JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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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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- FT English Teachers for Kids - Osaka
- Kohgakusha Co., Ltd. （株式会社興学社）, Osaka
- Salary: ¥255,000 ~ ¥275,000 / Month Travel Expenses, Encouragement of Japanese learning*
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- Translator
- ZAIHON, Inc. (日本財務翻訳株式会社), Tokyo
- Salary: ¥6.0M / Year Negotiable
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Betzee
You left out Mick Jagger, who was knighted by the Queen. He's fathered seven children with four different women, only two of whom he married.
Whether teenagers mimic the behavior of celebrities, ignoring the difference in financial situation, is a matter of debate. But these are troubling trends.
Posted in: Baby-faced dad, 13, raises 'broken Britain' fears
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Betzee
"giving them the best possible care"
They certainly look well cared for and quite content. Good job!
Posted in: Dog retirement home
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Betzee
I was disturbed to see individual photos of the eight preemie babies on the cover of the LA Times. It appears their mother, with the assistance of a publicist and agent, has been pimping them for dollars and sympathy.
Now if it was a photo of the fertility specialist who implanted six embryos in an unmarried woman who already had six children and was getting public assistance to support them, well many people would make it into a dartboard!
Posted in: Octuplets mother now has agent but no publicist
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Betzee
Bad idea. The whole sorry tale reminds me of the scene in My Left Foot where the family matriarch informs her husband their daughter will be gettin' married over the weekend. "Why so quickly?" he naturally inquires. "Well, you know" she doesn't belabor the obvious. He ends the exchange by saying, "Aren't you two a fine pair. The old woman who lived in a shoe and her daughter who couldn't keep her knickers up."
Posted in: Baby-faced dad, 13, raises 'broken Britain' fears
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Betzee
Calculating the unemployment rate is a tricky business because there's lots of people who are not collecting a paycheck by choice. Students, house wives, retirees, etc. It's targeted to encompass only those actively seeking work who can't or haven't found it.
China poses its own problems because there's disguised unemployment in the countryside where there's more labor than work. Some of those people sought jobs in export factories where orders have fallen off dramatically. If they've been let go, they will be counted in the 50 million. There's also a lot of former state-owned factory workers who long ago gave up trying to find new jobs once the factories were closed. Instead they spend their days trying to find ways to get by in the new economy with old skills.
In recent months we've seen labor protests in places such as Latvia, Chile, Greece, Bulgaria and Iceland. Not to mention strikes in countries where there are still unionized workers including India.
Posted in: Obama savors victory as Congress approves stimulus
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Betzee
The way things are going, they better start sewing tiger costumes. I don't think the global economic downturn will be over by the time we usher in the "Year of the Tiger" in 2010.
Posted in: Ginza rally
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Betzee
OK, what if Obama's stimulus plan doesn't work? Does anyone think the millions laid off are going to be impressed by Republican breast beating and promises of tax cuts if the GOP is voted back into office? The unemployed don't pay taxes, incidentally.
By some estimates, economic contraction may leave 50 million people around the world unemployed by year's end.
Posted in: Obama savors victory as Congress approves stimulus
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Betzee
The GOP did a huge PR blitz to turn public opinion against the stimulus bill, emphasizing the cost. Yet in an economy where the private sector is reeling and shedding jobs rather than hiring, Americans know the government has to spend money to create jobs. Plus, the Republican Party lacks the moral capital to lecture on the evils of deficits after GWB blew through five trillion. Gotta have been a bit of pork in that, perhaps the whole hog since nobody can even say where it all went.
Posted in: Obama savors victory as Congress approves stimulus
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Betzee
On the front page of the NYT's there a photo of "imported [Japanese] vehicles sit[ting] at the Port of Newark, waiting for their turn to gather dust at dealerships. Toyota Motor is starting to feel the downturn that has hobbled its American counterparts." This is not unconnected to the photo here. Perhaps it could be incorporated in the story quilt narrative.
Posted in: Ginza rally
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Betzee
"In the first four years after F.D.R. took over from Hoover, the already decimated ranks of Republicans in Congress fell from 36 to 16 in the Senate and from 117 to 88 in the House."
With people like Steele heading the party, I don't think the GOP should expect much better this time around. If the government has never created a single job, was his stint as lieutenant governor a mirage?
Posted in: Obama savors victory as Congress approves stimulus
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Betzee
Michael Steele, quoted above, was recently selected to serve as head of the RNC to turn around the fortunes of the GOP after the thumpin' it got in the last two elections. Good luck with that.....
Posted in: Obama savors victory as Congress approves stimulus
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Betzee
Gotta love it!
Michael Steele, a {Republican and] former Maryland lieutenant governor [whose] argument against the stimulus package is that “in the history of mankind” no “federal, state or local” government has ever “created one job.” As it happens, among the millions of jobs created by the government are the federal investigators now pursuing Steele for alleged financial improprieties in his failed 2006 Senate campaign.
How, pray tell, has he never heard of the Department of Homeland Security which created tons of new government jobs? Get serious.
Posted in: Obama savors victory as Congress approves stimulus
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Betzee
Cleo,
I'm going to download this photo. From time to time I've been involved in developing tests to assess cultural competency along the lines of "what do you see going on in this photo?" There's a lot here, enough to rank the responses on a scale.
Posted in: Ginza rally
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Betzee
Yes, Cleo, you're right. The animals are all in the lunar zodiac (including the dragon).
Posted in: Ginza rally
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Betzee
Cleo, Thanks! I could get the gist from the kanji, but thanks for the complete narrative.
Posted in: Ginza rally
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Betzee
The banner they are holding looks like a story quilt, used by non-literate cultures except this one includes a written narrative. Note the bear with the arrow pointing to the character for "out" (used to mark exits in buildings). I can't read the rest.
Posted in: Ginza rally
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Betzee
I attended a Quaker school for 13 years where I had mostly Jewish classmates. That's probably not what people here, certainly not those bashing liberals, are thinking of when they refer to "religious schools" but it certainly qualifies as such despite the fact the curriculum was not bible-based. I can still remember dissecting animals in biology (something from which I learned a lot).
While the education was first-rate, it was also provided by people who had conviction in their beliefs which was very inspiring and produced a lot of "life-long learners."
Posted in: U.S. churches to discuss evolution vs creation
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Betzee
Not really. Once survival could be taken for granted, beauty came to reflect socio-economic status. In most of the world, lighter skin is considered more beautiful. It meant you didn't have to toil under the hot sun in the fields where the darker people were found.
Moderator: Back on topic please.
Posted in: U.S. churches to discuss evolution vs creation
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Betzee
I'm not sure being chubby would have helped you stave off polio, but before the vaccine was invented that was a virus to be feared, for certain.
Posted in: U.S. churches to discuss evolution vs creation
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Betzee
Blackwater is going into other lines of work because this one dried up after the Iraqis were in a position to stand up:
THE Iraqi Government has told the US embassy in Baghdad that it will not issue a new licence to Blackwater Worldwide, the embassy's main security company.
The company has come under scrutiny for allegedly using excessive force while protecting US diplomats.
The Iraqi Interior Ministry conveyed its decision to US officials in Baghdad on January 23 in one of the boldest moves the Government has made since the implementation on January 1 of a security agreement with the US that sharply curbed American power in Iraq.
Posted in: Blackwater dumps tarnished brand name