SquidBert's past comments

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  SquidBertMay. 24, 2013 - 02:08PM JST

  Well I don't know , you would have the problem in the evenings instead. LMT for Tokyo is 09:18, so the +09:00 UTC seems rather appropriate if you want to keep a single time zone for the whole nation.

  Summer/Winter time is a whole other discussion.

  Posted in: Gov't considers setting clock ahead by two hours

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  SquidBertMay. 24, 2013 - 01:54PM JST

  Perhaps it would be easier and cheaper to just open the stock market/ financial institutes two hours earlier instead? Just cut down a bit on the sake drinking in the night time and it shouldn't be so hard.

  Posted in: Gov't considers setting clock ahead by two hours

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  SquidBertMay. 24, 2013 - 01:35PM JST

  SimonDB, I think you misunderstood, he want to move Japan forward, not back, from military '(I)India' (UTC+09) to the military 'Lima' (UTC+11) in order to beat the Australians to the stock market punch.

  Posted in: Gov't considers setting clock ahead by two hours

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  SquidBertMay. 23, 2013 - 06:38PM JST

  Just to give an impressions on the difficulties: one has to literally climb over a number of dead corpses in order to reach the summit.

  So pretty much your average office environment then?

  Posted in: Miura becomes oldest person to reach Everest summit

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  SquidBertMay. 23, 2013 - 02:08PM JST

  Congratulations, this instills hope that I will at least be able to climb out of bed when I reach his age.

  Posted in: Miura becomes oldest person to reach Everest summit

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  SquidBertMay. 23, 2013 - 09:19AM JST

  It is important to understand that:

    *Only 25 percent of electricity was generated by nuclear power prior to 
       the accidents. (And even if we have a restart, this amount will be less)
    *Nuclear fuel cost is about 1/3 compared to fossil fueled thermal plants, 
       but operating costs are much higher.
    *Only a fraction of oil imports is used for electric power generation.
  

  Posted in: Japan's trade deficit expands nearly 70% in April

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  SquidBertMay. 23, 2013 - 09:11AM JST

  Looks to me like the account surplus is recovering if anything. Once again, chose an early starting date (e.g 2009) and hit refresh. It is obvious the negative trend started much earlier than anything that can be related to the failure of nuclear power generation.

  http://www.tradingeconomics.com/japan/current-account

  Posted in: Japan's trade deficit expands nearly 70% in April

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  SquidBertMay. 22, 2013 - 02:14PM JST

  For those of you connecting the trade deficit to the shutdown of the nuclear power plants, take a look at <http://www.tradingeconomics.com/japan/balance-of-trade >

  Select January 2009 as the starting date and hit refresh. You will see that the current negative trend started at the end of 2010 or beginning of 2011, several months before the earthquake. Since most of the NPPs were kept running till the end of 2011 and some of them well into 2012, I think it is safe to say that there are other causes for the trend.

  Posted in: Japan's trade deficit expands nearly 70% in April

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  SquidBertMay. 20, 2013 - 06:08PM JST

  Just a small correction of the facts in the article.

  Until the tsunami-sparked disaster at Fukushima, more than 50 nuclear reactors produced around a third of Japan’s electricity, but public nervousness about nuclear power has left all but two units offline.

  Nuclear power didn't generate a third, but rather a quarter (24.9%) of the electricity in Japan 2010, the year before the accident. Source: http://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/nenkan/1431-10.htm

  Posted in: Goldman Sachs to invest in Japan green energy projects

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  SquidBertMay. 13, 2013 - 11:51AM JST

  Little Bobby Droptables comes to mind.

  http://xkcd.com/327/

  Posted in: What do you think about parents who give their children names like Pikachu, Bakudan (bomb), Messiah and so on?

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  SquidBertMay. 02, 2013 - 06:00PM JST

  That second link was supposed to be http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20130430/k10014285361000.html

  Posted in: Black smoke detected from Monju reactor during test operations

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  SquidBertMay. 02, 2013 - 05:58PM JST

  Original source for this news was NHKnews http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20130430/k10014290921000.html , seems rocket news messed up the translation a bit.

  NHKnews also reports that the fault line running under the plant is not active (according to the operator). http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20130430/k10014290921000.html

  So basically everything is really hunky dory over there, and they are ready to go back to business as usual, which is perhaps even scarier than fault lines and black smoke from generators.

  Posted in: Black smoke detected from Monju reactor during test operations

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  SquidBertMay. 02, 2013 - 04:50PM JST

  I do think that is the story they are trying to tell.

  Posted in: Black smoke detected from Monju reactor during test operations

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  SquidBertMay. 02, 2013 - 04:25PM JST

  @Mr Gatto,

  I am not entirely sure but I think gas here likely refers to generator fuel.

  Posted in: Black smoke detected from Monju reactor during test operations

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  SquidBertMay. 02, 2013 - 03:13PM JST

  Editors,

  According to the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAERI),

  JAERI (Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute) is no more The acronym you were looking for is JAEA.

  Posted in: Black smoke detected from Monju reactor during test operations

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  SquidBertApr. 30, 2013 - 04:19PM JST

  Prince Daniel's bow tie is all crooked.
  I mean I know he is one of us commoners, but that's no excuse for looking like a bum.

  Posted in: Royal gathering

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  SquidBertApr. 23, 2013 - 09:32AM JST

  Not a very nice legacy to hand your children, is it now?

  Article Unavailable

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  SquidBertApr. 19, 2013 - 02:22PM JST

  JMA has this earthquake at a depth of 10km, which sounds more plausible considering the extensive shaking I guess, but who knows.

  Posted in: M7.0 quake jolts islands off northern Japan; no tsunami warning

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  SquidBertApr. 15, 2013 - 11:06AM JST

  @yuriOtani,

  US Natural background radiation is far from the 24mSv that you are stating.

  Natural Background radiation does not include remains from bomb tests and other man made events. Natural Background radiation in the US is something like 2-3mSv Additional radiation from man made events (plus medical and work exposure) is perhaps another 3mSv.

  Posted in: Lawsuit seeks evacuation of Fukushima children

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  SquidBertApr. 05, 2013 - 11:47AM JST

  @Bertie,

  The machine is quite capable, although not enough to warrant the high price, unless you consider the 1800$ worth of Google Drive included in the deal. Chrome OS still leaves a lot to desire for serious users, but you can always install Linux on it and get some serious work done.

  @Akoppa, So first you let Google install toolbars and what have not on your PC, then you got paranoid an trusted some random software provider with full system access to 'fix the problem'?

  Posted in: Review: Google laptop impressive, but not for all