JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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To be healthy, live in the big city
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Japan's nuclear safety standards flawed, says commission chief
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Why do Japanese change their attitude when they communicate with foreigners?
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Teacher nabbed for using miror to peek up girl's skirt
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From carnivores to herbivores: how men are defined in Japan
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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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Klein2
Koji the 43 year old schoolteacher whips out a device and takes some data and makes calculations that might conflict with official national government data, Fukushima official data, and those of actual qualified scientists.
Then he recommends that topsoil be removed because the radiation that his data allegedly show is supposed to be persistent.
Gee. Is that good enough for most of you to base a decision on? I mean, he must be right because... well... why exactly? Unskilled. Unqualified. Inexperienced. Using the cheapest instrument. I think you agree because he has some claim that supports your position. Which seems a lot like what birthers were doing not too long ago.
I will seize upon one little bit of his logic and present an illustration. The 20 millisievert limit is for areas where, if you were going to camp outside in a sleeping bag 365 days a year, you might get 20 millisieverts. But even Koji's data show that levels are A FIFTH less inside a building. Really we all knew that, and Koji accepts it, apparently. OK. Let's use Koji's revelation. Considering that a child is only going to be outside about 4 hours a day, maybe 6, more like 3 on average if we consider winter and Playstation, aren't we really talking about something like 4 or 5 millisieverts a year? Probably less? Like 2 or 3?
Factor in that those levels will decline substantially over the next year, and even the 20 mSv limit is unlikely to be achieved in such places anyway.
This worrisome article about worry is all more hysteria. Official maps published in the newspaper of record for Fukushima in May, using mid-April data, show that only a small area of the prefecture has a 20 mSv per year level, OUTSIDE. After the last month and a half, and after the rains of the last few days, that area is even smaller. Anyone with so much as a tent over their head will not get 20 mSv by any stretch of the imagination.
In fact, another official map published in the newspaper of record for Fukushima shows that most areas within the 30 km and 20 km zones are actually FAR BELOW the 20 mSv limit.
I don't want to flail my arms and "think of the children". I want a question answered: Why are these people being kept from their homes?
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Klein2
Just HOW?
Somebody please tell me, just for instance, how you do a Japanese version of the GET OFF THE SHED sketch? or even something that is sight-gaggy like BASS O MATIC? or do THE CONEHEADS without drug and sex references?
Pamelot raises an interesting point. Mr. Bill was tried and true, but it has been done. How do you top Mr. Bill? Can you imitate it?
The only way to do it is to take huge risks, and those risk taking people are finding what they want on the internet, why would they want to get involved with Japan's big entertainment machine? After all, once they create a character (Ed Garvin -- male prostitute, land shark, the Wydettes, the Coneheads, Nuclear family, the Blues Brothers, Emily Litella, Rozanne Rozanadana, Father Sarducci, Eddie Murphy's Gumby, SCTV Great White North), it will belong to somebody else. ZERO career development there. Japanese companies suck intellectual property from artists. SNL cultivates intellectual property and lets performers profit from it.
The Simpsons started as short films on (what is her name?) a pretty minor sketch show. How does that happen in Japan?
Posted in: Japanese version of 'Saturday Night Live' to debut in June
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Klein2
I will miss this. I cannot imagine any success coming to this enterprise.
I miss SNL.
SNL was edgy when it first came out. Does anyone remember Fridays, which I think was an ABC knockoff? It was decent, but it still lacked the right mix. I thought SNL was dead when Belushi and Aykroyd left, but then there was the Murphy Piscopo revival, Charles Rocket, Franken and Davis. So many others.
It stayed edgy. Japan can't even begin to do edgy.
And SNL had great music. Weird stuff. New stuff. Older stuff. But all good. Bowie, Devo, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Peter Tosh, Joe Cocker, Phoebe Snow, even the Stones (I still remember when Mick licked Keith on live TV. It created "much confusion."). When Mick Jagger just showed up to do a duet with Peter Tosh, it REALLY WAS a surprise.
How is Japan going to even find that?
Posted in: Japanese version of 'Saturday Night Live' to debut in June
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Klein2
For better or worse, liberals in Germany and Switzerland are taking a huge gamble here. They seized on this issue as a rallying cry and are being exposed as impractical, intransigent, and unrealistic. They need to present an alternative to conservatives that people can trust, and vilifying an industry like this is a terrible start.
The "outright ban" stance and "immediate halt" was just way overboard. It emboldened Kan to just gut Chubu electric on a whim. Both decisions will be shown, in time, to have been irresponsible. These governments have weakened their nations out of fear. Pure irrational fear.
Posted in: Does Fukushima show a split in philosophy between Asia and Europe?
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Klein2
The author makes the HUGE error of saying that Germany and Switzerland are making their policies in the same way as Asian nations do.
Those two countries fully expect to buy their energy from other countries to make up their shortfalls. They can rely on a unified EU grid. France will sell them nuclear power. Germany will pay and become dependent on others.
Real countries (every other country named in the article) have their own decisions to make for their own national grids.
So. Duh. Split in philosophy? Suffice it to say that Germany can be proud and idealistic because someone else will be practical in their place. The "philosophical split" is more of a Morlock/Eloi split.
Posted in: Does Fukushima show a split in philosophy between Asia and Europe?
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Klein2
"the problem is mostly the psychology of previous investment"
Whatever THAT is.
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Klein2
I am really torn by this stuff. Part of me feels sorry for people who believe, even the slightest little bit, this really really stupid nonsense.
Then the other half tells me that if I don't find some way to take their money, somebody else will very soon. It seems like such a waste that this "investigative journalist" should walk away from the table a little bit richer based on such a lame attempt. Seriously. We really need to raise the bar on conspiracy theories. If gullible people are going to fall for silly stories, they might as well be stories that lead to something sensible.
OK. Now I put on my debunking hat:
Why would Mengele do that? He was so busy with other things that he would not have bothered mass producing midgets. And if Stalin knew where Mengele was, he could have extorted more out of him, or just turned him over to the Isrealis for ... favors. Such as nuclear secrets.
Why would the USSR do that? Show off its best technology, have it shot down, and then do nothing with such great technology... ever? The country that produced a stealth fighter/bomber in the late forties had trouble dealing with U-2's? Really?
How could the USSR do that? They were killing cosmonauts in space decades later... how would they have made such an early leap and then have such setbacks in the 60s and 70s?
I will also call attention to the egregious name dropping. Stalin, Mengele. Yeah right. Not minor party functionaries and nameless, faceless, X-file people, but major historical figures.
Posted in: Roswell UFO was Russian craft: new book
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Klein2
Here is what realmind is thinking....
OK. 9/11 happened in the US in the morning. Then 3/11 happened in the afternoon. So 6/11 is coming right up, and it will be in the evening... in the US or Asia.
I have probably hit the nail on the head there. But considering time zones and dates, and the 10 year gap between the first two events and a three month gap between the second two. Why does that make sense? I don't see a model there. I see...."magic."
Realmind should be congratulated though. Isn't the prediction just as likely to be true as that of someone who put a lot more effort into developing a model incorporating religion or some kind of numerology or something? Realmind is just going full whimsy. Nothing wrong with that.
Hey, 11 11 11 is coming up. Where is the love for that auspicious date? I predict that people will make a big deal about that starting in about a month or so.
Posted in: Japan quake could raise concerns elsewhere
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Klein2
“There are many regions for which the history of earthquake occurrence is very poorly documented,” he said. “We have a long record for Japan relative to most regions, but even there we got surprised.”
Oh brother. The subtext here seems to say that earthquake prediction is some kind of exact science, and that if we just had better documentation for 1000 years or so, we could piece it all together. Uh uh.
When he says "even there we got surprised" it makes it sound as though he should not have been or that they were "fooled" somehow.
No. Scientists are still in the guessing stage. Don't let anybody tell you different. Smorkjan ridicules the charlatans properly. Look a couple of posts up. The 'predictions' look like something you would hear from stockbrokers or rapture fanatics. Oh sure, somebody will be right about predicting something sometime, but there is no accurate model and there probably won't be for some time.
One thing the article just ricochets from might not be obvious to most readers. Japan has huge amounts of data, but it is also the world's most complex system of plate tectonics.. most probably. So finding one model that works for all of Japan is extremely unlikely. Then finding one guy who has all the answers? Forget about it. This is not an Einstein thing, this is a "cure cancer" thing that will require the efforts of thousands of people over generations.
Posted in: Japan quake could raise concerns elsewhere
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Klein2
They "shade" comedy to foreign audiences.
This is just plain sad. Good comedy is disappearing because it is all going local. Except for Eddie Murphy and Jack Black. Everyone likes them, right? Especially Eddie Murphy. Pretty well aside from them, you can't count on finding much in the comedy section. I have not seen ONE of those fat Eddie Murphy movies, but it seems as though he has made seven.
Anyone familiar with the physics concept of "heat death"? Well, this is what is happening with Hollywood. Movies were designed by committee, then picked apart by accountants and lawyers. Now international committees will change movies according to audience polls in Osaka.
Between this and the 3D trend, it means fewer movies in theaters, and more and more watered down and localized films. What will I have to do to see "American films" five years from now? Who will be "choosing" my culture? I suspect culture will be determined by region coding and IP address rather than one's mother tongue.
I do not like where this is heading one bit.
Posted in: Hollywood tailoring movies for overseas audiences
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Klein2
"and it eloquently expresses the aggravation of the victims"
That is poo. How is that for eloquent? "The victims" were somewhere in the region of 500,000 people two months ago. Now they are, I would guess, about 50,000.
Process that. How many cities in Tohoku have that kind of population? Two? How many in Canada? And that 500,000 only counts those who went to shelters. I would guess 5 or 6 times that were without basic utilities for a week. HEY! I should be complaining! So why am I not complaining?
In the past two months, that has all been fixed up by a bunch of workaday bureaucrats and volunteers and we are down to about 50,000 difficult cases. Do you think that those people are going to have a rosy outlook? Na. They are going to complain "eloquently" to anyone who will listen about how messed up things are. Of course they deserve their free food and shelter and medical care and security, but you know, during that time, I have had to work for mine. But I am a "victim", truth be told. 95% of the "victims" are not aggravated and are not even in shelters. They are out paying taxes.
DMAT and other NGOs are likewise going to be complaining because nobody will care about improving preparedness in 6 months. They have done their "hanseikai" and now they have their wish lists. No surprise there.
People are getting a distorted view of this whole thing through a Fukushima funhouse mirror. Local governments have done an excellent job in dealing with unbelievably bad circumstances. If getting people back to a normal life was the goal, then they have earned a 95% satisfaction rate.
Posted in: Government red tape, cock-ups slow disaster recovery, aggravate victims
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Klein2
Anyway, gee. A Playboy laundry list of what somebody has not done right. Wow. Hey. News flash. 9.0 quake and huge tsunami. They call them disasters for a reason, you know. Tkoind2 admires glass half full people but can't be optimistic.
Well, I live here.
Imagine that your entire neighborhood is wiped out. Every building. Now imagine that every neighborhood adjacent to it has had all of its commercial base and half of its residential base utterly destroyed. Basically what is left is a pile of garbage and many many refugees. Oh. And don't forget dead bodies and rumors of dead bodies. Knock out roads, rail, electricity, water, cell phones, land phone lines, and gas lines regionally.
Got it? Now build a functioning Japanese society from the ground up in four to six weeks. Good luck. Don't forget the universal health care, which many "developed" countries can't manage on their BEST days. And make sure to do it all AT THE SAME TIME while you take care of every refugee's needs.
The performance of local governments has been stellar. Excellent. What possible yardstick could someone use to call them failures? Glass half full? Two months ago, there was no glass! People are taking the initiative and doing the best they can. You won't find a bunch of bums with nothing to do. They are all in Nagata cho. I could easily think of 10 things that local governments have done that are probably not "by the book" but which have been inspired policy and execution.
Could things be better? Sure. Obviously. Have others helped? Yep. Thanks. Will planning make things better in the future? I hope so. But don't believe all of this doom-saying from people who think everything must be bad here. National leadership and national commitment is something people in Tohoku have been waiting on for two months. Solve that problem and then complain.
Posted in: Government red tape, cock-ups slow disaster recovery, aggravate victims
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Klein2
What an excellent question the headline asks. Here is my answer:
Slippery slope, meet hasty decision. Enjoy yourselves.
Kan made a dumb decision based on very little evidence to tell Chubu to shut Hamaoka, which begs the question above. Well Kan... what's the answer? Come on smart guy. If it is all dangerous, then let's all stop using electricity. Let's shut down the economy. It is the only safe thing to do, right? Safety first?
Or maybe we are all not in so much danger as some are herding us into believing.
Let me ask everybody, and be honest. Do you feel safer now than you felt on 3.12? Why or why not? I tell you one thing. If you live in Tohoku, you are probably wondering what the heck is wrong with the rest of the country. We are the chicken which got the axe, but you all are running around with your heads cut off.
Posted in: If Hamaoka is potentially deadly, what about all the other nuclear reactors?
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Klein2
Thanks for saying it Harry. A lot of this stuff is staged. You can't sell a photo to news services unless it shows something heart-wrenching. A few weeks ago, I visited a local dump in Sendai and saw 5 of 6 of these things. The really big ones are Sodai Gomi, so people are using this chance to get rid of them. Once one gets wet, yeccch. Nobody wants it.
Except a photographer.
AERA filled its little memorial magazine with this kind of unhappy pap. They showed the Statue of Liberty in Higashi Matsushima or wherever and applied this caption.
"Only the god of death glowers over this rainy lawless land"
or some such prurience.
My view of journalists has taken more of a beating than my house in the last two months, and that is saying something.
Posted in: Tired teddy
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Klein2
"For example, what is the e-book/real book ratio for works of philosophy? For engineering texts? Art books? i would guess 1/10 or less"
Yeah. The latter no doubt. And remember free books are excluded, which means that we might have a world population downloading Shakespeare and Edgar Allen Poe and Darwin, but .. not likely.
"Popular" books will be bought through a "popular" medium, so this was sure to happen. I don't see the revolution, though. McLuhan told us the medium is the message, and he was right. Why read a book when you can just tell people you downloaded it? With all of the great books on Gutenberg, I cannot understand why people are getting so excited about paying through the nose to get an electronic copy of Palin's rants or whatever pop-psychobabble or diet book has been featured on Oprah this week. I smell a rat. I have heard a lot of people bragging about their kindles, but I have yet to see a person actually using one.
Wait. And advertisements too?
If you believe that the best books were written more than 50 years ago, then you could read for free and still not kill trees. I have been doing it for about two decades now.
Oh, and this is priceless:
Here is Amazon's best seller list for books.
Go the F()k to sleep. Heaven and back. An American Family in Hitler's Berlin Area 51 ESPN George Martin collection and Tina Fey, WWII, and diets...
Hoo boy. E-books are not going to solve that problem. A kindle is like a window into a wasteland.
Posted in: Amazon says e-book sales surpass printed books
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Klein2
Divisive Republican rhetoric comes home to roost.
Get together a religion coalition. Try to rile up the tea party types based on a very tepid budget attempt this go round. Yammer incessantly about abortion maybe? Hope for a worse economy or a war?
The Reps know the momentum is against them. Palin and Trump and Beck cannot find anything but quicksand.
With Osama gone, birthers routed, and no really bad news, I say Obama holds the center, and the GOP is in NO position to assail the center.
I remember people saying that Newt is the brains of the GOP. Vision, verve, and more dumped wives in hospitals than John McCain. He can't make it.
I think it is over. Corporate America got what it wanted. No reason to rock the boat now. Obama can coast.
Posted in: Republican race about who's out, not in
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Klein2
Ooooh. I am going to enjoy missing this.
Anyone who says they would like to see this should just go sit through the original again. Go ahead. I dare you.
I am not going to have that much time to waste in a long time.
Posted in: 'Titanic' to be re-released in 3D next year
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Klein2
"Really Miyagi was also hard hit? uh didnt know (sic)... basically it was by magnitudes worse off compared to Fukushima."
Kudos. 15000 people confirmed dead up the coast and all anyone cares about is a guy having a heart attack in Fukushima. It is a travesty of the press.
I have been blown away by the terrible terrible sensationalism of the coverage of this for the last two months. The domestic press have taken their cues from foreign news and foreign agendas. The lowly Kahoku Shimpo has provided by far the best coverage of this whole disaster. If anyone wants to do real research and use a real timeline with factual information, that little local paper towers above any national or international coverage I have seen.
And, uh... I thought that the Aussie PM was here weeks ago, right? Did she not count or something. Someone set me straight there.
Have to say it was great that they visited the shelters too. Viewed the most cynical way possible, I think they figured "better late than never". As far as I can see, all that is left is politics and social workers. All the crisis and desperation is gone. Things got boring long ago.
Posted in: China, S Korea leaders tour devastated Tohoku region
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Klein2
"Sad to say this, but ironically I walked past one of the right-wing vans this afternoon (in Fukushima city mind you), spewing out hatred and bile toward Korea and China."
What irony? One lie is as good as another when you choose to live in fear and ignorance, right?
Posted in: China, S Korea leaders tour devastated Tohoku region
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Klein2
3.56 billion yen invested in 1972 at 5% would be 26.20 billion in 40 years. At 7% it would be 58 billion.
So let's see what this genius did. Rather than just making a law 40 years ago saying that all new construction should be in the hills rather than in the valley, he takes government funds and makes a wall and a gate over a period of 12 years. I guess he had a lot of money lying around because he could have invested it and had somewhere between 26 and 58 billion yen for his town today.
580 million dollars.
200 thousand dollars for every man woman and child who lives there now. You have a family of five? You would be an instant millionaire if it weren't for this guy squandering public funds.
So instead of building an early warning system and discouraging people from building in harm's way, he erects this boondoggle and takes this wealth from his community. And he is a hero? A genius?
He could have just said, "Hey everybody. Take this money and go build a house someplace else. Here. Free money." And he could have done greater good for everyone. And it would have been a great deed even WITHOUT a tsunami! He could have built a huge concrete statue of a buddha like Sendai did, with enough space inside for thousands of people, and still could have had a few hundred million to play with.
It is a great article. It shows that spending the treasure of a nation to prepare for disasters that will probably not happen within one's lifetime is foolish. Better policy to guide growth is better than tilting at windmills.
Posted in: How one Japanese village defied the tsunami