JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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- 秘書及び業務サポート
- 加治金属工業株式会社, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥4.0M / Year
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- English Instructor (Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe)
- Berlitz Japan, Inc. (ベルリッツ・ジャパン株式会社), Kansai
- Salary: ¥125,000 ~ ¥250,000 / Month
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- ALT - Mie Prefecture - Yokkaichi City - June start
- NPO法人グローバル教育推進機構（GLAD), Mie
- Salary: ¥230,000 / Month For a full working month. Some months differ.
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American Devil
Here's a wildcard conspiracy theory I heard recently. It's one of those unprovable theories that makes you go hmmm.
The conspiracy theorists say that the media conglomerates want to control everything we see and hear. Their ultimate enemy is not the pirate but the library. After all, libraries provide copies of movies, music and books for free!! But, if the mega-companies get their way, and pass their laws, libraries will be shut down because they aren't paying royalties... which will allow the conglomerates to redistribute only the media they allow people to know about... Fahrenheit 451 style.
Yeah, its just a silly conspiracy theory... but it does make me wonder how far the media corps will go to stop people from copying or viewing stuff for free.
Posted in: Software piracy costs record $63.4 billion in 2011: study
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American Devil
The article complains about China being the leader in piracy... here's a news flash for Hollywood. Stop asking China to produce your CDs and DVDs! It's lunacy to ask the fox to guard the hen-house and expect it not to eat the chickens.
The average Chinese laborer gets extremely small amounts of pay for making the DVD's that will be sold for high prices. Those laborers need to eat, and they can make money by making a few extra copies for themselves. If Chinese piracy is such a big problem, how about making your product in America? Pay a decent wage with insurance, and the employees will be less likely to feel a need to sell illegal copies to feed their families.
It's ironic that companies like Sony make computers with CD-Ripping programs built into them, then complain that people are actually using those programs to rip their CD's.
Posted in: Software piracy costs record $63.4 billion in 2011: study
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American Devil
What really sucks is that they will get the money from all of us, their customers. We are being held hostage by Tepco, since there are no competitors. They raise their rates, and we can't object (unless we want to be in the dark). The Government needs to break this company up like Bell Telephone was broken up in the states. this is a clear antitrust issue! There is no competition, and TEPCO can raise their rates as much as they want to and no one can resist them.
Posted in: TEPCO posts Y781.6 bil full-year net loss
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American Devil
Hmmm. What is the difference? Both want Nationalized Healthcare, neither has been in the military, both play to partisan groups... Is religion a factor here? Other than skin color, they both seem like the same person on opposite sides of the political fence.
America needs a leader to bring both parties together so that the problems can be fixed without all the partisanship blockades. Unfortunately, Neither Obama nor Romney will do that. Whoever wins the election, all America will lose out for at least another 4 years.
Posted in: Obama plunges into campaign, tearing into Romney
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American Devil
The whole 3D thing was and continues to be a flop. Everyone gambled on it after Avatar came out, but it hasn't panned out for TV companies, nor Nintendo. The super-short battery-life also put a nail in the coffin, for sure.
I like the idea of the Smart-phone mix. Maybe a clam-shell smart phone? i-DS?
Posted in: Nintendo posts first-ever annual loss
1
American Devil
Just another diet coke for people to have with their chocolate cake. they should just rename it "Oxymoron Cola"
Posted in: Kirin releases fat-busting cola
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American Devil
Like Tommy Lee Jones... when your movie prospects dry up, come to Japan and do silly commercials. It pays for the mansions and beats sitting in the unemployment line... Better to give up pride than have to give up the home, right?
Posted in: TV commercial of the week: Bruce Willis for Daihatsu Mira e:S
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American Devil
Apple I-pod Nano users have already been doing this for years. I have. Sony is too slow on the draw. This isn't going to be very popular. Like the Titanic, you can deny it all you want, but the company is going down.
Posted in: Sony straps on Internet-linked wristwatch
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American Devil
Epic FAIL!!! Another great from our loser neighbors in North Korea.
Posted in: N Korea admits failure as world condemns rocket launch
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American Devil
Note: Isn't this the same mayor who put an airport in the middle of the tea fields? I don't know how this guy got voted into office in the first place, but if its the same guy, he was extremely unpopular for making that eye-and-ear sore, and now he's going to be burning radioactive debris in the middle of the tea farms. Not only do I doubt that he WON'T Be re-elected, I wouldn't wonder if the people of that town aren't going to run him out of town on the rails of the Tokaido train line. I know I would if I was still living in Shizuoka.
Article Unavailable
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American Devil
I agree with gonemad.
while tkoind2 may not be able to sell his CD's directly, the internet is no better or worse than, say the radio... remember that device? I do. I remember that those big companies like SONY sold me equipment like cassette recorders, and taught me how to record the music I heard on the radio... for free.... they sold me VCR's and taught me how to record movies and TV shows from regular and cable TV... for free. They sell computers with high-speed broadband internet connections and DVD/Blue-Ray recording ability and they have tutorials of how to use them...
Now, Sony is claiming that after following the same pattern for years and years, that its suddenly surprised to find that people are following the instructions and downloading things for free? Give me a break!!!
before the internet, tkoind2 and his fellow indie artists were still crushed down by the big companies who said join our mainstream or get thrown under the bus, because no one will find your music without big corporate backing. But those indies put their stuff on small radio stations for free, it got played... And during those years, people made "BOOTLEG" copies of just about every type of music that could be found out there. Those bootlegs went around and the big companies complained, but almost no one went to jail. And those bootlegs got copied and sold to eager fans who gobbled them up for big money. Those indies who had good music found that more people came to their concerts and snapped up their CD's thanks to hearing the music for free on the radio. Now YouTube replaces the radio station but does the same thing.
So, technology has blown away radio and the regular TV, but so long as the companies make and sell computers legally with the ability to download and record those music titles and movies, they can't complain that using their technology to copy what's out there.
For some people its enough just to see/hear them at any poor downloaded hand-camera quality, and for those who want nice quality, its better to buy the original. If I could watch my favorite tv shows in the states for free, why should I pay extra for them here in Japan? If I can listen to music on the radio for free and hit record on my ipod, then that isn't anymore illegal now than it was when I used cassettes and my stereo was tuned in to the alternative rock music stations back in my hometown.
Posted in: Have you ever bought, copied or downloaded unauthorized music, TV shows or movies?
1
American Devil
According to the TV news yesterday, only the one sensor was going up, while the two others at the same level of the water containment vessel said the temperature was going down. And all three sensors at the next level down also showed the temperatures going down... so ... that would be a pretty strong indication that its just a busted sensor.
Now, yes, that requires us to believe that Tepco is telling the truth about the other sensors as well, but I think its very plausible that one thermometer is broken after all the crap that's gone on. Still, its good for the media to keep an eye on the situation.
Posted in: TEPCO blames high reactor temperature reading on broken thermometer
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American Devil
Does this mean that the S.S. has caught up to the main whaling fleet. or is it just an attempt to escape from the one ship that has been following S.S. and broadcasting their location... preventing them from sneaking up on the rest of the fleet?
If Net Ninja looks at the picture, there's a skull and shepherd's crook symbol on the front of the boat. That might indicate that its the S.S. I think JT is taking the word of the Japanese people on the receiving end of the thrown bottle that it was just rancid butter and not a failed Molotov cocktail.
Posted in: Confrontation
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American Devil
I agree with Kansaichris.
Obama has had his faults... mostly for trying the My way or the Highway approach. But he has had successes as well. Chrysler has reported record profits and has passed up Toyota for top auto maker. Bush left them insolvent.
As DentShop indicated, if there was a better person, I would vote for that person. I voted for Obama because he seemed better than McCain/Palin. In this election, I will vote for whoever appears to be the best choice. Right now, neither Mitt nor Newt appears to be worth my vote.
Mitt and Trump are solidifying the view that the GOP favors only the really rich. Mitt has already fronted his own Obamacare/Romneycare and still says its the best. so if he gets the nomination, we'll know that obamacare will continue regardless of objections.
Newt is a lost cause all around. He has his scandals, his failed attempts at past presidencies, his record of flip-flops on capital hill... and his speeches are almost laughable. He promises everything to everybody. He promised (to spend trillions America doesn't have) to build a moon-base. That's out of touch with reality from what I can see.
I would vote for Ron Paul, but he has little chance of catching up to either of the others. In the end, it looks like I have the choice of wasting my vote on Paul, a man of substance but no chance of winning, or voting for Obama-clone-Romney. I won't vote for Newt! I'd rather vote for Obama than see Newt self-destruct in the oval office.
Either way, I don't see much chance of anything changing over the next 4 years.
Posted in: Trump endorsement of Romney a huge diversion in Republican race
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American Devil
I wonder how many people decrying the evils of downloading are also the ones avoiding the NHK man who wants to charge for the TV channel that people don't watch...
Posted in: 30 arrested for illegally sharing manga, music, movies, TV shows online
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American Devil
Just for a different point of view, lets put this article in terms of bananas. It is well known that Bananas have potassium which is radioactive. 1 banana contains 0.1 microsieverts of radiation or 15 Baquerels of radiation. (This information has been widely posted on more places than just Wikipedia, but that's likely the first place readers will seek this information).
Thus, 10 bananas = 1 microsievert.
The article claims that the air has a rating of 2 microsieverts, and the soil has as much as 52 microsieverts of radiation. That would be 20 bananas hanging in the air, and as many as 520 bananas on the ground.
Although I have not done a comprehensive count, my local grocery store has a large pile of bananas in 5-banana bunches. Thus, if I were to stand there, in front of the display (figuring around 104 packs of bananas) I would get the same dose of radiation. Wow! All these years I have been studying which bunch to put in my basket, and I have been getting irradiated along with my family.
Also, it should be noted that 1 person gives off 1 baquerel of radiation (that is the base equivelent). thus, if the story is correct, the air has the same radiation given off by 300 people.
OMG!!! that is about how many people get crammed into the Tokyo trains every morning. No wonder I hate those train stations in the morning, they are full of people giving each other radiation!!! And I'm not even prepared to think how much radiation is shared in a stadium during a game.
Just something to think about...
Article Unavailable
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American Devil
Here's a conspiracy idea for the reason why there are radioactive bottles. How about some jerk puts the bottles under the floorboards as a way to slowly kill the last occupant... or the one before that since we don't know how long this was there. Why wasn't it detected before? Who regularly goes around with a rad.counter? No one. Someone could have put it there to give their victim cancer. It would have been making people sick for years more to come if Fukushima hadn't started getting people to check for that stuff. Should investigate the owner more thoroughly...
Posted in: Radiation likely came from radium in bottles beneath floor of empty house
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American Devil
"Operation Divine Wind" ... SS says. My guess is that means they are going to intentionally sink more of their ships on the bows of the Japanese ships. Afterwards, they will demand that Japan pick up the survivors and transport them back to Japan for trial... hoping that intentional suicide will deter the hunt.
Personally, I feel that the more that SS tries to resemble Al Quida with its terrorist/suicidal attacks, the more the Japanese will desire to eat whales just to spite them... Before SS, very few J-people cared about whale-bacon... They all told me it didn't taste good. But now, more feel that SS's attacks on their culture have encouraged them to retry the nasty stuff just to see what the fuss is about or to "stick it to Sea Shepherd" as one J-co-worker told me. Meanwhile nobody bothers China for its fishing practices...
Posted in: Japan to go ahead with whaling despite activist threats
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American Devil
Rich7
I agree with you completely.
Posted in: Ten years on, do you believe al-Qaida was responsible for the events of 9/11?
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American Devil
Pawatan,
You like the idea that the impact of the airplanes caused the destruction of the buildings, but if so, why didn't they collapse immediately? Why wasn't there more buckling from the beginning?
I mentioned fires and 6000 degrees because those have been the arguments of people like yourself who believe the official story that the planes' impacts and burning fuel caused the destruction of the three buildings.
And as others have asked in addition to myself, if as you claim the buildings were destroyed mostly because of the impacts, then why did Building 7 (which didn't suffer major impacts go down? It didn't get jet fuel sprayed all over it, or in it, yet it went down. And yet the pentagon also suffered the impact of "a plane" and yet didn't collapse. That disproves your theory that the impacts were the major contributors to the buildings' demise.
Calling me a strawman doesn't answer the questions, just shows that its easier for you to degrade me than answer my questions concisely or civilly.
Posted in: Ten years on, do you believe al-Qaida was responsible for the events of 9/11?