Xinef comments

alternative media distribution methods

Love the euphemism.

Nice piece of PR overall, but the introduction alone is basically saying "we have yet to discover the concept of presumption of innocence, but the good news is we've heard about human rights, cool stuff!"

Yeah! I mean what has research really achieved anyway, who needs medicine! Ah the good old days of the Inquisition, that is what we need to get back to!

Presumably all of the commenters complaining about the law are men, and 90% most of them have taken photos of women on trains without their consent.

The vast majority of comments here cover one of two views:

the specific case: what happened to this man is an arguably reasonable consequence of his acts

the relevant law: as it appears biased

Both aspects are only roughly detailed in the article itself.

In case it is not obvious, these two views are perfectly compatible and do not collide directly: a biased law can still result in a fair outcome when the right case comes up.

Allow me to use two personal examples that will illustrate this for you:

I have a wife and two daughters, and nothing matters more to me than knowing them safe. I would definitely not condone molesters and underskirt photographers, and I find it absolutely normal that someone disturbing one's well being for his own ends should be penalized somehow for the sake of the public order.

In the 5 years I have lived in Tokyo (and I firmly believe that Tokyo is not like the rest of Japan in case you feel the urge to compare,) therefore riding the train on a daily basis, I have occasionally been the target of what I would describe as nut jobs. They are fairly rare given the density of population, but trains are where all sorts of people gather every morning and evening, and the laws of numbers (probability of meeting a weirdo times the number of people times the number of days in a year) eventually lead you on the path of people you wish you never came across. I have been elbowed for no reason, underwent the loud complaint of a strangely dressed lady who complained I smelled (I don't believe that I do) etc... Then you get to read much worse on places like Japan Today, but let us keep that in the "freak incident" category. All in all, the point is: you will occasionally meet strange people in Tokyo. Now put this into context: we are in a country that considers you guilty until proven innocent in case a woman complains about harassment. Heck, there was even stories where they released some poor guy after 3 years of jail just because the police never bothered looking at the footage of the bus he was riding... Even lawyers advise that if you find yourself the target of such accusation, you do not try to prove your innocence, just run away! Now, as if this possibility not being enough, comes this law that states that simply holding your smartphone in what could be interpreted as the direction of a woman, is ground enough for her having you arrested because she felt "uncomfortable." This effectively makes any male smartphone owner a potential target to any female passerby in need of some action.

I am no law specialist, nor have I read the actual text. But if things are as they are presented in this article, everything that has been said in previous comments regarding the biased nature of this law (mono-gender, based on a subjective and one-sided argument, etc...) is indisputable.

Finally, this could probably be interpreted as the usual knee-jerk reaction-type law creation: Japan lawmakers tend to try and re-establish some balance by empowering the side they consider weakened in a specific situation. The problem here is that by scaring the potential ill-willed photographer, this law also introduces a legal loophole that any woman can use to hurt any individual of the population of camera-equipped man, guilty or innocent. Will this be a problem often? Hopefully not, but after experiencing years of daily commute in Tokyo, this kind of law just made me resent riding the train a little more.

I am reading this news on my smartphone while riding the train. I am therefore technically guilty of pointing a camera toward the lady sitting in front of me... Hope that does not make her uncomfortable....

As you have underlined:

• a "controlled discharge" is controlled

• "subterranean leaks" are not

Besides, while there are mentions of discharge of "tainted water," I see no mention of discharging specifically "highly contaminated water" into the sea. I believe they might have dilution in mind.

It is sad we have to resort to such extreme measures, but discrediting the rare experts in the field that are actually trying to find solutions to a very real problem is not very constructive. The IEIA is not TEPCO, and, call me naive if you may, I believe their target is safety rather than profit here.

In the picture preview, it looks like the cops are holding hands, so cute... and a bit weird

Chinese fans seem to be about as normal as Japanese fans.

I believe he meant "common" rather than normal (as in " Chinese Sherlock Holmes fans might not be as common/numerous as this news make it sound")

5 million views, while impressive, is to put in perspective against the nearly 600 million internet users in China.

hell I'm 26 and I love the stickers.

It is not about Line itself or its stickers, it's about the implications: 12 yo and owning your very own smartphone.

So now it's my turn being a parent and sound like an old schmuck, but at 12 having direct unsupervised access to social platforms and whatever is out there on the internet... Hell I'm 31 and I am still regularly shocked at what I come across on there...

Very sorry for the completely news-unrelated talk here, but I just wanted to voice some support to the shrinking population of people that feel that providing a $500 iPhone with a $80 monthly plan to 12 year-olds should not be the norm.

I have no idea how can anyone judge her family condition or anything from the pictures. Let's just hope she finds her way back home safe and sound ASAP. Japan is usually a very safe place, so I really wish this story ends up confirming its reputation.

Turns out that on Amazon Japan this model is more expensive than an imported Chromecast...

your TV needs to also have a USB port (for power) and the phone

Technically, you can power it with any USB powered adapter, from your TV or a simple phone charger

the phone would have to be an Android phone

Quoting wikipedia here:

Miracast support is built into Android 4.2 or later [18] and starting with Android 4.4, devices can be certified to the Wi-Fi Alliance Display Specification as Miracast compatible.[19] Miracast is also built into Microsoft Windows 8.1[20] although developers can implement Miracast on top of the built-in Wi-Fi Direct support in Windows 7 and Windows 8.[21] Another way to support Miracast in Windows is with Intel's proprietary WiDi v3.5 or above. Apple supports its own AirPlay mirroring instead of Miracast on OS X.

That makes the current OS list Android and Windows. This could well spread to other devices, since I suspect AirPlay is not an option for any non-Apple company.

you could just by an HDMI cable to HDMI mini for about one third of that cost.

In some cases, say a video projector hung from the ceiling, you may be better off without cables. Moreover, a third seems sightly exagerated, last time I checked, decent slimport HDMI cables went around 2500~4000 yens.

Apple TV

Works only for Apple products, but I have to agree it's worked for a long time and very well at that.

The system uses high-speed wireless communication many times faster than the presently-available wifi used for domestic Internet connections, along with high-speed computing capacity.

This quote got me annoyed way more than it should have... The content of this news is very interesting, but this source-less and explanation-less statement just begs for more details.

they had got into an argument after which she killed her companion

well that escalated quickly

Meanwhile, at the police station:

-- What is your name son?

-- My name is Pond, Jim Pond !

Can't get "I wish i was queer so i could get chicks" out of my head now...

Selling grass in Kusatsu? That's a surprise!

Enjoy your next MRI

Why did you think it was in year 2101 that war was beginning?

@tmarie

Third comment says

It is very worrying that the US murders its own citizens covertly and without trial.

From the news, the man is clearly presented as a terrorist, and apparently involved enough to be on the "wanted dead or alive" list.

There were many terrorists killed by US attacks before, so why make it about where the man was born?

People can debate about whether the killing was right or wrong all they want, I just wanted to point out that in that case, I really don't see what birthplace has to do with anything.

So when terrorists are non-Americans, then it's OK to kill them on the spot, but if they were born on American soil then you should treat them better? I don't get the logic here...

The explosion risk is one thing, but what bothers me now is the cause of that build up of hydrogen. Last time we heard about hydrogen at Fukushima, it was involving melting nuclear fuel...

There's been a ton of companies over the years who have sank huge budgets into marketing and are no longer around. It Gree (or anybody else) isn't making quality, they aren't going to survive.

If making quality games was enough to survive, the recipe would be known by now. It is an important part of many business models, but not the only one.

All I see now is "big booth", "lots of attention", "social games", "casual games" - but nothing about GOOD games.

What you see then is irrelevant, what you should know is that GREE's stock value is now higher than DeNA, or in other terms, this is a very successful business model, and all that in a mere 6~7 years.

@NetNinja: I haven't checked all presented games obviously, but one can easily come to the conclusion that this is not the same gaming industry as the console and dedicated platforms. This all makes sense actually, the target public is not gamers, just the average smartphone user.

@pawatan

Gree has one of the largest booths, 3 cellphones per presented game (there's a lot) and in average I'd say 2 girls per cellphone so yeah it kinda attracted a lot of attention. I don't know what the public's reaction will be but as far as the industry is concerned, it is without a doubt the new star of TGS this year.

Feed it to those nationalists in black vans, they love Japan made stuff.

The guy is an attention whore. Don't give him his public hearing; stop talking about him; throw him in a cage for the rest of his life. Fail to do that and you may enjoy some copycats...

So what can be done to avoid further crackdowns by police?

How about stopping at traffic lights and not using a cellphone while riding? I know crazy idea...

Much likely indeed, which is why I recommend not to eat more than 1 a month.

People in Tokyo are not oblivious to their surrounding when riding or driving, this is a permanent state! I see the hordes of zombies everyday on my way to work. This is by no mean a problem when immobile, but I can hardly imagine the number of scenarios which made me feel like slapping the fool in a station stairs. How hard can it be to leave the god damn phone in your pocket when it is not the right time to use it!

ihavegreatlegs

Who cares if it is contaminated. Can't it be sued as a coolant water anyway? They are going to decontaminate it and use it again...then it gets contaminated again and again. Sounds stupid to me.

Right, then from the point of view of an informed person your statement sounds more than stupid. Pumping equipment (among other things) would then become radioactive as well, which, believe it or not, is a problem. Thank you for insulting the people working on this, now go with your great legs and operate radioactive equipment yourself.

Scientists operating a camera atop a mountain in Hawaii caught the airglow on film

If the picture (Genkigonzo's link) is taken from atop a mountain, this is one hell of a peak! Looks more like an aurora caught from a satellite.

The report will appear in an upcoming Geophysical Research Letters.

Maybe we will get the actual picture then? Which brings us back to the news: doesn't making news from it require to post the picture?

No of casualties from air crash went down to 884 in year 2008,in 2009 it was 1103 and in went up to 1115 casualties in 2010. Casualties should be going down,with better planes and more better aircraft operators,aircraft maintenance and better others in air transport.

I will quote the Boeing webpage about safety:

"In 2000, the world's commercial jet airlines carried approximately 1.09 billion people on 18 million flights, while suffering only 20 fatal accidents."

The last time I took probabilities / statistics is quite a while ago, but form what I can remember, an increase of the order of 250 out of 1.09 billion doesn't sound alarmingly significant. Let me reformulate: it is a tragedy for people, but the numbers themselves do not mean anything.

As a matter of fact:

The number of passengers has likely increased every year, so comparing without having those numbers is already irrelevant.

If you know what risk management and probabilities are, then you'd know that even if you could have halved the probability of accidents by increasing flight safety, you would lower the chance of having more crashes than last year, but chances still are that it could get worse anyway (less likely, but still possible).

Blaming pilots after a plane accident is like spitting on the corpse of a driver after a car crash you didn't even witness. I find it offensive to say the least.

When the experts that have all the details at hand will publish results blaming the pilot(s) for being incompetent, then and only then you will be free to call him/them murderer(s). So far, I can only see that 228 persons have been the victims of a tragic series of unlucky (and I believe unlikely) events, and anybody judging the people involved based on the incomplete information we have is absolutely revolting.