Shaun Spohn comments

Posted in: Trump's team slashing Republican National Committee staff amid takeover See in context

Scary thing, will be if Trump wins in November. He pushes out anyone who isn't in line with his agenda. US judicial system has already been badly tainted. He cut tons of science and environmental programs last time. Good chance he'll do more to sabotage them along with other parts of the US government.

Sad how many people go for him because they are excited about anything that isn't the normal boring reality.

14 ( +16 / -2 )

Posted in: Man given 6 years for killing student at her request in Sapporo See in context

Unfortunate case... There just aren't enough mental health care workers in this world...

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Posted in: Goldfish fireworks from Japan are meant to be enjoyed submerged in a bucket of water See in context

Reminds me of an underwater flare, but more violent....

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: Sarah Silverman and novelists sue ChatGPT maker OpenAI for ingesting their books See in context

Google's digitization project was pretty cool. It could be described as a contribution to advancement of mankind by making obscure material available globally.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Posted in: Deepfake porn a growing problem amid AI race See in context

It does seem odd to talk about fake photos and videos from 10 years ago in combination with modern AI deep fake options.... There should be plenty of more modern sources if this is an escalating issue.

I think in the end, culture will just have to change it's attitude toward sex and nudity. There should be no reason to feel shame about either and AI will make it easy to simulate anything you can imagine...

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Posted in: Japan's imports, exports balloon on energy costs, cheap yen See in context

If I weren't just about to start at a new job, I'd say it's the perfect time to visit Japan again.

Maybe next spring I can work remote for a month or two...

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Posted in: 170 cats abandoned in house in Gunma after owner falls ill See in context

Crazy thing, is how fast you can end up with 170 cats. Imagine if he started out with 6 cats (3 male / 3 female) and each had a litter of 6 with 3 females twice a year. First batch would be 18 kittens for a total of 24 (12 male / 12 female). Six months later, those kittens would be fertile. Second batch would be 72 kittens for a total of 96 (48 male / 48 female). So, less than a year and 6 cats could go up to nearly 100.

Neutering / spaying is very important for pet owners, despite the cost involved.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Posted in: Slain teen parents hope U.S. gun control fight will continue, 30 years on See in context

There is definitely a different mindset in the US than in Japan. In Japan, no one expects to be attacked. In the US, people are paranoid because violent crime happens far too often.

8 ( +10 / -2 )

Posted in: Japan's food industry eyes rice flour as wheat prices surge See in context

Gluten free is quite popular now. I don't have any real issues with gluten, but have noticed that gluten free baked items tend to feel less heavy in the stomach than wheat.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: 35 killed in attack beginning at Thailand childcare center See in context

I hope they can figure out some of his reasoning. It sucks when terrible things happen and you have no information that can at least make you feel like you've taken preventative steps to avoid it in the future....

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: Mixed fortunes of celebrities who leapt on NFT craze See in context

Marketing is almost always more important than how good a product actually is. Like Apple. They do make good devices, but are they really worth the premium price tag compared to their competitors?

Politicians are another great example. They are almost never as good as they claim to be during their campaigns.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: World swimming bans transgender athletes from women's events See in context

It will be interesting when we have this same debate come up in the future, after genetic modifications for physical traits start to happen... I wonder if there is already a similar issue occurring with Paralympics and prosthetics....?

Division by gender has generally worked, because there was a fairly clear performance differentiation in most cases. Competitive sports are by their nature fairly unfair though... Height, limb length, age, muscle types, propensity for body fat, intelligence, and many other factors make some people more suited to certain sports than others.

-6 ( +0 / -6 )

Posted in: Number of babies born in Japan falls to record low 811,604 in 2021 See in context

If the government was serious about reducing population decline they would create more national holidays and work hour limits. People aren't going to date as much when they are working all the time.

I personally see natural population decline as a good thing, but I like Japan and wouldn't want to see the youth population shrink too much.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Posted in: Sunken Hokkaido tourist boat salvaged, arrives at port See in context

It seems like it would be much more difficult to use straps to raise a sunken boat. Why not inflatable air bladders? I've seen them used for other salvage operation.

-3 ( +4 / -7 )

Posted in: Man who mistakenly received entire town’s COVID-19 relief money vanishes See in context

Looks like he owes the government quite a tax bill. ~16 million yen

National income tax on more than 40 million yen is 45% of taxable income minus 4,796,000 yen.

Plus more local taxes...

I'm guessing he's not planning to pay those taxes, so he's likely to be listed as a criminal for tax evasion. Considering the 99% conviction rate I always hear about there, he is probably going to have a difficult future...

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: 4-year-old girl dies after being hit by car driven by father See in context

This kind of thing is why I considered safety sensors, like automatic braking as high priority features when I bought my last car. Having your car be able to automatically stop before it hits someone is far more important than how fast it can go or how much storage space it has.

8 ( +10 / -2 )

Posted in: Coca-Cola Japan to release anniversary Super Nintendo World bottle design featuring Mario See in context

It's amazing how old the Nintendo company is. Started in 1889. Seems like a good partner for Coca Cola that started in 1882...

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Posted in: 4-year-old boy hit and killed by car driven by 80-year-old woman See in context

Maybe she was texting when it happened?

I'm glad my grandmother stopped driving when she did. Her attention drifted as much as her car, which was all over the road....

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

Posted in: China Eastern plane with 132 aboard crashes in southern province See in context

It is good that it was transmitting information up until the end. I hope they had active black boxes that were able to capture enough clues to explain the cause. Those planes are designed not to nose dive like that one did.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Posted in: Man arrested after attacking 2 men with knife on Osaka street See in context

I've got to agree on it being good he only had a knife. The user has to get close to use it and you can defend yourself with just an umbrella. Bullet can hit you from a fair distance with pretty much no easy way to shield yourself. Glad Japan isn't as twisted as the US....

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Posted in: Black hair, white shoelaces: Japan's school rules under fire See in context

I wonder if it's the rules for students that helped produce the culture that exists there for most adults now. It's not without flaws, but it is admired by many other cultures around the world.

I hope that crime doesn't go up as rules for teens decrease...

-6 ( +2 / -8 )

Posted in: Japanese Youth Conference petitions government to end compulsory after-school club activities See in context

I would not be surprised to see teen drug use, pregnancy, and crime go up if most kids stop going to the afterschool activities. Keeping teens busy, is a good way to keep them out of trouble.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

Posted in: Japan may allow 10,000 people per day to enter country from April See in context

Most people in the US have pretty much forgotten about COVID. It's still around, but no one is worrying anymore. It's like how cold and flu viruses are out there, but most people know they won't have a significant reaction. At least the vaccinated ones.

6 ( +8 / -2 )

Posted in: 22-year-old woman arrested after leaving newborn baby in toilet bowl for 9 hours See in context

Considering the timing and the baby being in the toilet, I wonder if she decided to get drunk or take some sort of drug while she was in labor and then basically passed out after....

It is good the infant wasn't face down in the water....

I have to guess she didn't have anyone she felt she could trust or she was too ashamed to involve anyone else....

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Posted in: Man arrested over alleged sexual assault of woman at hotel in Mie See in context

Considering the pressure to keep the 99% conviction rate, it seems likely he's going to be in jail for a while, regardless of whether they had voluntary sex or not.

Either person should definitely be able to refuse at any point, but when two people of the opposite sexual orientation agree to drinking and spending the night together in a hotel room, most people would agree that pre-emptive consent was being given, due to sex generally being expected under those conditions.

Affirmative consent laws are ideally great, but it isn't very realistic to expect intoxicated people to remember to ask, if they actually did ask, or what they answered.

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

Posted in: Japanese publishers to sue U.S. firm over manga piracy See in context

I personally favor creators using sites like Patreon to publish their work. Fans subscribe and support their favorite creators with whatever amount they feel the work is worth to them. I've seen some authors make a pretty decent income, with no publishing company in the middle. Some game developers that use it, actually have whole teams working on their project. It's normally a subscription model, so their fans pay month after month while waiting for updates, etc. It can actually cost significantly more to get your content that way, but it feels good to know you're directly supporting the creation of something you like. Plus donors often get to make suggestions that affect the outcome of the product. You might even end up included in their product as a character. There is no way to get that kind of interaction with an artist that is working through a publishing company.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Posted in: Japan distance race relays peace message to world See in context

Cool to hear some news about the real event. I only know a bit about it from watching an anime based on a group of guys training for it.

"Run with the Wind" (風が強く吹いている)

Apparently, it started as a book and also had a manga and live film version.

(The anime is still on Crunchyroll if anyone wants to see it. )

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Posted in: CES gadget show shortened to 3 days; some big tech stay away See in context

It would be pretty awesome to see an event like CES in a VR setting.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: Tokyo police admit to losing 38 citizens’ personal data…that was stored on floppy disks See in context

I haven't even had an optical drive in my computer or laptop in years. I took the CD player out of my car, as it was just wasting space I could use for other things.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Posted in: Junior high school boy dies after being stabbed by another student See in context

It's funny to see people mentioning a modern TV show for adults as relating to this issue....

There are decades worth of anime and live action video that have junior high students trying to kill each other. In a way, it has always impressed me that Japan is so opposite to the popular media that originates from there.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

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