JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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- 秘書及び業務サポート
- 加治金属工業株式会社, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥4.0M / Year
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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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- ALT - Mie Prefecture - Yokkaichi City - June start
- NPO法人グローバル教育推進機構（GLAD), Mie
- Salary: ¥230,000 / Month For a full working month. Some months differ.
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theFu
Hey Will! You do not make that look good.
Posted in: Men in Black
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theFu
We all have to work for a living. Monkeys, dogs, men ... and some women. Pets and women seem to be much smarter than most men since they've figured out how to avoid having a terrible job they must do 40+ hours a week.
I'd ask, "Are office workers as well off as that monkey?"
I believe the answer is open to debate.
Posted in: Monkey business
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theFu
I've never been to the Netherlands, but all the folks who I've met from there seemed intelligent and thoughtful. They know exactly what marijuana is and that it is only a gateway drug for adolescents.
Pot is less dangerous than alcohol.
If it weren't for pressure from the USA, I doubt most of these countries would have laws completely outlawing pot. Every civilization allows for at least 1 mind relaxation drug, like alcohol or pot in their cultures for the last 5,000 years. Humans seem to want this for some reason. I don't know why. Many people are willing to travel great distances to achieve their goal.
I've smoked more than a few joints, but nothing in the last 20+ yrs due to my job requirements. The FBI knows it. I would like to be able to smoke again, legally. As an adult, I would use it just like alcohol - perhaps once every other week for a few hours at a time with friends watching a movie and eating chips. ;) Or perhaps when on a mountain lookout for a day hike. I'd hoped to visit places where smoking wasn't illegal ... I like to say "I've not broken any drug laws in any country" when asked, but that seems less and less likely. It isn't a central part of any trip - sorta like having Absinthe when visiting Prague is an activity for tourists. Absinthe - meh, but it is off my todo list.
The more I see the USA pushing their foolish anti-drug agenda, the dumber I think my "collective country" is.
I would run for office, but I'm unelectable ... I wasn't stupid and knew how to inhale and do not beleive in a god or gods. Actually, I like to believe I'm too smart to want those suck-up political jobs.
The Netherlands still has great places to visit and I'll definitely get there in my world travels. If this law remains, hopefully a friendly Dutch person will share - I'll bring the chips, man.
Posted in: Dutch roll out 'cannabis card' to stop pot tourists
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theFu
Now we just need to figure out who is evil?
Posted in: Ready for rocket launch
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theFu
I've had mate when visiting Argentina and Uruguay. It is definitely an acquired taste. Carnival is world-wide, but those costumes have me thinking this is Brazil ... where mate is not a national drink like in Argentina.
Coke - do you add your own sugar and share the gourd with your friends too? That is the most important part of drinking mate - sharing with friends.
Posted in: Lookin' good
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theFu
We are all biased based on our experiences, upbringing, and cultures. Wars are terrible. The leaders on all sides do terrible things and demonize the enemy to help solders perform in battle. My parents remember WWII clearly as teens during that time. Their views are warped by the sacrifices demanded for the American war effort. They remember the rationing and hearing about their friends, just a few years older, being killed. It is tough to get over that.
I imagine the exact same feelings happen to Japanese of a similar age. I grew up on military bases during the cold war. In my teens, I expected to die from an ICBM sent from the USSR. Until age 18, I lived at a primary targets for nuclear attack. That fear and the total lack of understanding with the people of the USSR were terrible. My ancestors migrated from Russia around 1897, so we aren't THAT removed from them.
Only through deeper understanding can we avoid wars. The more integrated our world becomes, the better we can understand each other, remove irrational fears and help each other through tough times.
This is a wonderful article that got me thinking about understanding different peoples from around the world. If only we could do a better job explaining our hopes for the current war-stricken areas.
Posted in: The forever war
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theFu
@Moondog : When airplanes hit concrete, the concrete wins, COMPLETELY. You can find slow motion videos on youtube , "F4 Phantom Vs. Wall", with airplanes crashing into walls. There is nothing left. That's what happened at the Pentagon. The camera that show that video was not a high speed camera.
I'm all for not trusting reports by the government, when there is a realistic alternative. Heck, I was a government contractor. The details deep inside the reports may lean away from what truly happened, but the big, broad stroke of who, when, where are accurate enough for my curiosity.
Posted in: Ten years on, do you believe al-Qaida was responsible for the events of 9/11?
1
theFu
Yes al-Qaida did it. Some folks, even loosely associated people, planned these attacks and carried them out. I believe they were radical Muslims who did the planning, not mainstream Muslins.
I'm not convinced that al-Qaida has a membership list. This is the way that lots of informal groups become slightly organized. You are probably a member of a group like this yourself - be it religious, gaming, computers, hobby, or business associations.
I'm not happy about President Bush invading countries that were not directly involved with the attacks. Politically, he felt any action was needed before he was thrown out of office. Those invasions were the best answer his team came up with, unfortunately. I'd have preferred doubling the CIA budget and having surgical strike teams handle the aggressive actions. The US military should not have been used directly. Killing thousands of innocent Iraqis and others around the world bothers me. It is an embarrassment for the USA.
Posted in: Ten years on, do you believe al-Qaida was responsible for the events of 9/11?
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theFu
We have lots more "theatre" and other things that waste millions of people's time around the world, but no, we aren't any safer. Anyone with a little smarts can design ways to kill thousands of people if you don't care about being caught.
Governments around the world are wasting hundreds of billions of $$ annual on this stuff based on fear that a single person will be harmed. Much of that spending is being misused for other purposes or just to feed the spy industry.
Posted in: Ten years after 9/11, do you think the world is a safer place?
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theFu
My honest answer wasn't a choice.
"I'm sitting tight AND losing money"
In a few months, I'll be buying - big time.
Posted in: How are you responding to the global stock market turmoil?
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theFu
Swimmers that I've trained with seem to prefer cooler water ... about 26.1 deg to help cool their bodies.
Divers like it warmer, around 29 deg since they are getting in and out of the water all the time. This is comfortable for average swimmers in a community pool too.
Posted in: Soaring heat decimates open water race at world championships
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theFu
I hope they will be smaller than normal watches, automatically connect to keyboards, mice, and a local monitor wirelessly by saying "connect" and support high quality voice over the next version of bluetooth with voice dialing that works perfectly.
Basically, no UI will be needed because voice commands will work perfectly.
Zero dropped calls.
Unlimited data and voice for US$20/month.
I can dream, right?
Posted in: What do you think smartphones will be like in, say, 5 years?
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theFu
Living in a different country from where you grew up with a VERY different culture and language is almost always a great experience. I believe that having a wider world perspective is helpful and teaches flexibility that is a huge asset in business.
Posted in: My advice for young Japanese is simple: get out of Japan. One of our weaknesses as Japanese is our ineptness at communicating with other cultures. Even people who speak English well are closed off psychologically.
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theFu
Almost everything "can cause cancer" with enough exposure. Whether is it likely to cause cancer in any individual is a more difficult question.
Posted in: Do you think cell phones can cause cancer?
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theFu
Usually no. Most of those dates have nothing to due with reality ... except on milk. Then I find the date listed is usually beyond when it has spoiled.
It depends on the packaging and if we're talking canned foods, fresh meats, dairy, cheese, or baked foods. Canned foods almost always last 5+ yrs and I'd wouldn't be surprised if double that worked. Some things, like pasta or noodles, do go bad even if they do not have an expiration date.
Posted in: Do use-by dates cause people to toss out food and drinks too soon?
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theFu
No limit.
Think about it. If you have a limitation of ... perhaps 10 years, then what is to prevent someone from killing someone and hiding the body, leaving the country to "disappear" for 10 yrs and 1 month, then returning and not being prosecuted?
Living in a different country isn't all that hard.
Longer times really don't make sense, unless we are just trying to let the police officially close cases after X years. Perhaps when the person killed would have reached age 90, that should be the limit? For a 20 yr old killed, then the statute limit would be 70 more years.
Posted in: Do you think there should be a statute of limitations for murder cases?
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theFu
These have been around a few years. Unfortunately, it takes 8+ hours of summer direct sunlight to charge enough for 10 minutes of cell use. There simply aren't enough amps.
Posted in: Solar backpack
-1
theFu
Cloud computing makes lots of sense when you need to have stuff public, but not very much sense when you need things to be private. Anything you place on a cloud-based service will eventually be leaked, somehow. That is the test before using any cloud-based service - can this data be put on the front page of the largest newspapers around the world and not cause legal or embarrassment?
These days, department managers are choosing these services due to quicker-to-market and lower initial costs, usually without considering other important issues. Legally, where does the data reside? Which laws apply when your data is stored in 3 different countries. What is your corporate liability then?
Once you put data into these cloud services, how do you get the data out, if you can at all? Lots of services are one-way data-suckers.
When the data is placed into the cloud, what are your protections that it won't be used by that company or a "partner" company for commercial gain? The big social networks consider any data you give them ok to use in any way. Is that really what you want?
Still, if a cloud service is free to you and meets some need you have, it is hard NOT to make use of it. If you want privacy in the data you put into the cloud, then you need to ensure that yourself, probably using strong encryption.
If I come across as concerned, I am. Certainly, using the cloud make perfect sense for some specific needs, but not for as many as we're seeing today. Another alternative is to create a private cloud computing center inside your company. You gain the flexibility, but don't lose control over the critical data. This can work for every sized company from the smallest 1-man shop to the largest multinational companies (who have been doing this for the last decade).
Again, check with your IT-knowledgeable lawyer before using the cloud.
Posted in: What do you think of cloud computing?
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theFu
Japan has so many wonderful things about her. Protesting for change is just one of them.
This should be celebrated. Not for the specific message, but because it is possible in most republics without being molested by the local army, police or dictators.
Would people be allowed to do a similar protest in Iran or N. Korea or China in front of the state power company headquarters?
Posted in: No nukes
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theFu
Too much wasted whitespace for me. Feels like those huge social networking sites that I won't use ever due to privacy concerns.
The layout seems to assume a width of browser that I don't have. It is either too wide or too narrow, but this is hardly unique to JT. You'd think that using width % would be working, so fixed width design wasn't needed anymore. I can dream.
Posted in: What do you think of the new Japan Today design?