Tuesday February 14, 2012

Alan's past comments

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    Alan

    Instead of calling non-smokers "monsters," nicotine addicts should be attacking the cigarette companies that gave them this dangerous and expensive habit. The smoking lobby is trying to make this into a liberty issue, but there's no liberty for smokers. They simply have to smoke. I recall that a chain smoker in New Zealand sued a tobacco company a few years ago after smoking-related circulation problems caused her to lose most of her fingers and toes, in addition to the usual lung cancer. Her case was thrown out after she was caught smoking in the toilet during recess. That's how addictive this stuff is. Remember the Marlboro Man.

    Posted in: Anti-smoking 'monsters' have smokers on the run

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    Alan

    Saito's comparison of his misguided ideas with the eloquence of Martin Niemoller is profoundly dishonest. Cigarette smokers aren't the victims of totalitarian ideologies. They are the dictators. They impose their filthy habit on those around them by force every time they light a bonfire in their mouths. I'm sure no-one would care about smokers if they could find a way to smoke that kept their fumes away from decent people. A plastic bag over the head perhaps...

    Posted in: Anti-smoking 'monsters' have smokers on the run

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    Alan

    Is this Cantalamessa fellow insane? Jews weren't sent to Auschwitz, etc., for molesting children. They were innocent, unlike the the pedophile priests. If the catholic church is being "collectively stereotyped," perhaps that is because bishops, archbishops, cardinals and successive popes collectively participated in a collective cover-up at the highest organizational level.

    Posted in: Pope's preacher: Accusations akin to anti-Semitism

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    Alan

    China has huge problems that could derail its economic growth in the years ahead. There are vast differences in living standards between regions, and hundreds of millions of people have no access to decent education or health care. There's also the little problem of the millions of missing girls, aborted or quietly killed at birth because of the crazy one-child policy. If China's economy continues to grow, they're going to run up against a labor shortage brick wall, and without all those girls, the present generation is going to have trouble breeding the next generation for the workers' paradise. And I haven't even mentioned the human rights problems and corruption caused by the CCP's dislike for the rule of law.

    Posted in: China is doing very nicely for the moment, thank you

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    Alan

    This campaign may look silly in translation, but it is probably an effective response to the crime in question. Remittance fraud (furikome sagi in Japanese) involves phoning someone, usually an old person, and pretending to be their relative. You tell them you have money troubles and ask them to remit money to you urgently. Hence the advice that you should call family members (or the family member concerned) before remitting funds. An elderly person with hearing loss or dementia might easily be fooled. There are warning signs everywhere in Japanese banks, but people still fall for this trick, so a large cardboard cop might be just what's needed to get people's attention.

    Posted in: Cop cutout warns against bank transfer fraud

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    Alan

    How could this boy's mother not have known that her child was being tortured? If the teacher could see the injuries, the boy's mother certainly should have. Both of them are guilty. The punishment should be loss of custody of this child, a lengthy jail term, and compulsory sterilization.

    Posted in: Man arrested for abusing 5-year-old stepson

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    Alan

    One reason why machine translation doesn't work on Japanese is all the missing information. Sentences commonly have no subject. Most nouns have no plural. Tenses are fuzzy. European languages, including English, need number, gender, tense and identifiable subjects and verbs to produce grammatical sentences. Since such information is not provided explicitly in Japanese, the translator has to supply it by analyzing the context, reading between the lines, or just guessing. People still do those things infinitely better than machines.

    Posted in: Google demonstrates phone that translates text

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    Alan

    Narita's not bad once you get there. Arriving there used to be like landing in an ashtray, but they've cleaned up the smoke pollution quite well in recent times. And it's usually quick. Several times I've gone from the plane door, through immigration and out to the bus stop in 20 minutes. The all-time worst airports I've been in are LA, which had a customs hall with all the comfort and kindness of a cattle yard, and Honolulu, where they played non-stop 120-decibel ukelele muzak over all the loudspeakers at 5am.

    Posted in: Narita ranked third in airport quality survey

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    Alan

    Laws that limit free speech, including the so-called "hate crime" laws, are dangerous and misguided. Apart from civil redress for libel and slander against individuals, there should be no restrictions on freedom expression.

    Posted in: Should freedom of expression include the right to offend others?

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    Alan

    The use of the word "believers" in this article is symbolic of a debate that has become political and religious than scientific. The debate isn't about controlling the climate. It's about controlling people's minds and grabbing their money by creating a climate of fear. The Earth's climate systems are big and so complex that any talk of manipulating them is laughable. The only thing we can say for sure about the climate is that it will change, as it has always changed, and the only sensible response to that is to improve our technology so that we are better able to adapt.

    Posted in: The push for 350: Contradictions and carbon levels

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    Alan

    Children killed and maimed in suicide bombings, schoolgirls sprayed with acid, people kidnapped and executed, women barred from education, genital mutilation of children...these are some of the real blasphemies that Islam needs to address. The key words in this article are "angry mobs." Frankly, I'm not interested in anything "angry mobs" have to say. The United Nations should set up a Religous Crimes Tribunal and prosecute anyone who causes suffering in the name of god(s).

    Posted in: Muslim countries seek blasphemy ban

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    Alan

    I hope the Vatican astronomer has a close look at the crater on the dark side of the Moon named after Giordano Bruno, who was tortured for 8 years and then burned alive by the Catholic church for expressing views similar to those quoted in this article in the late 16th century.

    Posted in: Vatican looks to heavens for signs of alien life

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    Alan

    I spent a few years guiding Japanese tour groups around my country in the 1970s. It's easy to get cynical, and there were a few badly behaved people, but for the most part I found Japanese tourists to be polite, friendly and eager to learn about our country. Honeymooners were always a problem, though. A high-pressure Japanese wedding, followed by the hell of Narita and a long international flight seemed to leave most of them exhausted and tense.

    Posted in: Veteran tour escort relates travelers' lack of decorum

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    Alan

    All this started because Fiji's Indian population grew to the point that they were beginning to have a significant say in the government, which seemed reasonable since they do most of the work in the sugar and tourism industries. Every act like this latest folly damages the tourism industry and pushes Fiji further toward poverty.

    Posted in: Fiji orders Australian, NZ diplomats out

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    Alan

    Westergaard's cartoons perfectly express the growing Western image of muslims as intolerant, fanatical followers of a rabid death cult with a fondness for high explosives. And worldwide Islamic reaction to the cartoons suggests that his portrayal was accurate. Islam should heed this courageous messenger, not try to kill him.

    Posted in: Muhammad cartoonist defiant in face of threats

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    Alan

    LOL. Jewish stormtroopers fighting Palestinian neanderthals over onwnership of Mohammed's holy helipad and the world's most sacred demolition site. That place has got way too much religion.

    Posted in: Violent clashes erupt at Jerusalem's holiest site

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    Alan

    The dash for the last train is the quickest way to get sober, though it doesn't prevent hangovers. The problem with Tokyo taxis is not just the expense, but the fact that many of the drivers don't have a clue about finding destinations. But at least they seem to have stopped refusing to pick up stranded foreigners who've missed the last train.

    Posted in: Last train blues

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    Alan

    147 dead, 721 wounded-- These stark figures don't begin express the pain, the loss, the suffering and the shattering of lives caused by these insane and cowardly attacks. The people affected are not statistics. They are individuals.

    Posted in: 147 killed in Baghdad suicide car bombings

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    Alan

    She wasn't in a "sex show." She had a tenuous involvement in a show in which sex was discussed. Amazingly, the judge seems to have acquitted her but sentenced her to a prolonged torture session anyway.

    Posted in: Saudi female journalist gets lashes for sex show

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    Alan

    Whoops. Having a bit of trouble with quote button there. Here's my comment: Japanese has a word "hamono," which is a generic word for any tool or weapon with a blade. If they don't know what kind of weapon was used, they just say "hamono." I don't know of any English equivalent.

    Posted in: Armed man leads police on 10-km chase in Okayama

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