JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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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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- 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*
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- Translator
- ZAIHON, Inc. (日本財務翻訳株式会社), Tokyo
- Salary: ¥6.0M / Year Negotiable
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yokomoc
I'm curious which nations you'd include in this, and why?
Posted in: No progress in U.S. debt talks as deadline looms
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yokomoc
The 2008 financial crisis, the following debt crisis, the Arab revolutions are all just indicators that we've reached a breaking point in sustainability of the human population. It would be great if it was as easy as to just call all debts quits start over but that's overly idealistic and impractical, and unfair to the debtholders. The opportunity is there to start evolving to a new system based on sustainable use of resources but that requires forward thinking leaders. The guys we have just now mostly operate out of fear of the next election and out of paying back their own debts to the CEOs who got them there.
You have to understand as well that our debts are not just monetary. We have massive debts to the earth and the ecosystem that supports us. Carbon debts from the oil, coal and gas we've extracted and released into the atmosphere and ocean that will start to charge extortionate interest rates as the carbon sinks like the oceans and rainforests max out and become net carbon emitters, while the permafrosts melt releasing the methane trapped below. These debts become monetary as we pay more and more on disaster relief, and have to fast-track renewable energy and carbon extraction technologies into production decades later than they're required. We have potable water debts to the underground aquifers our intensive farming practices are drying up, and to the dry riverbeds and dying ecosystems below our dams. The resources we're dependent on are limited and dwindling, our credit card is overdrawn.
So no stable system is going to emerge before the failings of the old one are corrected for. There needs to be a lengthy transition period and it's not going to be painless.
My own feeling is that any change is going to come from the bottom up. There's already a growing groundswell of people power emerging worldwide connected by the internet. In future I can see true government by the people come in the form of e-government. There won't be elections, people can simply set their positions on various topics stored in a central database, which the people in government are then required to act upon. The people will be their own constitution. But the current systems of government are barely 20th Century never mind 21st Century so it'll take some brave nations to make the first moves to any new system.
Posted in: No progress in U.S. debt talks as deadline looms
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yokomoc
Lol, ok Nihon Kotsu Taxis have a free app that does most of what I just wrote, and the thing I missed out (fare estimates). Downloaded.
Posted in: Nap time
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yokomoc
@drscope, yeah that's what I mean - the technology infrastructure should mostly be in place already. This is just another step so that you don't have to be at a fixed residence, know the phone number of e.g. the restaurant you're staying in. The app would also allow the customer to select the route they want to travel on (if they have a preference) which would avoid accusations of drivers taking them for a ride. When the taxi arrives it would send a notification to the customer's phone which would be useful if they're in a restaurant, bar etc.
Also as the customer input the location in GPS before entering the taxi it resolves the problem of drivers not knowing where the hell they're going then doubling the fare after they get lost on the way, and also avoids the need to make a call in the first place.
With an English version the app would be a huge hit with tourists and new residents I think, who have language issues on top of the other problems. The first company to implement this would get a huge leg-up on their competitors IMO.
Posted in: Nap time
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yokomoc
You mean you don't like your news with a slice of fake cheese?
Posted in: McDonald's opens mega-store in Roppongi Hills
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yokomoc
I'd like to see the taxi companies bring out a smartphone app. The user's location would be found by GPS, they could even input their location and destination to a navi system before sending the request. The central servers would then use the GPS location of the taxis to determine the nearest free cab and send an alert to the driver and instructions to the navi system. Any techies know if that would that be difficult to implement?
Then more of the old fellas could take their naps until their buzzer goes off :-)
Posted in: Nap time
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yokomoc
When we took the kid to Kodomonokuni last summer the huge park area was almost empty - EVERYONE just went for the pool. It was crazy crowded and you could barely move without bumping into someone. It's not even a good waterpark, a couple of impossibly slow flumes you have to wait a silly amount of time to ride and a no-frills pool. At the same park during Golden Week you have to queue at least 15 minutes to go down the big slide that is now deserted in summer.
I agree with Zenny, near us there are a couple of municipal water parks that aren't too crowded and are very affordable for a day out.
Posted in: The big heat
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yokomoc
Anonymous seem to be taking credit for the Times hack, and now the Twitter servers have been taken down. It's getting interesting.
Posted in: 2nd London police official quits in hacking scandal
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yokomoc
The final part should have read:
"Thank you gentlemen. Our them tonight: (link to YT vid of "Libera Me From Hell" from the anime Gurren Lagann.)
Posted in: 2nd London police official quits in hacking scandal
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yokomoc
Zenny, whoever carried it out did it under the LulzSec name. Initially there was a fake story about Ruper Murdoch's death planted on the front page of the Sun website. The operation looks to purely vindictive, not any attempt to show up poor security.
Their twitter feed's been deleted (forcibly or voluntarily I don't know) but here's a selection of the LulzSec account tweets I have stored:
"So remember that secret pastebin operation...well... This is only the beginning. F#$% YOU MURDOCH. YOU ARE NEXT."
"WE HAVE JOY WE HAVE FUN, WE HAVE MESSED UP MURDOCH'S SUN"
"thesun.co.uk - what's going on here? Something up with the website? #correct"
"Arrest us. We dare you. We are the unstoppable hacking generation and you are a wasted old sack of s&*%, Murdoch. ROW ROW FIGHT THE POWER."
"Thank you gentlemen. Our theme tonight:
*Salute breaking the unbreakable since 2011. Never stop sailing. You are free."
Posted in: 2nd London police official quits in hacking scandal
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yokomoc
LulzSec just launched a massive hack on The Sun and The Times servers this morning taking passwords, emails, promising to publish to the worst. Looks like the servers have been pulled down.
Posted in: 2nd London police official quits in hacking scandal
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yokomoc
I'm sorry but I think this is just wrong. The whole point of a rating system is to determine future ability and willingness to meet cash flow demands. There are two parts to any analysis - quantitative and qualitative. The qualitative part is by it's very nature subjective - it's an analysts interpretation of the data they have available (which in the ratings agencies case is usually limited). The quantitative part is largely model-based is includes a number of assumptions which again are subjective. If the analyst feels they have a good reason to change the assumptions and can back it up, they will. However if your qualitative analysis isn't good, the assumptions that go into the models will also not be good. Both require some amount of forward-looking or they have no relevance. The situation we're in now is unprecedented in recent times.
Are you talking about Moody's Investor Services (rating's agency) or Moody's Analytics? I hope it's the latter.
Posted in: Moody's downgrades Ireland debt to junk status
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yokomoc
But that's the point - if their ratings are largely determined by what has happened in the past then it shows their models are still worthless and they haven't learned anything from the subprime mess. This is why pieces of crap bonds backed by ARM given to people who could in no way afford them were given double A ratings as late as 2006.
Anyway as it stands, Moody's just put the US on review for a downgrade after the latest attempt to get compromise from the Republicans ended predictably so at least they're responding. However if the US in on review then almost every financial asset in the world should be equally on review because the impact of default would be catastrophic.
Posted in: Moody's downgrades Ireland debt to junk status
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yokomoc
Much of the debt the government's taken on has effectively been a debt transfer to relieve the private and corporate debt that had spun out of control before he took office, as well as the 'stimulus' package (which would be better labelled an anti-depressant - without it the economy would be beyond bad.) The gross external debt i.e. the total debt owed by all parties within the U.S. to other countries has risen from 13.5M before he took office to 14.8M as of June 30. Not good but unavoidable in the circumstances. You're also not accounting for inflation and relative economic growth.
The main thing though is you can't blame Obama for Congress' failings and the stubbornness of Republican senators to oppose everything. I do blame him for pushing Health Care Reform in 2009 at a time when the US needed urgent economic measures. Right idea but terrible timing.
Posted in: Fed divided over more stimulus as economy weakens
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yokomoc
The problem with the ratings agencies is they don't pay well so the staff they have are pretty poor quality and easily manipulated and their models are often years behind the market, but the market does respond to their conclusions despite their dubious value. That Ireland had the top Aaa rating 2 years ago should tell you how dependable these are.
Posted in: Moody's downgrades Ireland debt to junk status
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yokomoc
Can you be more specific? Noone's claiming anyone is squeaky clean but to jump from that to corruption claims and putting them in the same bucket as News Corp is quite far-fetched.
Posted in: New allegations besiege Murdoch media empire
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yokomoc
The greatest punishment is to stop buying his newspapers, stop watching his TV stations, hit the bottom line. Already the anti-Murdoch backlash in the UK is massive. If the reports of hacking 9/11 victims' phones hold water the sentiment will spread to the US, then it may become a PR battle. One thing is for sure, the ability to manipulate and decieve the public is diminishing every day the world becomes more connected. Ironic that NewsCorp made such a mess of their one attempt to enter that market - MySpace. For a corporation that makes it's money on creating divisions to try to get into a market that brings people together was always doomed to failure.
Posted in: New allegations besiege Murdoch media empire
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yokomoc
Can anyone expand as I'm a bit confused by the article. What exactly are Nissan proposing - to have solar powered recharging stations around the country or is this some plan to recycle the batteries for another use ? If it's the former then logistically it could be difficult to implement if the number of electric vehicles on the road grows exponentially as you'd expect.
Posted in: Nissan works on recharging Leaf with solar power
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yokomoc
I think this is good. The family wanted the death penalty but deep emotions can cloud an issue like this. An eye for an eye will not bring closure, satisfaction or a sense of justice to Mr and Mrs Hawker. I hope they can look deeply into this. Life imprisonment is the right decision.
Posted in: Japanese prosecutors seek life in Briton's death
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yokomoc
BTW being inspired by Andrew Breitbart then accusing others of corrupt practice takes incredible chutzpah.
Posted in: New allegations besiege Murdoch media empire