good. If somebody's considering suicide they want to end the pain and find peace. Blue light for them is like a 'this way' sign.

ha ha ha 'red-handed' indeed.

I liked to burn cardboard boxes in my teenage years but this boy is a different kind of creature. I'd say he'll be telling his stories at the psychiatric ward where nobody listens anyway.

Ah, imagination runs wild. Would that be a chain gang at a chain restaurant?

I grew up near railway and played near the tracks too. Ages six and up it's not when you know something is dangerous, it's an age when you know it's dangerous and do it for a dare. It's human nature. It's also human nature that the brother will feel guilty for the accident and his parents may blame him too. They should be given an extensive psychological support, but I'm not sure if there is such a thing in Japan.

I think 'Moroni' is a very telling name for the Mormon angel. I don't know too much about them, but isn't America the promised land for Mormons? What exactly are they doing in Japan, looking for another Canaan?

The windows vs mac vs linux discussion has very little to do with this topic.

I downloaded and installed this microsoft anti-virus yesterday. It didn't find anything, but I haven't decided yet whether to keep it or not. Until now I've been using AVG Free, which is not bad, considering the price.

BTW the provided link doesn't work, this one should: http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/?mkt=en-us

The future is now. You can watch it in action of youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBnu5tnpwUU

It should take less than an hour to learn the basics and if the price is right I can see myself and millions of kids zipping by (and growing fatter and fatter). Honda's device will probably be able to avoid all the legal traps that Segway is facing.

I wouldn't necessarily believe in what a magazine like Spa! has to report.

I always hoped they would merge with ANA and just add L to the new name. All Nippon Air Lines.

Poor girl, I know how she feels. I once left my Daiso umbrella on the train and never saw it again.

All other sumo guys looking at this photo are rolling on the floor, eating.

They hoped it would mend his ways, but he already came to a sticky end. He deserves a stiff sentence, but I'm afraid his marriage will fall apart. Let's hope this lesson holds fast for all of us.

A similar ban in my country resulted in 'alcohol-free' vodka ads. Wink wink.

societymike,

er, no. Unless in experienced hands the treatment can be extremely painful and I'm not into S/M. Not to mention I can't stand high pitched giggling.

This is outrageous, those 'ear-cleaning' salons. Who pays for that? Maybe I'm a bit DIY man, but I can clean my own ears, massage my thighs and even give myself a nice rejuvenation treatment in the comfort of my house.

Wow, what was he studying? Money making schemes?

Sales of the iPhone are not included in the survey.

But how about sales of Sony cellphones which double as Walkmans? Were they included in the survey? I doubt it, so it's fair.

Should be sold in set with a head to toe burka to enter the bathroom incognito. I heard there's gonna be a heavy duty 'Niagara roar' version for those pesky number twos.

Japan is a weird country. Women can't be even heard peeing, but it's perfectly OK to build facilities for men so you have to pee in the full view of any passers-by while the cleaning lady is busy with the next urinal while you're trying to shake off the last drops. I just hope the makers of eco-otome can come up with an equally eco-friendly invisibility cloaca cloaks.

I'm waiting for 'Poland Forgets Anniversary of WWII' news. That will be the day.

'Definately' dysgraphia, commonly 'nown' as dylexia. And I don't mean on Tarantino's part.

Kenchan, you have to love censors with guns, riddling posters with bullets.

What would he have done if a cat ran out onto the tracks?

Exactly, he wouldn't have time to swerve, or as the last resort, make the train jump over the poor kitty.

If he had really put anyone's life at risk he should lose his job quicker than you can say 'click'. But while he's paid to stare ahead and not ogle attractive passengers I bet there are long stretches which don't demand his full undivided attention.

It doesn't mean they didn't know who he was. He could've been a lookalike.

BobbieWickham, actually if you went to trouble of looking it up for yourself, you'd see that the 6 million is a rounded up number. There are various estimates of the actual death toll ranging from 5.1 to 5.95 million Jews, but with the consensus edging towards 6 million. It's not set in stone, as you suggest. Nobody can give you the exact number but a nice round 6 is easier to remember than 5.95, isn't it?

Same with the holocaust denial business. Toben was sentenced for breaching a court order to refrain from publishing material which "vilifies Jewish people" namely implying Jewish people offended by Holocaust denial were of "limited intelligence", but if you instead simply imply he was jailed for holocaust denial you can hear people crying out for censoring freedom of speech.

And in Germany he is wanted not for denying holocaust but for "racial and xenophobic crimes" and was in the past jailed for "defaming the dead".

Still, a good excuse to do more bicycle checks

Au and Softbank have something similar if not exactly the same.

In Japan it's guilty until proven innocent. Hold your hands up while on the train.