Wednesday February 15, 2012

Hikozaemon's past comments

  • 0

    Hikozaemon

    Lunchbox, I hear you, and the Hurricane thing is actually a very interesting analogy, because it is very much like the Shindo scale. It is not a simplistic measure based purely on windspeed or barometric pressure. It takes into account a wide range of factors intended to measure the "destructiveness" of a hurricane. Categories correspond to the damage they are capable of causing - exactly the same basis as the shindo scale.

    Magnitude does not accurately reflect how much damage a quake will cause. You can have a very localized quake Mag 6 or below, and if it is shallow enough, have fatalities and building collapses. Likewise, you can also have quakes near magnitude seven, as is not uncommon in Japan, that are so deep that while felt over a broad area, don't do much more than rattle crockery.

    The beauty of the Shindo scale is that it is local and central. The news will always say that the quake was a "maximum shindo XX" indicating how much actual shaking and damage was caused where it was most intensely felt, which corresponds very much to the hurricane scale (people will say a quake was a 6+ quake, or a 6- quake on the news). If it is a 6+ quake, you immediately know that there were some house collapses, power outages, and stuff falling over injuring people. Emergency services know what to expect going to areas worst hit.

    Magnitude tells you diddly squat about the actual impact of the quake. It's not completely irrelevant, but whereas emergency services prepare for hurricanes based on the scale of hurricane it is, magnitude is absolutely no basis for an emergency response to a quake. Shindo is.

    For your hurricane analogy, a better magnitude equivalent would be a kilojoule energy rating for the storm - which of course is meaningless because you could be dealing with a large spread out storm, or a small localized intense storm. That is precisely why they use the scale they do - and why Magnitude is an absolutely redundant scale for use in the general media and public domain for understanding what actually happened when a quake occurs.

    Not that I care at all...

    Posted in: Japan hit by 6.9-magnitude earthquake

  • 0

    Hikozaemon

    Lunchbox, my point exactly - everyone understand Shindo, so why even bother giving us Magnitude?

    What is so important about it? What does magnitude tell us? Shindo doesn't just tell us the seismic acceleration in Tokyo - it gives readings for all of Japan - it is region specific information in each area. Magnitude is like the total power output of the sun, and Shindo is the local temperature. They don't report on solar activity on the weather - they give local temperatures. I don't understand the point in reporting on a quake giving no information other than magnitude.

    Magnitude is interesting to geologists, but measures nothing of relevance to ordinary people. Just tell us how much it shook and where.

    Posted in: Japan hit by 6.9-magnitude earthquake

  • 0

    Hikozaemon

    SK will not fall.

    If NK is dumb enough to try anything more to provoke the US, China is going to be surrounded by an increased US military presence for decades to come, effectively canning any plans China might have on expanding its own influence in the region for a generation.

    THAT is the only good thing to come out of this, and why NK forcing the issue like this has actually had some positive implications for the security of Japan, and continued regional stability thanks to US hegemony.

    Thanks North Korea!

    Posted in: China keeps pressure off North Korea

  • 0

    Hikozaemon

    I don't know why Japan Today would be running an article with a measure of the earthquake in Magnitude, which is completely meaningless.

    Yes, it was a 6.9 quake, but it was 500km away from the ass end of anything.

    Magnitude is completely irrelevant for describing the quake.

    The quake was a Shindo 3 in Kanagawa, Tokyo, Chiba, Ibaraki, and a two in the prefectures around that. That tells anyone reading how much it shook - and while it was a bit of a jolt in central Tokyo, a Shindo 3 is barely news - calling it a Mag 6.9 quake just paints a false picture of destruction, which is precisely why it is utterly meaningless as a way for the public to understand "how big the shake was".

    Posted in: Japan hit by 6.9-magnitude earthquake

  • 0

    Hikozaemon

    The threat was no US aircraft carrier exercises in the Yellow Sea (ie, just off China) or North Korea will start a war.

    The purpose of this was not just DPRK trying to psyche out the US from risking triggering a third war, and to gain an upper had grip on the issue of the western border. It was also to undermine the US deterrence not just against Korea, but in East Asia generally.

    The US being willing to join these exercises in the Yellow Sea demonstrates its willingness not just to get into a war in the region to defend South Korea. It is also a huge reassurance to the people of Taiwan of America's commitment to the region, and a sharp reminder to China that no matter how much it expands and grows its military, it still cannot expect to walk into Taiwan and displace US influence in the region without a fight.

    To that extent, this "irrational" behaviour from DPRK was potentially a great favor to China if it had succeeded in getting the US to back down on the exercises. China gets to play the influential power broker, and US deterrence in the region is undermined.

    Thank you America for showing you have balls and not backing down from these direct threats from NK, and veilled threats from China opposing the joint training exercise. And don't be surprised if China is more involved in this whole test of the US/SK alliance than first appears. The US presence in this region is vital to peace and prosperity, which China and NK represent a direct military threat to with their stupid obsessions over territorial disputes. I feel bad for the people of Okinawa but this is exactly why we need those bases in Okinawa. Without them, open war starts in Korea and China marches into Taiwan.

    The people of North Korea and China should also be grateful to the US for being brave enough to stand up and make sure that they never have to be conscripted and sent off to die in wars started for the sake of the pride of their totalitarian leaders that they never chose. This whole drama only further highlights the illegitimacy of those two allied dictatorships.

    Peace

    Posted in: China keeps pressure off North Korea

  • 0

    Hikozaemon

    Mike, if Jesse the Body Ventura can become governor of Michigan, Arnie governor of Califohnia, and this lady governor of the administrative territory of Alaska, that alone is proof that popularity is more than enough, and that American democracy is finally now coming to an end.

    I hope she gets elected. All I want is sufficient notice to build a big enough bomb shelter.

    Peace

    Posted in: Sarah Palin: Serious 2012 contender or pretender?

  • 0

    Hikozaemon

    The key is PRC. Sanctions are the best way to discipline DPRK, but they don't work unless PRC plays ball.

    DPRK is sitting there shelling and killing SK civilians on SK soil, and all PRC can say is "everyone needs to stay rational". PRC is laughing its ass off over this - it immediately becomes another reason the west has to kow-tow to them to get them to help, making them feel important. I wouldn't be surprised if PRC knew about this whole murderous stunt before it happened.

    Peace

    Posted in: What is the best way for the global community to deal with North Korea?

  • 0

    Hikozaemon

    It is incredible to me that Skype is allowing KDDI to have a monopoly on Android based Skype in Japan. I am a PC based Skype user for 10 years now, and I use it from my iPhone. I want to switch to Android on Softbank. If that happens, Skype is saying that it wants me and my family to stop using Skype and to look for alternatives like Google Voice or something, right?

    Well Skype, if you are going to withhold Skype from more than 50% of Android users in Japan, expect to see a hit not just in Android based use, but in PC based use of Skype as well - this is a huge opportunity for other VoiP companies to step in and take substantial market share from Skype, and it will be their own fault for alienating Japanese consumers like this.

    Peace

    Posted in: KDDI to bring Skype to au

  • 0

    Hikozaemon

    Hangul is always a possible alternative...

    Posted in: Too much katakana contributing to Japan's malaise

  • 0

    Hikozaemon

    For a brief moment today, Israel inadvertently banned it's national dish when a spelling mistake resulted in "Hummus" being added to the list of prohibited goods near Gaza....

    Posted in: Israel drafting new list of goods banned from Gaza

  • 0

    Hikozaemon

    The IWC is meant to be a commission for whaling countries.

    It obviously isn't.

    Whaling countries should set up a new international whaling commission, with engaging in whaling a prerequisite to membership.

    The purpose of such a commission for international whaling should be ensuring the sustainable management of the whalemeat resource. Current whaling members like Japan have been good at following the moratorium recognizing the need to preserve the whale resource for future generations of whalers, so that their children and grandchildren can continue hunting whales like they do.

    I believe that nations like Australia that oppose any compromise are actually doing the current IWC a great favor, by highlighting it's pointlessness. Hopefully Japan should realize that it's efforts to reach a compromise are in vain - westerners see whaling like anti-abortionists see abortion: murder, that can never be compromised on. They are wasting everyone's time, so just render them irrelevant, as they are.

    Peace

    Posted in: Japan may quit whaling commission if ban stays put

  • 0

    Hikozaemon

    Haha, hey Taj, nice to see someone still remembers me here :)

    Kuroyama. The movie is a long climax to super-anthropomophize dolphins, paint the Japanese fishermen that hunt them like gangsters, and then show what looked to me like a pretty clean and efficient slaughter scene in the hopes of making people feel like they were watching a massacre of human beings. I think the trailer to "Earthlings" showing normal slaughter of domesticated animals for our food ten times more disturbing than the dolphin climax scene on the Cove. I mean, they got a few dozen dolphins slaughtered and up in boats in around 2 minutes. I've hunted animals as a kid, and we would be lucky if we could get a rabbit or a possum dead in that time - these guys killed dozens of big-ass dolphins in that time. I was impressed.

    The problem is that most westerners don't kill food themselves anymore and can't confront it when it is put in front of them. The focus on the slaughter scene is an emotional attempt to outrage urban supermarket shoppers in western countries.

    Peace

    Posted in: Internet service company to show 'The Cove' in Japan

  • 0

    Hikozaemon

    It was interesting to see when this topic was featured in Gizmodo, a lot of PETA campaigners included a link to the movie "Earthlings" (dot com) that has a stomach turning movie trailer showing scenes of animals being improperly slaughtered on commercial farms. The point those Peta people made was quite right - if people are hopeful that the sheer unpleasantness of the Cove should make Japanese change their ways and stop killing dolphins, why do we not watch more gruesome videos about where our own food comes from?

    I saw the Cove incidentally, and my conclusion was that other than 3 minutes in the entire 1 1/2 hours at the end dedicated to talking about mercury health risks, the movie is an emotional appeal for westerners to support and give money to the NGO behind the movie. The movie is 97% "let's get angry at those mean Japanese" and 3% "hey Japan, you know, you might want to rethink this". That's fine - it wants to make American schoolkids angry and make their parents donate funds. But mocking the Japanese trying to defend the practice as it does will do more to alienate Japanese people who watch this - which means "sucks to be you" for the dolphins.

    I was left with the feeling that this movie will do nothing to help the dolphins, because it does nothing to reach out to the people it is wanting to change.

    Peace

    Posted in: Internet service company to show 'The Cove' in Japan

  • 0

    Hikozaemon

    Keiko - the main problem with the film in Japan is that a lot of it was shot without the permission of those whose faces are shown in it, which in Japan is against the law. The other concern raised by the press was that it portrayed the populace of Taiji as acting like gangsters. So basically, the film has to be edited with lots of mosaics and disclaimers to be shown here. Good news is that if it will be shown on Nicodouga, lots of people will see it - Nicodouga is bigger than YouTube in Japan.

    Downside is that if you thought the stupid comments here were bad, brace yourself for comments that appear on Nicodouga....

    Posted in: Internet service company to show 'The Cove' in Japan

  • 0

    Hikozaemon

    I would have expected she would be more into horticulture, or chemistry...

    Posted in: Noriko Sakai goes to university

  • 0

    Hikozaemon

    imacat - look at the English soccer team, none of those guys play any good unless its for money. The issue you raise is not an American one, it's an unfortunate side effect of sports with deep histories of professionalism.

    Peace

    Posted in: Ichiro delivers as Japan beats South Korea 5-3 to win WBC title

  • 0

    Hikozaemon

    I don't know that the US is over 'race' or not. Look at any primetime network tv variety show - american idol, dance idol, survivor, comedy shows, etc. Always a couple of whites, a couple of blacks, token asian, token hispanic, and increasingly one or two token gays. No one ever says this out loud, but I can imagine some haafus in America, far from being celebrated for their beauty, would be penalized in the mainstream media for failing to clearly enough fall into the unspoken racial quota categories that they so clearly apply.

    Haafu are popular as in the media here, they are celebrated, as they often are elsewhere. I think people need to get off their high horses and realize the hypocrisy in their own countries before slagging off on Japan. And power to Jun - good on her.

    Peace

    Posted in: Jun Hasegawa capitalizes on 'haafu' look

  • 0

    Hikozaemon

    Show the fence made of toothbrushes!

    Posted in: Tourism New Zealand launches innovative marketing campaign

  • 0

    Hikozaemon

    I applied for a UFJ card once a year for my first 7 years in Japan. They simply do not seem to want to offer cards to foreigners, even ones with stable and better than average paying employment.

    The main reason I wanted a credit card was online shopping - particularly Amazon and similar bookshops to buy English CDs and DVDs not available in Japan.

    Someone mentioned that they got a Saison Card no problem. Well, same here - I got a Saison Amex card from the automatic kiosk under Ikebukuro station after years of getting rejected by a bank.

    It seems to me that banks are the toughest when it comes to issuing cards to foreigners - it is these more minor companies that offer better conditions. I'll always appreciate Saison, and frankly the approach of banks to deciding who to extend credit to (ie, lending freely to broke businessmen and construction companies, and rejecting much safer credit risk foreigners) is a big part of why they all got into such a pickle with bad loans.

    Peace

    Posted in: Try to get a credit card in Japan

  • 0

    Hikozaemon

    http://www.japantoday.com/category/commentary/view/want-to-see-the-real-japan-try-hitchhiking

    Apparently there's a good book on the subject called Hokkaido Highway Blues by Will Ferguson

    Here's a vid talking about it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZNH5vnKGYc

    I haven't read the book, but it seems to be well recommended.

    Peace

    Posted in: Want to see the real Japan? Try hitchhiking

Follow us

Facebook
Twitter

View all