JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
-
- 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
-
- 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*
-
- Translator
- ZAIHON, Inc. (日本財務翻訳株式会社), Tokyo
- Salary: ¥6.0M / Year Negotiable
0
gonemad
The brain tries to connect all the small pieces of information it gets in order to come to a representation of what might be the bigger picture behind. When there is a lack of reliable input data or reaction speed does not allow for analytical processing, the brain uses the same way which is used for motional and emotional processing, which is located in the evolutionary older parts of the brain. It seems it actually does not simply duplicate the function, but uses or at least involves exactly the same regions. Thus there is a strong feedback path to our emotional state. Of course, some filtering is taking place, e.g. based on relevance.
In simple words, there is a strong correlation between lack of knowledge and the emotionality of a debate. Now looking at places like this, where articles are more than often incomplete or inaccurate and people often have a lack of background information, you can guess what the result will be...
Posted in: Why are so many people unable to debate contentious issues such as whaling, gun control, politics and so on without getting acrimonious?
0
gonemad
And when you look at sample shots from that camera you see that they look worse than those from competitors. Which tells me something is wrong with the DxO tests.
The iF Product Design Award doesn't take into account product quality.
Posted in: Nikon cameras receive product design awards
0
gonemad
Like any tax, it requires a detailed justification and analysis that the way how it is implemented will achieve the targeted purpose. Just asking for "environment tax" and "counter global warming" is far too vague to yield anything else than a maybe. What I would support is the reformation from an income/profit-based towards a resource/pollution-based tax system.
Posted in: Would you support an environment tax as part of measures to counter global warming?
0
gonemad
goddog, I'm with you on this one :-)
The question here is whether or to what extent we are genetically predisposed to have a strong or weak will. And what harms society as a whole can incur from people with weak wills. Depending on these relations, restrictive laws can be the best answer.
Posted in: New Year's resolutions? Brain can sabotage success
0
gonemad
SK should back off from the constant provocations. NK already behaves erratically enough even without any provocations. A war in Korea will not only carry the risk of further escalation beyond the Korean borders (apart from the US and China, think about Japan being drawn into the conflict...), but will also let the world economy nose-dive.
Posted in: S Korea vows retaliation if North attacks again
0
gonemad
Yes, he should. But does that have to do with Argentine and Videla? You don't want to propose that all murderers should be left in peace because we can't get hold of all of them?
Posted in: Argentine ex-dictator sentenced to life in prison
0
gonemad
Wikileaks and file-sharing software are almost irrelevant to privacy, because you (whether private, corporate or government) mostly have control over it and can take appropriate countermeasures.
The real problem is the myriads of corporations and government agencies which collect any kind of personal information they can get hold of. Each single bit of information is usually rather harmless so people shrug it off. But when collected in vast amounts and connected together, these small pieces become a real threat to privacy. This is where strong laws become necessary.
glycol57, good comment.
Posted in: In view of what has been happening with WikiLeaks and various file-sharing software, is privacy a lost cause?
0
gonemad
This comment sounds vaguely familiar. Heard it many times already, but it was always like
"I think of my husband as being one of my children. As my child, I won't accept sexual advances from him."
Seems like a classical example of cognitive dissonance :-)
Posted in: My husband thinks of me as the children's mother, plus his mother. When you think of a woman as your mother, you don't make sexual advances to her.
0
gonemad
No company I know of will give you an insurance for that amount for checked-in flight baggage. I often have the same problem like ebisen, not as much as 40,000 Euros, but enough to make me schlep up to 20kg with me onto the plane. Fortunately no airline has ever rejected me taking it on board when I told them what it is and what it's worth.
Posted in: Airline wars: The battle for overhead bins
0
gonemad
I wonder about the difference between the number of people being arrested for terrorist plots and those actually being convicted. You hardly read anything about the second ones.
Posted in: 12 men arrested in suspected UK terrorism plot
0
gonemad
The only player which can substantially mitigate the conflict on the Korean peninsula is not China, it's the US. For China, NK has become a burden since long time, but they can't let NK go and let the conflict escalate because too much is at stake for China itself. For better or for worse, China is held captive by it's erratic neighbor. That doesn't mean though that China doesn't have enough influence any more to use NK for at least some tactical jibes against the US. The problem is that the Obama administration is too ailing to open another domestic front of conservative furor when they dare to start talking to evil communists...
Posted in: U.S. frustrated China not doing more on N Korea
0
gonemad
PleasureGelf, this is a common misunderstanding. The people behind Wikileaks do not hack any sites. They obtain their documents from people inside the respective organizations - not just the US government, by the way. But I have to agree that the recent publishments expose the large security holes in the access procedure to classified documents. I'm pretty sure that when Wikileaks could obtain such a large number of documents then other nation's secret services could get them as well. That is the real scandal and that there are no heads rolling among those who are responsible for IT security. And the way how the US is staging a witch hunt against Wikileaks and Assange will finally create much more damage to the image of the US - and possibly not just the image - than all the leaked documents together.
Posted in: Do you agree with WikiLeaks' decision to release sensitive documents?
0
gonemad
2020hindsight, except for the weight the iPhone has all the limitations of the iPad, plus the much too small screen for reading books.
Posted in: Are you going to buy an e-reader or do you already have one?
0
gonemad
I can see a lot of advantages for e-books, but not enough when I look at the current technology. I certainly will not carry around yet another electronic device just for reading books and which can hardly be used for anything else (such as the Kindle). It has to be integrated into a swiss army-knife type of device. The iPad is a step into the right direction, but not there yet - too heavy, battery life still too limited and a couple of other limitations which Apple has designed into the device.
And last but not least, there is the DRM problem. I will not accept any type of e-book where the vendor can revoke the license at a later time. OK, it depends a bit on the type of book, so in some few cases I could compromise. But that also means I'm not going to spend any money on a reader device just for some few exceptions.
Posted in: Are you going to buy an e-reader or do you already have one?
0
gonemad
Arabian neighbors have since long time been the most nervous of Iran's military capabilities and this has increased even more since the start of the nuclear program. No, there is no surprise here that some Arabian politician suggests an intervention of the US and I'm sure Iran didn't delude itself of their neighbor's attitude.
Posted in: WikiLeaks operating from fortified bunker in Sweden after being booted from Amazon
0
gonemad
What a storm in a teacup. Honestly, have you found anything in this material which we haven't known or strongly suspected before? Some personal relations may suffer, yes, but in the end the world will move on as before. I'd rather say this is great entertainment...
Posted in: WikiLeaks operating from fortified bunker in Sweden after being booted from Amazon
0
gonemad
Maybe they do that because they still have a shred of self-respect and dignity and haven't been brain-washed with the twisted morality of thousands of years old books?
Posted in: 'Shallow-brained bureaucrats' crackdown on love hotels unlikely to thwart teen prostitution
0
gonemad
Is it common practice for Interpol to put alleged rapists on their most-wanted list?
Posted in: U.S. cuts access to files; Interpol seeks WikiLeaks founder Assange
0
gonemad
yeah, once again we see some economists fail in matching reality with their broken models and thus coming to weird conclusions. Would it hurt the economy if we stopped supporting useless research?
Posted in: Eat a carrot, hurt the economy? Sometimes
0
gonemad
It's a good place to quickly find relevant information. If you're not satisfied with the information given on Wikipedia itself, you often find useful links. In most cases, using Wikipedia is quicker than doing a search on the standard search engines such as Google.
Besides, Wikipedia is a great translation tool for those terms which you hardly find in the common dictionaries.
Posted in: What do you think of Wikipedia?