motytrah's past comments

  • 0

    motytrah

    @gaijinfo I doubt the Sagawa guys are making the same kind of wages that a UPS driver makes (Average pay for UPS driver is $75,000 USD).

    Posted in: Ladies, don’t be disappointed with your Sagawa delivery man's looks

  • 0

    motytrah

    Taiwan is concerned about economic measures more than territorial issues. The Taiwanese company Foxconn is the largest manufacturer in the world with 1.2 million employees worldwide (the majority of which are in China).

    Taiwan isn't going to let a fishing waters dispute get in the way of good business. China has all sorts of domestic pressures to contend with and fanning some nationalistic flames is never a bad move.

    Posted in: China concerned as Japan, Taiwan sign fishing agreement for disputed isles

  • 1

    motytrah

    It's the UK. This kind of stuff happens all the time. Just usually it's in relation to sport.

    Posted in: 6 British police injured at party celebrating Thatcher's death

  • 3

    motytrah

    @TrevorPeace2 Spot on. Oddly enough it's not the cable companies doing either. A lot of it's greed by the large conglomerates that own large chunks of the channels. Cable companies are forced to put channels in the basic package or else they won't be allowed to carry the channels they really want. (I.e. Disney channel is a basic tier channel because ABC/Disney tied it to rebroadcast rights for the local ABC affiliate. Want ESPN, you have to lump in ESPN Classic and half dozen other channel of dubious popularity). Those costs get passed directly to the consumer.

    Posted in: U.S. broadcasters worry about 'Zero TV' homes

  • 2

    motytrah

    @kurisupisu That's a bit of an apples to oranges comparison. The US has trillions of dollars for wars and will continue to endure hundreds of billions in vetrans benefits for decades to come. The other large driver is health care. Japan has several market controls that keep health care costs in check. I think in the near term the larger issue is the aging population and the decline in exports and manufacturing.

    Posted in: Japan rides 'Abenomics' wave 100 days after election win

  • 2

    motytrah

    @ThonTaddeo That's an odd restriction for a security firm. My restriction is that I have to use a pre-approved brokerage firm that report the transaction back.

    Posted in: Japan rides 'Abenomics' wave 100 days after election win

  • 1

    motytrah

    Wake me when the US to JPY hits 120. You know, the rate it was for most of the 2000's. Yeah, a bunch of folks took a hair cut on their FX investments. Cry me a river. The Japanese economy has been in the dumps for years yet it's FX values were climbing. JPY was the victim of market manipulation and it had gotten so bad that major japanese manufactures were going to go out of business. Sharp may still never recover. Panasonic and Sony are shells of their former selves.

    Abe did what needed to be done. He wouldn't have had to make such moved if JPY wasn't the target of such rampent market manipulation.

    Posted in: Japan rides 'Abenomics' wave 100 days after election win

  • 1

    motytrah

    More or less this is about money. 80.4% of the health care coverage of paid by the gov't in Japan. There is a vested interest in getting people not to smoke. This is the more or less the same reason counties like France started to curtail smoking.

    They should go for the middle ground. Vaporized smokeless cigarettes. All the nicotine, none of the irritation to the neighbors.

    Posted in: Have Japan’s anti-smoking laws gone too far?

  • 2

    motytrah

    Global Warming is a media headline. Actual scientists study Global Climate Change. I would point out that even the EPA under the Bush Administration eventually accepted Global Climate Change as a reality towards the end of his second term. The Koch brothers hired Richard Muller, a reputable scientist who was a Global Climate Change skeptic, to conduct one of the largest studies of Global Climate Change ever done. In 2011 he released the Koch brothers funded study and concluded Global Climate Change was indeed happening.

    The last hold out of any standing that resisted was the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. They updated their position to match the international consensus in 2007.

    Neil deGrasse Tyson once summed up the "controversy" on climate change as such: "People are entitled to their own opinions, but they aren't entitled to their own set of facts."

    Posted in: Is global warming causing harsher winters?

  • 2

    motytrah

    Same sex marriage is coming to the US. Most likely as a states rights issue. There are already nine states that have made it legal and Minnesota and Hawaii are likely to make it elevin states by the end of 2013.

    The idea that churches would be forced to perform same sex marriages is a straw man argument. You don't need a church to get married and most countries allow for religious freedom as a constitutional matter. Now if you own a cake shop and refuse to sell to gays, well, don't come crying to me when you get sued.

    Posted in: Do you support same-sex marriages?

  • 1

    motytrah

    @Get Real That's a bit uncalled for. Google put a lot of time and resources into disaster relief, communications, technology and fund raising for Japan.

    Posted in: Google adds street views inside nuclear zone

  • -1

    motytrah

    Looking at the Big Mac Index the Yen is currently about parity with the USD right now. While China is about 40% undervalued. The Japanese need to push their currency down. Their goods had become way too expensive in the West. Korea (about 35% undervalued) and China were sticking to Japanese manufacturers.

    Posted in: U.S. senators want no exemptions for Japan over TPP

  • 0

    motytrah

    The article makes too much about beating the US. The roster is a real mixed bag, but the real issue is the players are very concerned about getting injured with the regular season right around the corner. An injury at this point could cost a player millions. US performance is exhibition quality.

    Other teams are a bit more GANBARU about the whole thing however.

    Posted in: Puerto Rico beats Japan to reach WBC final

  • 1

    motytrah

    I don't understand why Korean tourists would go to Japan for small pachinko play when they could fly a little bit further to Macau for real gambling? Japan is certainly a bit safer but it's a much smaller operation.

    Posted in: Korea’s ban on pachinko gambling sees increase in gamblers coming to Japan

  • -1

    motytrah

    The Chinese gov't loves bugs. It's become very common for communist party members to bug each other in the mainland. China is quite advanced in with it's eavesdropping technologies. It should surprise anyone that they would conduct intelligence operations in Japan. The local cops at Koban aren't going to know what's going on.

    Posted in: Okinawa's off-base housing may suffer infestation of Chinese bugs

  • 4

    motytrah

    Windows RT is DOA. It's already speculated that developers are dropping right and left off the RT boat. It's far more likely that Full WIndows 8 will be the go forward for MS. There are so few apps on RT compared to Regular Windows, Android and (especially) Apple iOS.

    Posted in: Microsoft tablet computer to go on sale in Japan on March 15

  • 1

    motytrah

    @umioso I don't think the US military leaving would change crime rates. If anything they'd go up per capita as US Military members are actually far less likely to commit crime.

    Posted in: 2 U.S. sailors get 9-10 years for raping woman in Okinawa

  • 2

    motytrah

    @Fadamor SOFA is also your best friend because you're left US custody until charged. That short circuits the normal J-Cop way of doing things. Prosecutors don't like to charge people without confessions. J-Cops like to get confessions by holding people for long durations without charge. Obviously it was open and shut for those rapists mentioned here. But for other kinds of cases the J-Cops would actually be forced to do real police work.

    Posted in: 2 U.S. sailors get 9-10 years for raping woman in Okinawa

  • -1

    motytrah

    ANA isn't really going to be losing much money. Boeing is going to be on the hook. There's a good chance that at best they'll break even on the planes after they build a couple hundred. That being said, some people think it's actually a gift for ANA. The 787's meant a big route expansion for ANA. With the way the Japanese economy was going the yields haven't been looking good. Shrinking availability may be the best move they have.

    Posted in: ANA cancels 1,714 flights in April, May due to Dreamliner problems

  • 0

    motytrah

    Airbus has to change battery types. There's too much of a cloud around them and it becomes a risk where the FAA could hold up operating certificates if they use Li-on batteries. Airbus then is in the position where they have to depend on Boeing getting things kosher with the FAA. Using alternative batteries doesn't preclude them from using Lion later on to save weight later on. Since they are using a full bleed system they need far less batteries than the 787. It's a logical move.

    Posted in: Boeing stands by lithium-ion batteries

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