tagged w/ Japan
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2013 is the Year of the Snake. Interestingly enough Japan happens to have a number of legends about giant snakes that plagued people back in the day. One small village in Northern Japan has festival to celebrate their local giant snake legend. They build a giant snake over 270 feet long made of bamboo and straw and parade it around the village.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBuWBp8Vews2013 is the Year of the Snake. Interestingly enough Japan happens to have a number of... more
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The nuclear meltdowns at Fukushima earlier this year shocked the world, but they shocked the Japanese people even more. For years they've been earnestly reassured by their governments and the energy companies that atomic power was safe, clean and cheap.
Transcript and more:
http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2011/s3317005.htmThe nuclear meltdowns at Fukushima earlier this year shocked the world, but they... more
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“Origami” (2012) is a thoughtful, visually stunning animated short film that was created in the Japanese Noh tradition by five students at L’Ecole Supérieure des Métiers Artistique (Montpellier, France). In the film, a young boy spends time alone with his grandfather, but the difference between the generations cannot be more marked. Combining artistic skill and imagination is something that cannot happen without inspiration, and eventually the boy has to embark upon a journey into his own mind’s eye to connect both to his art and to his grandfather.
This piece includes colorful illustrations and the inspirational animated short film.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2012/11/03/origami-an-inspirational-journey-between-generations/“Origami” (2012) is a thoughtful, visually stunning animated short film... more
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worrg
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added this
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7 months ago
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It seems like this business is primarily aimed at men, as the job description seeks out girls from a high school age to 30’s. Hilariously, the job description describes the position as “sleeping” for 3,500 yen an hour (about $44). Hell, sign me up!
http://veracitystew.com/?p=43615It seems like this business is primarily aimed at men, as the job description seeks... more
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Earlier today we casually wondered whether the US stands to lose more by supporting China or Japan in their escalating diplomatic spat, considering the threat of a US Treasury sell off is certainly not negligible, a dilemma complicated by the fact that as today's TIC data indicated both nations own almost the same amount of US paper, just over $1.1 trillion. In a stunning turn of events, it appears that China has taken our thought experiment a step further and as the Telegraph's Ambrose Evans-Pritchard reports, based on a recommendation by Jin Baisong from the Chinese Academy of International Trade (a branch of the commerce ministry) China is actively considering "using its power as Japan’s biggest creditor with $230bn (£141bn) of bonds to "impose sanctions on Japan in the most effective manner" and bring Tokyo’s festering fiscal crisis to a head." I.e., dump Japan's bonds en masse.
Should this stunning recommendation be enacted, not only would it be the first time in world history that insurmountable credit is used as a weapon of retaliation, it would mark a clear phase transition in the evolution of modern warfare: from outright military incursions, to FX wars, to trade wars, culminating with "bond wars" which could in the span of minutes cripple the entire Japanese fiscal house of cards still standing solely due to the myth that unserviceable debt can be pushed off into perpetuity (as previously discussed here)...
Continued at:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/bond-wars-chinese-advisor-calls-japanese-bond-dumpEarlier today we casually wondered whether the US stands to lose more by supporting... more
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Dagum
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added this
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8 months ago
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Report from the Tar Sands Blockade
Protesters in Portugal, Spain reject austerity
Occupy Wall Street returns to NYC, arrests follow
Anti-Japan Protests Spread to Hong Kong
Violent anti-U.S. protests continue in PakistanReport from the Tar Sands Blockade
Protesters in Portugal, Spain reject austerity... more
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Obama Silent as friend offers up Chicago’s children to austerity and corporate owners.Obama Silent as friend offers up Chicago’s children to austerity and corporate... more
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Sanba: the strongest tropical cyclone of 2012
The most powerful tropical cyclone of 2012 is Typhoon Sanba. Sanba formed as a tropical depression over the western Pacific Ocean on September 10. The storm rapidly strengthened from a Category 1 to a Category 5 storm over very warm waters of 30°C (86°F) in just 24 hours beginning on September 13, and became Category 5 Super Typhoon with 175 mph winds for an 18-hour period ending at 12 UTC Friday, September 14. Sanba is Earth's only Category 5 tropical cyclone so far in 2012; the planet had two such storms in 2011, both in the Western Pacific. The previous strongest tropical cyclone of 2012 was Super Typhoon Guchol, a Category 4 storm with top winds of 150 mph east of the Philippines in June. Sanba is the strongest typhoon in the Western Pacific since October 2010, when Super Typhoon Megi's sustained winds hit 180 mph.
More at the linkSanba: the strongest tropical cyclone of 2012
The most powerful tropical cyclone of... more
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The world’s third largest economy is in crisis. That, in itself is not news. The world’s largest economy is also in crisis, as is its second, as is…
What is newsworthy is that, having tried and failed with every other option, the Japanese government may be taking a remarkably novel approach. It appears as though they are going to try to spend close to what they receive in taxation. The Keynesian consensus is coming to an end in Japan, although not before it has wrought enormous damage to one of the world’s great economies.
“The government running out of money is not a story made up. It's a real threat," said Japan’s finance minister Jun Azumi on Friday. Opposition parties in Japan are blocking a deficit financing bill which would allow the government to continue to drive its debt levels above 200pc of GDP. If the opposition holds firm, the government has threatened the unthinkable – it will spend less. Tax rises are also on the table, although the doubling of sales tax to 10pc will not come fully into force until 2015.
This is a turnaround for Japan. The nation’s government has already contorted itself in all the ways now common in the West while attempting to postpone this day. This, after all, is a country whose own central bank rebuked itself last month for breaking its own rule and buying more bonds than there is currency in issue.
As in the West, the Japanese have stuck to the dogma of easy monetary policy to fight decline, and as in the West it has not worked. The Japanese instituted Quantitative Easing a decade ago and found that it has done little to fight deflation and nothing to avert stagnation.
Interest rates close to zero did work for a while, but not in the manner imagined. Now that Japan is not unique in having a low interest rate, the correction has been harsh.
Full Story: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/thomaspascoe/100019765/at-last-japan-may-be-about-to-abandon-its-disastrous-keynesian-consensus/The world’s third largest economy is in crisis. That, in itself is not news. The... more
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A massive typhoon began to make landfall Sunday over Okinawa, bringing winds more ferocious than even the typhoon-weary Japanese island has seen in decades.
It will likely be the strongest since 1956, said CNN International meteorologist Tom Sater.
With a cloud field of 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles), Typhoon Bolaven is 20 times larger than Okinawa's length.
"It's been very, very severe," said storm chaser James Reynolds, on the northwestern coast of the island.
Tree branches were flying through the air amid torrential rain, he said.
The infrastructure on Okinawa is designed to withstand violent storms. "Everything's made of solid concrete," said Reynolds.
Isaac near hurricane strength; watch extends to Louisiana
"Utility poles are so wide you couldn't even put your arms around them," Reynolds said. "All the houses are built with concrete. There's no such thing as a beach house in Okinawa because it would just get destroyed by a typhoon."
Still, the power was out where he was Sunday.
On Sunday evening, Bolaven was carrying sustained winds of 213 kilometers (132 miles) per hour, with gusts reaching 259 kilomeers per hour (161 mph) -- the highest since Typhoon Naha in 1956.
Bolaven was traveling northwest at 15 kilometers per hour (9 mph).
The storm is on course to hit China and the Korean peninsula.
It's "roughly the size of France to Poland in land mass," said Sater.
"The typhoon is producing wave heights of 16 meters high, so the possibility is there for a storm surge of 8 to 10 meters high on the coastline. Wind gusts will be strong enough to not only uproot or down trees and power lines, but could flip automobiles.
"Okinawa is 100 kilometers (62 miles) long. The size of Bolaven's eye is roughly 30 kilometers (19 miles) in width. This means many residents could experience the eye passing over them; unfortunately, that means putting up with the strongest winds the storm can produce, followed by a calm period with a brief clearing of the skies overhead, then another chaotic period of damaging winds that will be blowing in the opposite direction of the previous winds."
Rainfall totals could top 500 mm (20 inches) in 24 hours, said Sater.
Time: Most destructive U.S. hurricanes
Storm surges are expected to be a major problem for Okinawa. Highways on low-lying barrier islands could be completely washed out, with surges at the coast expected at about 8 meters (26 feet) high.
More than 400,000 people in the area live in elevations less than 50 meters (164 feet).
More at the linkA massive typhoon began to make landfall Sunday over Okinawa, bringing winds more... more
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Negotiations over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement in Japan have resurrected provisions from Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) and gone even further to restrict and criminalize sharing and accessing content under the intellectual property chapter.
Even backing up a DVD for personal use is a criminal offense under the new law coming into effect this October and could land someone up to 2 years in prison or a fine of US$25,400.
This July, for the first time in Japan, four employees of a publishing company, including its executive, were arrested for selling a guidebook explaining how to copy DVDs that included software to enable stripping DRM off of the discs even though the laws have yet to come into effect.
The Recording Industry Association of Japan has also tried to pressure ISPs to install spying technologies that will automatically block unauthorized uploads of copyrighted content.
More detail on the story can be found at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.Negotiations over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement in Japan have... more
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Japan is yet another of many countries where Big Content is working closely with policymakers to enact expansive copyright laws in the name of fighting off threats to their profit bottom lines. In terms of copyright policy, it has been an especially big year for Japan.
In June, the Japanese government passed a new copyright bill that enacted criminal penalties for downloading, uploading, and simply viewing copyrighted materials. The bill also placed brand new restrictions on digital content, such as the criminalization of circumventing DRM on DVDs.
Prior to that, after years of supporting backroom negotiations for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), Japan hosted the signing ceremony in Tokyo in December 2011. Despite its defeat in Europe, we have no reason to assume it has died. This is supported by the fact that it continues to inch its way through the Japanese legislature towards ratification. The coming threat is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement, the international trade agreement that carries an intellectual property chapter that goes even farther than ACTAto restrict and criminalize sharing and accessing content.
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Effective in October, a charge of copyright infringement could land a person prison for two years or fine them for up two million yen (about $25,400). In addition, the new law enacted an entirely new provision banning circumventing DRM on DVDs, even if it’s only for making a back-up copy of the disc. Already it seems that Japanese authorities are prematurely enforcing the latter provision: In mid-July, four employees of a publishing company, including its executive, were arrested for selling a guidebook explaining how to copy DVDs that included software to enable stripping DRM off of the discs. This is the first time in Japan arrests have ever been made of this kind. The Recording Industry Association of Japan went on to pressure ISPs to install spying technologies that will automatically block unauthorized uploads of copyrighted content.
continued at...
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/08/copyright-japanJapan is yet another of many countries where Big Content is working closely with... more
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Excerpt:
"Scientists found an increase in leg, antennae and wing shape mutations among butterflies collected following the 2011 Fukushima accident.
The link between the mutations and the radioactive material was shown by laboratory experiments, they report.
Unexpected results
By comparing mutations found on the butterflies collected from the different sites, the team found that areas with greater amounts of radiation in the environment were home to butterflies with much smaller wings and irregularly developed eyes.
"It has been believed that insects are very resistant to radiation," said lead researcher Joji Otaki from the University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa.
"In that sense, our results were unexpected," he told BBC News. "Excerpt:
"Scientists found an increase in leg, antennae and wing shape... more
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More propaganda pictures at link
U.S. Office of War Information poster (1942) about the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7th, 1941
"The human race stands on the verge of nuclear self-extinction as a species, and with it will die most, if not all, forms of intelligent life on the planet earth. Any attempt to dispel the ideology of nuclearism and its attendant myth propounding the legality of nuclear weapons and nuclear deterrence must directly come to grips with the fact that the nuclear age was conceived in the original sins of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945." [excerpt from Prof. Francis A. Boyle’s article entitled ‘The criminality of nuclear deterrence. Hiroshima Day, August 6, 1955’More propaganda pictures at link
U.S. Office of War Information poster (1942) about... more
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Residents of southwestern Japan are returning home after four days of record rainfall that caused massive flooding.
Hundreds of thousands of people on the island of Kyushu began to clean up Monday, as the death toll from flooding and landslides reached at least 27.
Sunday, Japanese troops airlifted supplies to more than 3,000 people who were stranded in Fukuoka prefecture, southwestern Japan.
More than 90 millimeters of rain an hour fell in Kyoto prefecture in western Japan, flooding hundreds of homes.
The Japan Meteorological Agency said Sunday that the worst is over, but predicted more heavy rain in some areas through Monday.Residents of southwestern Japan are returning home after four days of record rainfall... more
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Eleven people were killed, at least 18 others were missing and tens of thousands were ordered evacuated Thursday as downpours lashed Kyushu and other areas in the southwest, police and firefighters said.
High, wet: A person calls for help from a half-submerged home in the city of Kumamoto early Thursday. KYODO PHOTOS
The Meteorological Agency said rainfall in parts of Kumamoto and Oita prefectures reached levels that have "never been experienced before."
The agency meanwhile forecast heavy rain and landslides in other areas of Japan, including the west and northeast.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, speaking during a Diet committee session, said he had received a report on the unprecedented rainfall and vowed his administration would make every effort to address the situation. The government set up a liaison office within the crisis management center at the prime minister's office.
Among the 11 victims, four were identified, including Kesato Fujii, 78, Shachi Ichihara, 81, Misako Yamabe, 78, all from Aso, Kumamoto Prefecture, and Masakazu Hasegawa, 74, from Taketa, Oita Prefecture, police said. In the two prefectures, 18 people remained missing.
In addition, evacuation orders remained in place as of Thursday evening for some 33,000 people in Kumamoto and Oita prefectures.
In the city of Kumamoto, the municipal government at one point ordered about 48,000 people to evacuate but later lifted the order for some areas after the water level of the Shirakawa River went down.
In Taketa, Oita Prefecture, 15,000 people in 6,600 households were ordered to evacuate.
In Shikoku, meanwhile, heavy rain in Uwajima, Ehime Prefecture, caused landslides that cut off some 100 people, prefectural officials said. No casualties were reported there, the officials added.
The Meteorological Agency said hourly rainfall through 6 a.m. Thursday topped 120 mm in Aso and 120 mm in the village of Ubuyama, northeastern Kumamoto Prefecture.
More at the linkEleven people were killed, at least 18 others were missing and tens of thousands were... more
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