JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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- Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) in Kanto region
- RCS (RCSコーポレーション), Kanto
- Salary: ¥180,000 ~ ¥250,000 / Month includes performance bonus
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- Assistant Language Teacher - TOKYO - late-March start
- Interac, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
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- Assistant Language Teacher - Kanagawa Prefecture - late-March start
- Interac, Kanagawa
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
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ivarwind
Unnecessary scaremongering indeed - correct or not, it doesn't make any difference whatsoever as far as preparations are concerned, whether the chance is 70% in four years or thirty. Both are high enough that building codes, preparations, and plans have to be in order.
For those who think this makes a difference, do you think a 70% chance in thirty years is too little to care about? That's still around a 10% chance in four years or 25% in ten.
Posted in: Big quake could hit Tokyo within 4 years, researchers warn
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ivarwind
"USA for instance has about 66 nuclear reactors. japan currently has 54 + 18 proposed, which will make it 72!"
That should be 104 for the US - commercial, plus a quite considerable number of military and research reactors of various safety ratings. Your other stats are equally disingenuous.
Even disregarding the effects on the climate, a Chernobyl a year is still much to be preferred over continued burning of fossil and biofuels, just for the immediate effects on health and environment. Like it or not, that's the way it is.
Posted in: Concern about aging reactors grows
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ivarwind
No, not really. If it were milliSieverts, it would be a problem, but this is a thousand times less. If you sat on top of the spot your entire life, you might increase your risk of cancer somewhat, but the dose would still be much much less than if for example you lived in Ramsar.
In fact, the consumer geiger counters I've seen for sale will not be able to measure really dangerous levels of radiation, as it would be off their scale. "As long as this instrument returns a reading, you're safe," should be printed in the ads and documentation, and "when it doesn't, it's probably because it's broken."
Not to say they shouldn't figure out what the source is - if something's leaking it can leak more. If it's Fukushima fall-out, there're no worries.
Posted in: Radiation hotspot found in residential Chiba
0
ivarwind
Yes it is.
Posted in: The poisoner next door
0
ivarwind
As I see it, the main difference between kendo and religion, is that religion implies some sort of framework for how the world works. In many religions this takes the form of one or more gods pulling the strings or setting things in motion, but it doesn't necessarily result in family oriented Sunday schools. The hermits in antiquity would likely not have been very fond of spending time teaching children, even if they ended up having to teach their acolytes.
The creed does however bear quite some resemblance to some of the teachings (I think) of Confucius, and certainly implies that following the path does greater good than just enabling your own success or well-being.
But saying that it IS a religion, seems to come more from the late medieval Western viewpoint (the same viewpoint has arisen in other places) that one specific religion must control or at least supply moral values to both the ordering of society and the daily lives of the individuals - and thus anything that serves this or part of this purpose is a (possibly competing) religion - and the claim doesn't sit well with the East Asian and in particular the Japanese practice of religions as a, shall we say, non-exclusive aspect of life.
Finally I think even the most hardcore anti-theists would find it hard to be offended by kendo practice. :)
Posted in: Kendo – A religion without a god?
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ivarwind
I really hope he was severely misquoted for this embarrassingly nonsensical conclusion. Paradoxes aside, faster than light does not equal back in time any more than sliding down a tilted plane equals moving upwards.
And while we're waiting for the actual results to be unconfirmed, I expect GPS and particle accelerators to continue working as they've done hitherto.
Posted in: Physicists wary of junking light speed limit yet
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ivarwind
There's nothing stupid about fixing a drain. (Oh, he should have done it before the typhoon, yes of course! Hindsight is 20/20)
Posted in: 1 dead, 2 missing, over 1 million urged to evacuate as typhoon nears
1
ivarwind
a) (under the assumption you know the meaning of "reservation") By not showing up.
b) (under the assumption you know the meaning of "reservation") By cancelling.
c) (under the assumption you do not know the meaning of "reservation") That's the essence of a reservation!
Posted in: Man arrested for making fraudulent reservations on airport limousine bus
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ivarwind
Mojibake, considering the numbers you give, I think you mean 3%, not 30%...
(If indeed it had been 30%, it could be a simple matter of slightly more intensive exploitation, i.e. clearing a few more forests, relocating a few hundred thousand more citizens, maybe knocking down a few more mountains to make space for the geothermal power plants... having a few hundred more lethal accidents. I also find it interesting, based on these numbers, that Japan only uses slightly more than 100 times as much electricity as Iceland - but has 400 times the population!)
Posted in: Yoko Ono says Japan should look to geothermal energy
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ivarwind
Sorry, but you're wrong on all counts. To begin with, anyone who is now turning off an aircon, has installed one or at least used one previously. That requires electricity (one of the causes of the crisis).
Second, when it is very hot, some people die from heatstroke, mostly the elderly because they don't drink enough water. This is not beyond reasoning. Turning on the aircon is a second rate solution to simply drinking enough water (which for the elderly generally means drinking more than you feel you need).
Third, TEPCO is not forcing anyone, not even the elderly, to turn off the aircon, nor does TEPCO require the idling of a lot of power plants that are just as secure as they were a year ago (which may not be much).
So however many errors and terrible consequences you can blame TEPCO for, this just isn't one of them.
Posted in: Elderly people are the most vulnerable as they try to tough it out.
1
ivarwind
Since there is absolutely no theory of why they should cause cancer, and the epidemiological evidence actually indicates that the causation if there is any, must be the other way, I would say no. If anything it is cancer that causes cellphones.
Posted in: Do you think cell phones can cause cancer?
0
ivarwind
Not in a good pizzeria!
Posted in: Pizza and Pizza Chefs in Japan
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ivarwind
Which tradition? This "tradition" is just another thing imported from the West back in the 19th century. It's no more Japanese than wearing a suit - or rather even less Japanese, as it's incongruent with older Japanese traditions.
Posted in: Court rejects couple's surname appeal
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ivarwind
Marvellous, I work around full-time in the entertainment industry - two cinemas to be exact - watch more movies than most, I'm sure (used to watch more movies than all but a few in the country) and I've never heard of this Seth Rogen. The only movie I've seen him in has him so far down the credits list, I wonder if he even had any screen time - at least Ryoko Shinohara is much higher placed in that sense...
Posted in: Hornet's nest
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ivarwind
Hopefully they'll let them die. Unfortunately there's an organization that tends to sick deer in Nara, "protects" the pregnant and newborns and generally do their best to destroy the ecosystem.
If an epidemic would take out a few hundred of them, it would be good news for everyone, as there are far too many, causing extensive environmental damage and loss of biodiversity in the surrounding woods - the Kasugayama Forest Reserve in particular, a Special Natural Monument and a World Heritage site - pestering tourists, farmers and local inhabitants, and of course not only forcing the deer to eat food they don't really like, but also lowering the general state of health among the deer themselves.
Oh, I also think it's cute, but the "trust" of the deer is a direct indication that the ecosystem is severely out of balance.
Posted in: Deer me
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ivarwind
Erh, what? Long exposure is how you get enough light. Sorry to say, but all the HDR did in this case was take away all the contrast ("compensating" with saturation) leaving a rather dull, flat, and oversaturated image (HDR processing far too often results in LDR images). The HDR processing may also have removed any star streaks present in the source images, as they differ from one to the next. Try a few different single exposures next time and choose the best one - beats HDR any day.
Apart from that, very nice indeed! (Just for fun I tried a simple darkening, subsequently desaturating it somewhat - and completely - and although marred by the artefacts of HDR and JPEG processing, it really is a nice picture.)
Posted in: Bright and early
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ivarwind
"The world’s first dedicated digital camera unit" - no it isn't, there were dedicated digital camera units for all sorts of purposes - or at least for some purposes - long before any consumer had ever heard of digital photography.
Posted in: Canon unveils digital non-mydriatic retinal camera
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ivarwind
"Meat is what the human digestive evolved over million of years to eat."
This is just plain wrong! Humans are omnivores to some extent - like some of the big apes, we can eat meat in limited amounts, particularly if fresh - but if we had evolved to live on meat, we would have digestive systems more like carnivores. We don't, our stomachs are nowhere near acidic enough. I don't recommend it, but if you really believe it, try living on raw unrefrigerated chicken breasts and pork chops for a month.
What has evolved - over a much shorter timescale - is our ability to process the meat so we can stomach it (i.e. cooking).
Personally I like meat, and gladly eat it - and I'll just as gladly eat vegetarian, which I guess I do at most meals. Also if there is vegetarian food at a party I'll try it, because it's often more interesting than the standard "stuff yourself with meat" dishes. From my viewpoint the meateater/vegetarian/vegan distinction is unimportant, what really matters is using what you have and making good food. This sounds like an interesting book.
Posted in: Celebrating Japan's vegan and vegetarian traditions
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ivarwind
If it was a pylon obscuring a pagoda, it might be ugly - here it's beautiful, and makes for a far more interesting photo than the sunset alone would.
Posted in: Sunset
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ivarwind
You don't go to McDonald's expecting the food to have any taste - why would anyone expect the service to be any better? (In Japan or anywhere)
(Exaggerating) I've had more customer service in Japan in a month than in the rest of the world in a lifetime, free extras, custom variations, help and guidance, but then I don't go to American chain stores. Maybe it's also that I know how to behave. If you think you're a king, expect to be treated exactly according to the most inflexible reading of the rules. (Again, not just in Japan but everywhere)
Posted in: In Japan, the customer is not king