Zen student comments

it is such a vague term that allows the user to hide between 2 extremes.

Nobody is hiding. There is nothing cowardly about admitting you don't know, which is what agnostics are all about. Atheists who try to 'bully' agnostics are almost as bad as bible bashers on a mission to recruit new converts if you ask me.

paulinusa - very funny comment. Gave me a chuckle.

I hope they choose someone young who will be more open-minded about the modern world and the Church's place in it. It would make sense to give it to a cardinal from South and Latin America as that is where most of the world's catholics hail from.

Maitake, which part in particular sounds delusional to you? Yasaku's comments sound perfectly reasonable to me.

Is there life after death? That question is too big for us to ever know the answer. There are some systems in nature (such as water) which are able to regenerate themselves endlessly. Are we able to do the same? Who knows. Whether we have a soul or whether we are just made of chemicals, blood, bone, skins and organs is a metaphysical question. I guess some people believe we have a soul because we have a MIND and because we have access to emotions. But does that mean we have a soul? I personally don't know. I know there is a ME, which is different to everybody else, so in that sense I have a soul. I suspect we do have a soul, but really humans know very little about this planet and the cosmos although we are learning more and more new things (and unfortunately forgetting the old things/ways).

Consider the size of an ant's brain. Does the size of the ant's brain allow it to understand what a human is? We don't know. Now take the size of a human's brain, infinitely larger than an ant's brain - is it able to understand life, space, the cosmos and everything as we know it? Hardly.....the only way to know if there is life after death....is to die.

So if we don't know if there is life after death or not, perhaps it's not worth worrying about. Just lead the life you want to lead and be the person you want to be. The meaning of life comes in the SEARCH for the meaning of life. We are all Gilgameshes trying to figure out what it's all about and this question (is there life after death? is one of the big ones and one of the mysteries of our living world).

And don't be afraid about the stuff about some ill-conceived thunderer and his punishment. That was just the Church's way to keep people under their control.

If there is a God (and I am not referring to some white-bearded man up in the clouds, no, but 'something' which we can hold accountable for why life is here and why it is the way it is), then we are part of it, so we get to choose what life is like and should be like. Even if we do not continue to live after we die, we pass on something to our children (for example wisdom) or something more material (books, diaries, journals, albums you name it). That's the only eternity we can ever really be sure of.

Great pic! Couldn't agree more PeaceWarrior.

Nothing like the feeling of being in a sailboat on the high seas. For me, the only times I can feel relaxed is on a boat or in a cabin in the mountains away from it all.

Yes I agree Kapuna, it is a very odd use of the word 'abandon'. Maybe only in the sense of 'abandoning their duty'? - to help get her off the ground and help put her in it. Or maybe cremation is against their religion? :) Who knows.............but what a stench to put up with, geez.

Looking forward to hearing this. Definitely one of the best guitarists and musicians of all time!

Oh my God, this is really disturbing. I do feel sorry for the police officers who were the first on the scene to discover this gruesome sight. Better find the son quick, if he is still alive.

I think a more accurate title would be something like...

"Japan dragging its feet to shutdown Fukushima nuclear plant"

“It is about the disasters they endured, the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear failure, hundreds of miles away from where we plan to hold the games. But it is also about the revitalization, which we have put on hold to funnel cash into this stupid Tokyo Olympics idea”

Perfectly put Probie. But I think you left one out.

But it is also about the revitalization, which we have put on hold to funnel cash into this stupid Tokyo Olympics idea and our economically unviable but cultural tradition of whale "research" which either ends up on the palates of our ojiichans and obaachans, in dog food or thrown away”

Leo obviously doesn't need the money so.....

I feel he might be half doing it for the money, and half because he really likes Jim Beam.

I have no problems with celebs plugging certain products on TV or on ads. What's wrong with that? If they can make money out of it, good for them. We live in a capitalist society. That's what it's like, whether you like it or not.

I just wish he had better taste in whisky. I mean Jim Beam? Really? It's okay but......nah I agree with 2020hindsights and FPSRussia. Suntory is much better. And Macallan or Islay are awesome.

Well done son! He is getting better and better.....

Self-edit, that should read "Lucky nobody has been seriously hurt/killed so far".

Lucky nobody has been hurt so far. Better catch this guy quick. If he sets off a fire in a residential area full of wooden houses, he could do some serious damage.

Love the great microbrews in Japan

You said it japan_cynic! The microbreweries here and pretty much anywhere rock! They are great. Japanese beer on average is much better than say Australian beer but Belgian and German beer are still the kings of the game in my opinion.

When it comes to wine, don't touch the local stuff with a 20ft bargepole if you can help it! because it's mostly pretty nasty. You have to fork out A LOT of money to get a decent tasting Japanese wine that won't leave you with a hangover, while for about half the price you can get a decent Chilean, Australian, NZ, South African, Californian or French wine.

Japanese whisky also is very, very good. 12-yr 'Hakushu' (a single malts' whisky) is, and Scottish and Irish people will probably kill me for saying this but.....surpsingly good.

The Japanese certainly know how to make a good whisky and beer but when it comes to wine, I thought the soil is too damp to make good vineyards here. Just my two cents.

Lol. That has to be the funniest title of an article I have read in ages.................hahahahaha

Standing up, sitting down, who cares. midnull, you are spot on. It doesn't make you any less of a man having to sit down to pee. That's just inherited macho bollocks. Although peeing with an erection sitting down IS difficult - I hear ya!

In short, if you make a mess, clean it up. And the whole 'pride' thing is lame. Take pride in something more worthwhile than peeing standing up Mr. Tanaka.

On a related but slightly different note, why do so many guys have to pee in the street? (or in dark alleyway) It almost seems like a rite of passage to become a salaryman.

Abe: "Looks like we really fooled the electorate in that last election hey Taro?" (guffaw) Taro: "Yep. Now that we have their vote, maybe they can shove off and die...." (guffaw)

Great photo!

@darknuts

Why? So they can intimidate the world with nuclear weapons? No one should have them.

I totally agree with you darknuts. Nobody SHOULD have them in principle. But that's not how it will work in the real world. As long as some nation in the world has the knowledge, know-how and capability to make nukes, then that's what they will do. Nukes, unfortunately, are here to stay.

As much as I abhor their existence, I would rather that they be in the hands of the US government and not in the hands of Al-Qaeda. Mind you, Israel these days seems crazy and belligerent enough to use them against Teheran. Heaven forbid.

finally pressing Israelis and Palestinians into finding some kind of path toward a two-state peace agreement.

As the US has repeatedly demonstrated in the past, they are not interested in a reasonable "two-state peace agreement" or "two state solution" even though many in the international community are. If they were seriously interested in it, why would they punish the Palestinians for joining UNESCO?

Just for reference, my ex-wife gave me an assessment of her minimum net worth husband. "Need to make AT LEAST JPY7,000,000 per annum" by the time we start having kids she told me. For someone who was making about half that at the time and working 65-hr weeks, the bar was set rather high you could say. One of the many reasons we are not married any more - because I was not bringing home my 'net potential income' as she saw it. Having said that, however, I do know a lot of Japanese women who are happy to be making enough with their husband to get by so good on them. Compared to some of the Chinese women I used to date, Japanese women are not bad at all in terms of women who judge men based on their income. I heard from a guy in Hong Kong that the second question a HK girl will ask you after your name is "what car do you drive?" I'm sure he was exaggerating a bit....at least I hope he was. ;)

If this writer had to pick a city, he should have picked Osaka over Tokyo. At least Tokyo has some nice parks and trees. Osaka is just one big drab concrete jungle. Mind you I do like most of the people there though.

making greater government support vital

read "making greater taxpayer support vital"

Hang on a minute.

TEPCO's full-year forecast loss = about 120 billion yen Public funds (i.e. taxpayers' hard-earned cash - yes us!) = 697 billion yen

Is it just me or does anybody else feel like they have just been shafted?

Spare the rod and spoil the child

Sheesh. Pathetic.

I know a contract is a contract but this is just ridiculous. So degrading and humiliating. So, she has to apologize for behaving like a perfectly normal human? Gawd.

It's a pity she didn't give the AKB48 management the middle finger! Because that's what they deserve.....

Seek happiness in your own life, in your own way. With or without Facebook. I post something about every 6 months on FB. Facebook doesn't bother me, but doesn't particularly interest me either. I prefer people who have a bit of mystery about them, not people who are eager to spill the beans on literally everything. I do NOT want to know what they had for lunch Monday to Friday (I mean, come on, who really cares?) but if they did go to some cool event, then I might look at the photos.

When we start feeling sorry for ourselves or 'envy' like in this case, we are taking Facebook a little too seriously I believe. It's like we are feeling a sense of 'entitlement' or something.