REMzzz comments

I hope the sea cucumber won't spoil while the dispute is being worked out.

A boat with two Japanese and two Russian nationals on board

That should've been a non-issue. Methinks someone didn't pay protection money to the local authorities and organized crime groups

With all the stomach abuse she performs I won't be surprised if she ends up with stomach cancer or colon cancer later in life

A heavy drinker is more likely to get stomach cancer, or someone with untreated ulcers. In her case, half of the food passes further than the stomach, and if she does purge, her stomach doesn't have the time to soak all that food with acid.

Colon cancer is more likely in people who only use the toilet once a week, or if they have a bad mold culture in their bowels in place of healthy "yoghurt" type probiotic bacteria.

So i wouldn't worry about her. Good luck to her and the baby :)

REMzzz I think he was meaning "The Great Escape"... Hilts, was the character's name, I think.. Yes, just Googled it, Hilts.

Oh, i remember that one. Never seen it though. My favorites are pretty generic though, Bullitt and The Getaway (with Ali MacGraw). But he is good in everything. Great guy, gone too soon :(

Steve McQueen was a good choice (for "The Great Escape"), but it's unlikely they'll go with a first and last name, and "Steve" would be too obscure.

How about just the last name? Although Lupin would work as well...

Steve McQueen

You're thinking of Papillion, right?

Steve was good in it, as always and so was Dustin Hoffman in those coke bottle glasses. Good movie about an escape off a prison island. Relevant. Good catch :)

nandakandamanda JUN. 26, 2012 - 03:48PM JST

Whoever gave me minus one above.

I must apologize for quoting and translating part of a Kyodo News article. I will try not to do it again

Oh don't listen to them. I appreciate your translation. It's nice to be able to hear stuff without having to search for it

Because in Japan, you don't represent yourself. You represent your employer, your neighborhood and your family. Your identity and reputation belongs to them.

The protesters want to speak their minds and not worry about being identified and somebody passing judgement or using this photo against them in the future.

In a way, the red hat bands, face masks, and hand-painted "aprons" are a uniform actually.

Because they don't stand fully behind their own opinions?

Really? Do You want to pay a higher sales tax? By the looks of it, they have made up their minds already...

but I guess I'm happy for you if your thing is to thumb posters up and down

Heeey, you don't need to be nasty, Simon. I rarely vote. Everyone knows what my position is on "drive-by downvoters". They have no guts to reply in person, because they are afraid that they themselves will be voted down. Me, i just speak my mind, rain, shine or foul weather, regardless of whether my opinion is popular or not. Peace, man :)

Either way, photos like this should be blown out to billboard proportions come next election (next month perhaps?)

Ted, that's a brilliant idea. The Japanese will not say anything, but in the back of their minds, i'm sure they will be as outraged as all of us are

Oops.. yeah.. good luck to them :)

59 for at the moment

Those 59 are gonna have a hard time getting re-elected.

@Simon... finally, there is a time when i wholeheartedly agree with you on something... +1

Good to hear! Safety first!

prevention as acids, Tabasco eat every day, vitamins and do not eat the bases.

Huh???

Prevention is important, however this just doesn't sound right.

fresh research that has identified cases where cheaper generic drugs can work just as well - or better - than expensive brand-name medications.

Good to see someone admit that. And they are talking not only about old, harsher chemotherapy drugs with more side effects, but actually that some multi-purpose drugs not designed for treating cancer, can be used in a well designed chemotherapy regimen with great effect.

before piracy is really addressed to the point where it is stopped and consumers are forced to buy legitimate content on the web

The keyword here is forced. Nooo Thank You.

It has already been “localised” in Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and India.

Where "localized" means content is now blocked, based on incoming IP addresses.

To quote Microsoft: "If they are going to use software illegally, they might as well use ours".

Great quote and very relevant. Sometimes mousy and old-fashioned looking people can actually be pretty forward-thinking :)

@ Foxie,

Right on!

Maybe Sony should do something about its entertainment division... a discount on all the movies and recordings they own, if you buy their TV... that would do much more to regulate consumption.

OLEDs are nice, however the market is already overflowing with older TV sets that are still in perfectly good condition. Plasma, LCD and rear projection. When many people were suddenly forced to upgrade by the analog to digital broadcast signal conversion, the demand created a temporary and unsustainable "boom". Manufacturers raised their output to match, but by then, consumption dropped off to less than it was before, when the majority of owners now feel that they are good to go for the next 7 years. Good luck now, the bubble has burst.

But buyer beware. OLEDs will burn out faster than a regular LED backlit LCD panel. It's an expensive toy with a limited lifespan.

When you pay rent, the money just goes away and you don't get anything back. When you buy, you put your money into the property and over time, it becomes yours.

But... when you factor in that most of the time you can never sell at a profit, or sell at all or even rent it out, while the HOA fees keep piling up, renting suddenly looks like a much more attractive option. Life doesn't stay still, and real estate in Japan often becomes a boat anchor that is hard to get rid of. Buyer Beware :)

doors forced open by a crowbar-like tool after closing

What? No sword?

Deploy just one, ok? :D

That way Shintaro Ishihara will feel that this island is being taken care of, and won't start a collection effort to help him buy Okinawa as well...

That might be why many middle-aged guys in Japan look abroad to find a younger wife...

Sorry, but what is StackOverflow????

A language-independent collaboratively edited question and answer site for programmers. <stackoverflow.com>

Sorry. I've just seen someone on there using the exact same avatar and username...

Just like commuters on a bus, but without the stifling heat of summer and engine/road noise to make them nod off.. or worse, a hospital waiting room on a Sunday in July... mild heart attack, strange skin condition, broken finger, food poisoning....

"Nod-a san, the finance minister requested that you wake up for a minute to receive these documents..."... "..Uh? Hmm.. Um. Domo.."

Companies like Sony and Nokia have been resting on their laurels far too long. Just like the American auto industry has at one point, building cars that at a time of gas shortages compared unfavorably to the practical and well built Japanese compact cars, which moved in to fill the market demand. While GM's best offering of the time, the Chevy Vega project ended up mismanaged by bureaucrats and on the receiving end of Wildcat strikes.

Empires rise and fall, so do corporations. Lots of stuff can be learned from history, but it seems that unwieldy and overgrown bureaucratic enterprises don't have the guts or the brains to look back and see those same mistakes, and correct theirs before a tipping point is reached where it becomes too difficult to fix anything. The market changes fast, but it's not magic or unpredictable. You simply have to keep an eye on upcoming technologies and consumer habits, respond in time and not keep an excess of useless drones who collect a salary regardless of company performance.. those guys are a money drain at times when the company doesn't earn well enough to justify their existence.

Looks like the Moderator has again gone over this discussion with a fine toothed comb. As usual. Too bad i can't delete the "That was humor actually" line, which refers to some 3 missing posts (without which it makes no sense)... of what sounds like Simon's vaguely written outrage, my mockingly humorous reply, and his completely serious response to me...

Too bad i can't edit it out...

That was humor actually.

But the world is not all fun and games... it is mostly work and serious issues. We must all find something good, pleasant and exciting in all of those times, otherwise we will end up either depressed or bored and constantly seeking artificial forms of pleasure...

Kids think being a policeman or a nurse is cool, fun and respectable, along with a dozen other occupations they learn about. Let them think that, let them see something good in ordinary life, and not take festivities like a fireworks show for granted.

My point of view my seem spartan, but that's how i grew up. Eating raspberries meant combing through some painfully scratchy vegetation at a time of the year when they where in season. We didn't just open a plastic box with them ready to eat. Cherry pie meant standing there in nothing but my boxers and helping grandma pit all the cherries, which we picked ourselves the day before. Seems like unpleasant work, but no, i see a good side in everything, including the protest. When kids have everything, and there is nothing left to want. they lose their will to live, and that's never good... let them see a bittersweet and real life and they will be a lot more realistic in what they feel. No indoctrination needed

Yubaru JUN. 25, 2012 - 05:13PM JST

Get the tax hike vote done then dissolve parliament immediately following the vote.

Just what Hashimoto's Osaka Ishin no Kai are waiting for.... an election...

There's nowhere that i said he will support his parents' political views. However, attending this meeting is enough for him to feel that it's worth standing up for what one feels, and not shutting himself in his room for 5 years at a time because others do not agree with his views (see the hikikomori phenomenon)...

From the vantage point of sitting on his dad's shoulders, the kid doesn't see half of what is written on those signs, because the are facing away from him, furthermore he can't even read.... what he does see, is the signs are nearly all yellow, and a crowd bigger than he has ever seen, a big field of many hairdos and faces, all there to there for the same reason and shouting the same thing.... a very empowering feeling, to view it all from above...

Even though i think East Germany was much less isolated than NK, i hope you're right. But from the likes of things, it'll take quite a few more years for the Demilitarized Zone to become peacefully inhabited. .

They have already reunited for the '04 Olympics to be represented as a single country. The North Koreans remember that. They all know that South Korean population means them no harm. All that stands in the way is a political system that wants to keep to itself and will continue launch rockets that fizzle out due to defective components. The older people have a sense of national pride, younger ones, below 30 and above 10 simply live in fear and hopelessness. If you had seen one of the photos of women crying over Kim Jong Il's death, their faces showed no grief, but a fear of what government action will come next... a fear of death, a fear of being arrested for not crying enough... i'm absolutely serious

@just-a-bigguy,

Communist imperialism has caused a lot of pain not just in Korea, but also Viet Nam, Cambodia, and the Eastern Europe...

Marching in and executing people never ends well, and trying to convert unwilling people to a communist ideology leads to failure, resentment, and a "robin hood" mindset, that the population feels it is their right to quietly steal from the government, if the government has seized what has rightfully belonged to them.

I think it is safe to say that he has not yet made up his mind regarding nuclear power and whether he supports or opposes it. Yet, his parents took the liberty [yesterday] to take that choice away from him. I think that's pushing your own agenda (one that he has a right to make up and control once he's an adult) on your child (at such an early age) and constitutes indoctrination.

@Simon,

An opinion is not "forever", however plutonium is as well as certain isotopes of caesium are, and will last a lot more than this kid's lifetime. The boy is a witness to the fact that nuclear power has a dark side to it, but he is free to form a more neutral opinion when he gets to an age when science will start to make sense....

You are starting to sound a lot like Mary Whitehouse, to whom Pink Floyd devoted one of their songs. "Trying to keep out feelings off the streets" is how Pink Floyd described her social agenda, towards what children should be allowed to encounter in the real world http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Whitehouse

Also, the kid hasn't made up his mind of how he feels about thyroid cancer... and so would taking him to a hospital where a cancer patient is recovering with a bright red scar across his neck constitute indoctrination?

Come on, roll with it. We can see you're mad about the protest. But it's only a congregation of people who are concerned that another nuclear accident will happen. It's not a bloody MMA fight or a pornographic strip club show. It looks pretty civil, otherwise the family would have gone home already. It's not a church or a court room where a child can be a disruptive and unwelcome presence. Finally there's a dozen articles here about parents who have neglected to watch their kids and the kids have fallen to their deaths. This one seems firmly planted on the Dad's shoulders and not in danger of falling.

All your posts are suggesting there is something wrong in their marriage, no? If so, Crown Princess needs to file a divorce and leave Crown Prince. There is nothing wrong with that. It is okay. Life is too shortm Masako sama. .

No... it's about the fact that Emperor and family live in a virtual prison of social isolation and powerlessness. It's like a human museum, or worse yet a human "zoo", governed by tradition. Nobody really enjoys that kind of life, and definitely not Princess Masako, who would much rather work as a diplomat.