RonriiUrufu comments

Posted in: Pakistani man reaches out to those living on margins in Japan See in context

A very uplifting article! It's a relief to read there are people who do care and do help.

Years ago in Hamburg I sat down on a bench that turned out to be a homeless man's bed. When he came over to see who's sitting in his "bedroom" we talked over an hour, from losing his job in his 50s to losing his apartment in his 60s, his miniature rent, the unavailability of even a small apartment he could afford and I learned that being homeless is a full-time-job. You need a safe place for the night, food, drink, a place to wash yourself and your clothes if possible, you can't pay for public transport so you keep walking all day around the city collecting deposit bottles. You don't have health insurance so your only option to see a doctor is by the local community services for the homeless.

After a few years your health will be in a state that most jobs that require physical work are no longer accessible for you. And when you find a place to sleep, you will always keep an eye open in case some heartless people will kick you or set your sleeping bag on fire.

Eye's idea of empty houses is a good one: Government gets empty house, helps transforming it to a livable place, puts homeless people in, people have a home - no longer homeless. In reality it's a bit more difficult: Villagers will not want homeless people in their vicinity and the poor guys will have to work hard to gain status as neighbours.

The idea is still good. Alas, this is Japan.

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Posted in: Merkel urges Germans to get vaccinated for 'more freedom' See in context

Vaccine roll-on was slow and it took me some efforts to get vaccinated last month. Now that there's plenty of the stuff around and restrictions are being relaxed people seem to think, "plague's over, let's go on holiday".

Personally I think stricter measures on people who make a vaccination appointment and do neither show up or cancel the appt are needed. Comirnaty is a delicate stuff and when ready to use must be used within one hour. Not turning up for your shot is just rude and puts the doctor or vaccination centre into the trouble contacting one who would be able to get the jab in time.

I'd go further than Merkel and make shots mandatory, at least for health workers - which she can't, as she claimed earlier there would be no mandatory shots, clearly underestimating the carelessness of some parts of the population.

It's just sad, numbers will go up again and when Merkel leaves office there will be nobody near her value to replace her.

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Posted in: What aspects of Japanese history, culture, lifestyle and tradition do you think will be showcased in the opening ceremony for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics? See in context

I don't mind the cultural intake whatever it may be, I just wish they would put some good old music in - some Wadaiko, Enka, Kayoukyoku, PYG... bring Julie in and I would even watch it!

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Posted in: Knife attack in German city leaves 3 dead; suspect arrested See in context

who - Söder might be appalling but he's still a person, not a thing. Sorry about that and I wish we had a timed edit function here...

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Posted in: Knife attack in German city leaves 3 dead; suspect arrested See in context

Notes have been found that point towards schizophrenia, not terrorism. And to yous who keep pushing that dratted agenda of "dangerous refugees", let me point out that it was an Iranian refugee who took the greatest risk in holding the attacker at bay. Even the conservative-right Bavarian premier Markus Söder which has an agenda of "stopping immigration" was full of praise for the courageous young man.

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Posted in: Knife attack in German city leaves 3 dead; suspect arrested See in context

@ Bass, no laws - you keep pushing your agenda and everyone here knows it.

The guy grabbed a knife at a store and went stabbing. He's got a history of mental ailments and just by shouting "Allahu akbar" it doesn't make him an Islamic terrorist. Well done for the police shooting him in the thigh to incapacitate him (3 years police training in Germany seems like a proper training).

Bad enough he took the lives of the department lady and 2 more on the street.

The perpetrator survived so we will know about his motives sooner or later.

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Posted in: Johnson voices caution over next lockdown easing in England See in context

Love the Merkel/Johnson pic, can't wait for the memes.

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Posted in: Cup Noodle evolves its mystery meat into mystery 'karaage' with fried chicken ramen See in context

Or just skip the meat and use a variety of veggies...

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Posted in: Higher antibiotic doses may make bacteria 'fitter': study See in context

I thought the problem of overprescribing antibiotics was known for decades als well as treating livestock resulting in the development of MRSA.

If this keeps going the last hope will be phagotherapy.

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Posted in: Asthma drug budesonide speeds recovery for at-home COVID-19 patients See in context

The Austrian doctor Lisa-M. Kellermayr has been successfully treating patients with budesonide for over half a year now, preventing hundreds of hospital stays. Of course, clinical trials are welcome but it's not really a new idea.

https://twitter.com/drlisamaria/status/1381339828416094213

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Posted in: Germany pulls virus 'emergency brake' but not all on board See in context

Greetings from Germany: Intensive care units 95% full, specialised IC unit personnel terribly overworked, virus variant B.1.1.7 having a party while ignorant folk having parties as well - what would be the sensible thing to do? Anti-vac folks are still spreading their lies while at the same time vaccinations are rolling on in slow motion.

Haven't left my home town for 6 months straight, not using public transport unless absolutely necessary to get to my specialist docs, don't you think I'm tired of moderate lockdowns as well?

Shut it all down, 2 weeks total lockdown with exceptions for food/meds supply should suffice. But noooo, we'd have the whole lot right wingers wailing about how Germany is becoming authoritarian, totalitarian and whatnot. Can't do that, because free speech, innit? And because of those a*seholes who have been able to spread their mind poison since the plague started we're in this sorry state now.

I'm willing to sit another six months in my little town because the right to live outweighs the right to do as you please and endanger everyone else.

Btw...  "the supposedly "far right" AfD (as labelled by the media)" - I'm not the media and I label them "extreme far right" and a good deal of them "Nazis". I listened to their speeches - they use democracy and free speech to destroy it.

I don't think anyone who is not experiencing what is going on here in Germany now is fit to slag it.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Posted in: Many older music fans miss the complete ‘album experience’ such as cover art, liner notes and photos that have disappeared due to streaming. What's your view on that? See in context

I'm one of those who still have all their vinyl albums (about 150 - I was kept short on pocket money when I was a kid but would have bought lots more) and sticks to their CD collection instead of streaming.

Exploring album covers like Al Stewart's "Year of The Cat", learning katakana with the help of a Japanese print of Kiss' "Hotter Than Hell" or just enjoying the extras that came with an album.

My only attempt at streaming was cut short when my hard drive broke a few days after before I could copy the songs to another hard drive.

Same with books - I guess moving apartment is out of the question with a collection of over 700.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Posted in: Japanese businessmen brighten makeup industry amid pandemic See in context

@ Bjorn: I think it's a good thing men trying to look pleasant.

Surely there are people who think lots of body hair, muscles and scruffy looks are attractive. I'll leave it up to the women to breed those traits out of humankind.

What makes a man a man?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlgQloEy2HE

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Posted in: Man arrested for stealing women’s shoes and replacing them with new ones See in context

Obsession about used shoes is hardly a unique Japanese fetish - elsewhere those guys would simply get a job in a shoe store and be probably very good at their profession. Not suggesting every shoe store clerk is a potential shoe fetishist of course.

But acually replacing the stolen pairs with new ones is kinda nice, innit?

Is stealing-and-replacing-with-brand-new-item theft at all?

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Posted in: Which songs make you nostalgic for your youth or childhood, when you hear them? See in context

Too many to mention... when my dad got up he would turn the radio on first thing in the morning and the first song I clearly remember was "Death of a Clown" by The Kinks.

I still remember humming it all the way to our holiday resort when I was at kindergarten age.

My teens were dominated by songs like "July Morning", "48 Crash", "Blitzkrieg Bop", "Lonely Wolf" and good stuff like that. And the 80s brought me back to British stuff like DM, Culture Club and Duran Duran.

Good times...

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Posted in: What are some things that you recall hearing or seeing men say or do to women decades ago, which would be considered sexual harassment today, but which were not then (or at least no one spoke up about it then)? See in context

Whistling after teenage girls, slapping them on the butt for wearing shorts, saying stuff like "You look empty, want me to fill you up?" and such.

That crap was tolerated in the 70s.

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Posted in: Why do dozens of U.S. states want to ban transgender women from sport? See in context

Most transgenders and intergenders will never be opting for sports anyway as they are discouraged from start.

Imagine your sports teacher tells you, "Team playing now, boys to the left, girls to the right!" Whether you stay in the middle or choose the "wrong" side, if the teacher pulls down your shorts in front of 40 other kids and exclaims loudly, "Ohhh, other side then!", the laughter and jeers will never leave you. Not ever.

I was good at throwing, jumping and swimming. Becoming a sports pro never occurred to me.

Just open up all sports competitions to all genders and give points up or down for muscle mass like they do in ski jumping for wind advantage.

Would also include intergenders. Looking at the Williams sisters muscle mass has never been an issue in tennis.

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Posted in: Why do dozens of U.S. states want to ban transgender women from sport? See in context

I'm with Lazarus Knows in this topic even if it's against a stiff competition of reasonable thinkers like P. Smith and folks who seem like the age of science just happened to other people.

I should stay off anything about transgender and intergender topics on JT - it just hurts.

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Posted in: The unstoppable return of the mullet See in context

I had a mullet at 15 - never again... nowadays I can do a decent crewcut all by myself and I'm fine with it.

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Posted in: McDonald’s Japan expands rice burger menu with first-ever rice fish burger See in context

I like having a filet o' fish once or twice a year only to be reminded how much better a real Fischbrötchen is... fish in a real bun, not those soft soggy substitutes for a German bread roll.

Rice patties might be better than those spongy bread thingies.

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Posted in: Swiss voters narrowly back ban on full face coverings in public places See in context

There are less than 100 women wearing a burqa or a niqap in all of Switzerland, so is this vote just to deter tourists or making ground for more restrictive measures of banning clothing? Or banning other things?

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Posted in: A look beneath the waves 10 years after the Great East Japan Earthquake See in context

@Mickelicious: That pokemon looks like a nudibranch, colourful little critters.

https://www.boredpanda.com/sea-slugs/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Posted in: First vaccines delivered under global Covax scheme; EU program struggles to speed up See in context

Been in voluntary isolation due to severe asthma for a year now, I'd take my chances with that Sputnik if it were available. My Russian friends reported nothing worse than headaches, mild fever and a pain in the shoulder the kind of you would get when "bumping into a door frame when drunk". Sounds better to me than sitting in my flat for some more months until we get vaccinations going for the "moderately vulnerable".

I'm just tired of giving a wide berch to anybody I meet, I don't need to hug anyone, I don't eat out often or go to the theatre or concerts anymore, I just want to have the chance to do so.

I still don't fancy Astra-Zeneca after what my British friends told me.

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Posted in: 2 Tokyo doctors indicted without arrest over 2-year-old boy's death See in context

Propofol is contraindicted for use on children under 16 years old. How come the doctors didn't know that?

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Posted in: Pandemic boosts variety of video games See in context

I lost my interest in playing Pandemic II...

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Posted in: Dutch curfew protesters clash with police; France imposes new border controls See in context

Do you really think setting fire to testing centers will make your situation any better?

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Posted in: Merkel wants very fast action against virus after record deaths See in context

Posted to you in simple English:

What BILD says is about as credible as anything the SUN says in Britain.

Testing is down in Germany but fatalities are up, that's a fact. The first lockdown worked well, the second one (termed lockdown-zero by those who experienced it: Full taste, zero effect) not at all.

Vaccination is slowly rolling on, like a wave you can see from a distance yet produces but a tiny puddle around your feet.

I think those Anti-Vaxxers have laid the ground for the current behaviour.

"Why should I keep from keeping a distance when I feel fine?"

Another reason are the employers who insist on calling their employees in despite overcrowded commute.

Their excuse: When they work from home, we do not know whether they do their work or not.

Look, any company that uses this excuse should be monitored. They may have much more to hide.

Gemany has been quite generous helping some enterprises but not nearly enough.

As one of the few millions who are living a hermit's life since last March, I would appreciate if those 60% of the population who still think journeys and big gatherings are necessary for their wellbeing would kindly join me in my recluse.

It's only for a few more months... I know you can do it.

Please.

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Posted in: UK, Canada condemn Chinese 'barbarism' against Uighur minority See in context

Read, learn and think about this:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/12/uighur-xinjiang-re-education-camp-china-gulbahar-haitiwaji

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Posted in: Arnold Schwarzenegger compares U.S. Capitol mob to Nazis See in context

OTT as many actors but at least one likable Republican. :)

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Posted in: Most COVID-19 patients have at least one symptom 6 months on: study See in context

I just watched a report on severe Covid-cases in Germany. Oxygen keeps the major part of the body alive but not necessarily the limbs. In this specific case, the unfortunate patient on ventilator will have to undergo amputations of his feet and fingers, should he survive.

That alone is a reason for me to avoid Covid-19 at all costs.

It looked more like septicaemic plague to me than like something like "a bit worse bout of flu".

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