House Atreides's past comments

  • 1

    House Atreides

    German tabloid newspaper Bild reported the men, who are under investigation but have yet to be arrested or charged, had refused to pay for a dish of fried rice with vegetables and beef.

    Nozawa probably tried to stop the Germans from leaving without paying. He should have called the police instead.

    Posted in: German resort island shaken over Japanese chef's murder

  • 0

    House Atreides

    Godspeed Mr. Miura.

    Posted in: Miura begins third assault on Mount Everest

  • 0

    House Atreides

    If they have bad manners overseas, it means they have bad manners at home. Your average person isn't going to change the way they behave just because they've crossed a border into another country. There's an old saying: You can take the tiger out of the jungle, but you can't take the jungle out of the tiger.

    Posted in: Some Chinese tourists 'uncivilized,' says top official

  • 1

    House Atreides

    In theory, Okinawa belongs to Japan. Reality is it belongs to US base. Nothing will last forever! Look at Scotland and Ireland republic.

    By the same reasoning we should also welcome the eventual independence of Tibet and East Turkestan! Nothing will last forever, not even Chinese rule, especially with the way China has been acting lately.

    Posted in: Chinese general says Ryukyu islands do not belong to Japan

  • 1

    House Atreides

    Defiant Hashimoto says U.S. troops abused women during occupation

    This is already known. The U.S. military has a sexual abuse problem that continues into the present.

    The cases last year are among thousands detailed in a searing 1,500-page Pentagon report on pervasive sexual abuse in the U.S. military released last week. It estimates a rate of about 500 men and women assaulted each week of 2012. The scandal is unfolding rapidly in an embarrassingly public manner, each new chapter confirming the report's finding that the abusive culture is endemic. Tuesday night, the Army revealed that Sgt. 1st Class Gregory McQueen, who was responsible for sexual assault prevention at Fort Hood, Texas, is under investigation for allegedly forcing another soldier into prostitution and assaulting two others.

    So is prostitution the solution to sexual abuse? I think not.

    Posted in: Defiant Hashimoto says U.S. troops abused women during occupation

  • 6

    House Atreides

    China has been reading up on world domination.

    First it was the Senkaku islands. Now it's Okinawa. If the Chinese aren't kept in check it'll eventually be Japan and the United States that the Chinese will be claiming. The Chinese already have plans to attack the United States. Here's what a certain General Xu Guangyu had to say in 2011:

    "if China could no longer keep secret its missile launches, it would not be able to launch a surprise attack on the US."

    You give an inch to the Chinese and they'll take more than a mile.

    Posted in: Chinese general says Ryukyu islands do not belong to Japan

  • 15

    House Atreides

    A senior Chinese military officer has said the Ryukyu Islands-which include Okinawa and its U.S. military bases-"do not belong to Japan", as a territorial row mounts between the Asian powers.

    Sure. They belong to the Okinawan people. And it was the Okinawan people themselves that were pushing for a reversion of Okinawa back to Japan. In 1951, 99.8 percent of Amamians (constituting 139,348 signatures) signed a petition by the Amami Oshima Nihon Fukki Kyogikai (Amami Oshima Reversion Council) supporting the return of Okinawa back to Japan. Try getting 99.8 percent of Tibetans or Uyghurs to sign a petition to remain under Chinese occupation.

    Posted in: Chinese general says Ryukyu islands do not belong to Japan

  • 0

    House Atreides

    The expansion of the Arctic Council has everything to do with countering Russia. Russia claims over half of the Arctic, something that doesn't sit well with the remaining members of the council. How do you weaken Russia's position? Expand the council. Open the Arctic to everyone.

    U.S. officials had arrived in Sweden saying that they were comfortable with expansion. One Russian media report, however, said Moscow wasn't keen to expand the club.

    Posted in: Arctic Council admits Japan, China, 5 others as observers

  • 5

    House Atreides

    You'd think a guy from a supposedly "oppressed minority" would be more sensitive to the issues surrounding other minorities. However, I doubt Hashimoto will resign. He's the only high profile burakumin and as such represents not only the people of Osaka but the burakumin community as well.

    Posted in: Okinawan women demand apology from Hashimoto

  • 0

    House Atreides

    "Not everybody is ready to pop a bug in their mouth," Mueller said. "It will probably take a while. But some people are already doing it."

    I doubt most people will switch to an insect based diet any time soon. On the other hand, dogs and cats would probably have no problem munching on insects. Americans are expected to spend over $21 billion on pet food this year alone. That's quite a large untapped market for insect protein.

    Posted in: Bugs are food of the future: U.N. agency

  • -1

    House Atreides

    The Taiwanese fishing boat was spotted in waters near Taketomi island, part of Okinawa chain, the agency said.

    Taketomi island lies between Iriomote and Ishigaki. The Taiwanese fishing boat was deep into Okinawan territorial waters.

    Posted in: Japan seizes Taiwanese fishing boat

  • 2

    House Atreides

    Still, Sony's stock is up 86% in 2013.

    With its stock price increasing, Sony won't need any cash infusion from Loeb. Anyway, the reason why Sony has an entertainment division in the first place, goes all the way back to VHS vs Betamax.

    "What we learned from VHS vs Betamax was it wasn't just the hardware that was important, but also the software," Sony's product specialist Eric Kingdon, who has been with Sony for 25 years, says: "That's why we sought to acquire, firstly, an interest in the music business and then later in motion pictures, while retaining strong partnerships with the studios. As a result of that format war we became acutely aware of how all the pieces fit together in one big jigsaw."

    Having an entertainment division gives you an edge in any format war. Content drives sales of the hardware, not the other way around.

    Posted in: U.S. hedge fund boss lobbies for breakup of Sony

  • 7

    House Atreides

    You can make serious money doing all kinds of unspeakable things, some of them illegal and none of them moral. Doesn't mean it's a good idea or that cleo will like you for it.

    Without a natural predator, a deer population will grow out of control.

    Now, too few hunters prowl through rural Japan's thick bamboo and cedar groves, and deer account for an estimated $33 million in annual crop loss, triple the total a decade ago, according to Japan's environment ministry.

    Hawaii is having a similar problem with its deer.

    Axis deer, called chital in their native India, are similar in size to whitetail deer found in the continental U.S. Tigers and leopards keep axis deer numbers reasonable in India, but the deer population is growing 20 percent to 30 percent per year in Hawaii because there aren't any natural predators - except for humans. ... On Lanai, deer that eat everything from Hawaii's native ebony tree, the lama, to a native olive tree and a now-extinct mint helped turn a rich native forest into a desert-like landscape so desolate people compare it to the moon.

    Even in the Blue Ridge Mountains you have out of control deer populations destroying the ecosystem.

    But the deer problem has proved even more profound, biologists say. Fast-multiplying herds are altering the ecology of forests, stripping them of native vegetation and eliminating niches for other wildlife. Varmints of old were mainly predators, Dr. McShea said, but this is the age of the marauding herbivore. "I don't want to paint deer as Eastern devils," said Dr. McShea, a wildlife biologist associated with the National Zoo in Washington, ''but this is indicative of what happens when an ecosystem is out of whack.'' The damage is worse than anyone expected, he and other scientists say.

    You can either reintroduce a natural predator or have groups hunters do what a natural predator would be doing. Doing nothing is not an option.

    Posted in: 64-year-old deer hunter shot dead by fellow hunter in Miyagi

  • 3

    House Atreides

    Get Real - Yes I hate guns, but even more I hate people who join hunting clubs and kill animals for fun. It's no better when they claim they're performing a service or doing it in the animal's best interests. The deer are just being deer. There is no need to cull.

    You can actually make some serious money hunting deer in Japan.

    The spike in Japanese, or sika, deer looms large in rural areas that retain significant political power, even as their human populations shrink. Many local governments like Bungo-Ono offer hunters bounties of up to 10,000 yen per head for any deer bagged and tagged. Most prefectures in Japan have effectively waived the notion of a hunting season, granting special permits to allow kills year-round.

    Mr. Niizuma could have been hunting to supplement his retirement income.

    "We can bag up to 18 deer in a single day. They're just everywhere," laments Yoichi Kodama

    10,000 yen/deer x 18 = 180,000 yen

    Not bad for a day's work. Of course an accident like this is a reminder that hunting isn't entirely free of risks.

    Posted in: 64-year-old deer hunter shot dead by fellow hunter in Miyagi

  • 7

    House Atreides

    There's nothing democratic about the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and there's nothing peaceful about the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea.

    Posted in: N Korea slams U.S. aircraft carrier's arrival

  • 2

    House Atreides

    Looks like they're skipping stones.

    Posted in: Stone's throw

  • -1

    House Atreides

    So what exactly did her meeting with this so called senior Chinese government official accomplish? All Kawaguchi was doing was wasting time on the government dime.

    Posted in: Kawaguchi censured in upper house for extending China trip

  • 1

    House Atreides

    Anyone thinking of climbing a snow covered mountain should invest in an airbag vest. On average 10 percent of people caught in avalanches die, but when a person is wearing an airbag vest that number falls to about 3 percent.

    Posted in: 15 dead, 1 missing in mountain-related accidents during Golden Week

  • 4

    House Atreides

    I have six good friends from Okinawa, and they are all young, but they have never given any thought to being anyting but Japanese. Okinawa not being part of Japan is a completely absurd idea. Being part of China is just rediculous.

    As early as 1951, Okinawans were already pushing for a return to Japanese rule. For example, 99.8 percent of Amamians (constituting 139,348 signatures) signed a petition by the Amami Oshima Nihon Fukki Kyogikai (Amami Oshima Reversion Council) supporting the return of Okinawa to Japan.

    Posted in: China should reconsider who owns Okinawa: People's Daily

  • 4

    House Atreides

    It wouldn't surprise me if he emigrated to Canada.

    Posted in: Chinese director investigated for having 7 kids

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