JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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- Financial Advisor
- Select Asset Management KK, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥100,000 ~ ¥999,999 Paid Training Commission Based
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- Corporate Business English Trainers
- ACT Systems, Inc.（株式会社アクト・システムズ）, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥269,500 ~ ¥280,000 / Month
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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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bobobolinski
Sarge, if you have a really big screen at home, you might find the CGI impressive - if you like that kind of thing.
Posted in: Tsunami causes delay to 'Avatar' sequel
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bobobolinski
I think many of us have been feeling quite alert for the last couple of weeks. But it is good to welcome Mr Kan back from his hibernation.
Posted in: Kan says Japan will remain on 'maximum alert' to deal with crisis
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bobobolinski
northlondon is absolutely right - the Mizuho problems were definitely occurring on Tuesday 15, payday for a lot of people. It was reported at the time - sorry can't find the link, but I do recall this - that the problem was put down to too many withdrawals of large amounts of cash.
Posted in: Mizuho says quake donations crippled ATMs
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bobobolinski
They must have many bibles to hand out to their captors. Perhaps in the long months of captivity that lie ahead they could read through some of the more pertinent parables and discuss them with the pirates. I think there may be episodes from the life of Saint Paul and other apostles that will be very appropriate in the circumstances. Who knows, but it could be an illuminating experience for all concerned.
Posted in: U.S. weighs response to Somali pirates' hijacking of yacht with 4 Americans
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bobobolinski
Maybe "Download Manager" is part of some email client software? Depending on your browser and/or email client settings, downloads are going to be handled differently. It might not be too bad an idea to have a number of steps, so long as you can handle them reasonably quickly. I wouldn't want an email client that downloaded files too easily. Jeff's experience just sounds like being totally unfamiliar with the OS and applications. Generally, I think most Mac stuff can be learned really quickly. In my experience it takes at least twice as long to work out how to do something on Windows as it does on Mac OS, and that includes asking people who use Windows all the time.
But I doubt that operating systems mean that much to most users; rather, it's about the hardware - durability, flexibility, battery life, connectivity, style. So, it's not comparing Mac OS with Windows so much as comparing Macbook, or iMac, with HP, Sony, Toshiba, etc. I would reckon more consumers see that the little bit you pay more for the shiny Mac machine is more than worth it for the speed and life span.
Posted in: Apple leads mobile computer market
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bobobolinski
Sam, you have a good memory, but really, OMNI? Proprietor Bob Guccione? Not really a scientific journal, was it? There were a few scare stories in the 70s in the popular press, picked up from a few conference papers - but even then, the majority scientific belief was in warming, and everything since then has supported that theory. And now we are beginning to see that the theory is not a hypothesis, but is supported by all the available evidence. Being a skeptic is fine, but sticking your head in the sand might not be such a good idea.
Posted in: Scientists connect global warming to extreme rain
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bobobolinski
A lot of the "big" movies - eg Inception, Hurt Locker - started off quite well, but became boring and lame by halfway through. Definitely the worst was Avatar; mind-numbingly stupid from the start. I would definitely second DentShop's picks for good movies, but I don't think any of them have had cinematic release in Japan.
Posted in: What are some of the worst movies you saw this year?
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bobobolinski
In times of economic stringency, extreme weather episodes are going to be difficult to deal with; the only thing to do is just get on with it. Neither the companies who operate transportation, nor the governments are going to have instant access to equipment, supplies, or back up transport to cover events that might only occur for a few days every few years. Quite clearly, from this report and from all other news reports, the recent weather has hit a lot of areas in Western Europe, including Germany, France, Holland, Ireland, as well as Britain. Nevertheless, as seen in this report, and in some of the comments, there is a tendency from some North Americans (thankfully a small, though vociferous minority) to moan about "third world" any time they come across a problem in a foreign country. I guess it comes from a combination of lack of international experience and a rather vicious inferiority complex.
Posted in: European weather chaos spawns outrage, questions
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bobobolinski
Ironically, the "enhanced" (intimate) pat down is the only efficient way of detecting the kind of materials that a potential bomber might use. Other than even more intimate, internal probing, this is as efficient as it gets. But, even more ironically, it is not being used for that. It is being used to punish people who don't want, or who don't want their kids, to go through the useless scanner.
Posted in: Scanners and pat-downs upset airline passengers in U.S.
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bobobolinski
There seems to be some fundamental misunderstanding here. The TSA does not, so far as I know, operate outside of US airports, so it is not going to prevent terrorists getting on planes and flying to America. Of course, most other countries that have direct flights are already implementing the scanners, useless though they are. But the new directives about intimate searching are a special treat for travelers boarding internal and external flights within the US. I guess that the TSA are worried that too many people are going to refuse the scan, thus holding up the line, and so they are making the alternative as uncomfortable and undignified as possible.
Posted in: Scanners and pat-downs upset airline passengers in U.S.
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bobobolinski
I have seen reports which suggest that the scanning may not be working all that well; apparently it doesn't like pleats or thick clothing, such as sweaters. If there is a problem with the scan, then you get the pat down as well. Only "pat down" is not an accurate description anymore; touch up and grope is more like it. Enjoy!
Posted in: Scanners and pat-downs upset airline passengers in U.S.
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bobobolinski
If you haven't got kids who are going to force you to go see it with them, I don't see what anyone has to complain about. If it isn't your thing, leave it be.
But I wonder how long it will survive, compared say with Tolkien. It seems to me that kids get into Harry Potter obsessively, and then grow out of it pretty quick, and once they are out of it, have no interest in further books or films.
Posted in: 'Deathly Hallows' will leave fans eager for finale
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bobobolinski
Not on Facebook, and no intention of joining (I'll wait for the next wave now); but I would like to see this movie. Sorkin is a great writer of dialogue, and I think Fincher is a very interesting director. I would actually like to see it in the cinema, but by January 15 I have no doubt it will be available on DVD. Why does it take so long to open most movies in Japan?
Posted in: Facebook founder's story no longer his alone
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bobobolinski
Statistics like this, as Smith says, depend on who is doing the counting, what they count and how they count it. Figures on the number of people directly killed vary according to different sources, but seem to be somewhere around 100,000 or a little lower. The really massive figures come from studies published some years ago in The Lancet, which counted the number of excess deaths; ie, not just people directly killed, but also those who died from other causes such as malnutrition, lack of medical care, spread of disease, and other factors associated with the invasion and subsequent insurgency. It's the same method used for estimating the total casualties from earthquakes and floods. At the time of publication the Lancet studies met with incredulity from commentators. But nobody, so far as I know, has seriously disproved either the methodology or shown that the estimates (about 650,000 excess deaths, I think) were wrong.
Posted in: U.S. military says 77,000 Iraqis killed over 5 years
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bobobolinski
He seems to be a genuinely nice bloke. It's a pity about the Pirates movies, which after the first one have been abysmal. On Stranger Tides is a very good novel, so let's hope the next one will be better.
Posted in: Johnny Depp, in pirate costume, visits UK school
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bobobolinski
Tim, those movies sound interesting - can you name one?
Posted in: Prince Harry Taliban hostage film sparks outrage in UK
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bobobolinski
@jkanda Well-spotted. It looks "shopped" - maybe in the original you couldn't see his hand, leaving it to the imagination where it was.
Posted in: Let's stick together
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bobobolinski
Seeing as this came from the same intelligence sources who told us of yellow cake and wmd a while ago, I would wonder why this is being released now. I don't doubt that Lashkar-e-Taiba and their pals do indeed think up plots, but presumably they are doing this pretty much all the time. In the absence of arrests or discoveries of materials, it looks like the intelligence agencies are justifying the latest, and presumably ongoing, drone attacks on Pakistan - a country which the US and Nato are not at war with. Yet.
Posted in: Credible terror plot against Britain and France uncovered
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bobobolinski
Well, they have been released; no charges. So, the connection between this incident and terrorism is, Muslim = terrorist? group of north Africans conversing = terrorist conspiracy? I see.
Posted in: 6 nabbed in suspected terror plot against pope in UK
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bobobolinski
Three reasons. One, apart from having home advantage in 2002 they had never done anything in previous international competitions. Two, coach Okada was awful in 1998, and hardly inspired any confidence since his reappointment. Three, they were just terrible in the lead up to the competition. It was hard to see where goals were going to come from and the defence looked really shaky. The question should be, what happened? All three games, including the Netherlands match, Japan have been purposeful, tight, and direct. Is it something they ate?
Posted in: How come so many people were prepared to write off Japan's chances at the World Cup before the tournament even began?