Sexless Marriages, N.A. Style

This is a great article about sexless marriages in North America.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090226.wlsexless26/BNStory/lifeFamily/home

Jus

Brilliant Advertising!

This makes me feel sick...

I've just read this Associated Press article about the banning of a Japanese video game in the U.S. The game is being banned because it is classified as "obscene" under American laws. In America, games and pornography are not allowed to depict "rape", "sexual violence" or "sex by coercion". It is very different in Japan.

I find it interesting that in America, games in which people are murdered are ok, whereas games which depict rape, are banned. There seems to be a double standard.

Perhaps both types of games should be banned.

Many Japanese think that Americans are particularly violent people and American movies reflect this violence. However, many Americans think that Japan has serious problems of rape and paid sex with monors (援助交際) and that Japanese games, manga, and movies reflect this.

I think that both sides need to recognize their shortcomings.

I should also tell you that this story is getting VERY VERY big in the North American and European media.

This is the article:

Boycott of violent Japanese video game urged in U.S.
Tuesday 24th February, 06:27 AM JST
NEW YORK —
Anti-violence advocates are taking a stand against a video game in which players stalk and rape a mother and her two daughters.Amazon and eBay have already banned the sale of the game, called Rapelay.But New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said Monday that the game is available on other Web sites.Quinn and the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault called on all video game distributors in the U.S. to refrain from selling Rapelay.Rapelay is made by a company called Illusion, based in Yokohama.The company’s website says its products are not available for sale outside of Japan. The company did not respond to an email seeking comment.

And this is a review of the game from an American gaming website:

Review by Zigfried May 27, 2006

As much as I wish RapeLay were an awesome hentai shooter starring an enormous naked lava man (he would attack by lobbing volcanic volleys of sperm), it's not. RapeLay is a disturbing rape simulator developed by the same misogynistic dickheads who brought us Battle Raper 2 which, oddly enough, didn't contain any actual rape.

RapeLay contains a lot of rape.

In RapeLay, you rape women in the most abusive manner possible and the women learn to like it. Well-programmed or not, I can't get behind that.*

*"I can't get behind that." means "I cannot support that."

8 Japanese languages are dying out!

According to a UNESCO report, 8 languages in Japan are in danger of dying out. There are now only 15 speakers of the Ainu language. The others that are endangered are Yaeyama, Yonaguni, Okinawa, Kunigami, and Miyako in Okinawa Prefecture, Amami in Kagoshima and Hachijo which is spoken in and around Hachijojima island in Tokyo. UNESCO considers all these to be distinct languages, not dialects.Osamu Sakiyama, professor of linguistics at the National Museum of Ethnology agrees with UNESCO's assessment and said, 'Coupled with the myth that Japan is ethnically homgeneous, people tend to think that one language is spoken in Japan. But I want people to know that there is quite a diversity.'The report on Japanese languages is part of a worldwide report - the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. The interactive digital version was released this week and is freely available online. A printed version will be published next month.

L.A. Times article on Japanese consumers

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/business/worldbusiness/22japan.html?em

This is an interesting article on how Japanese consumerism never fully recovered after the bubble era.

Justin

Government Censorship of the Internet

Today these countries censor the Internet : China, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brazil, Ethiopia, Iran, India, Korea, Morocco, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Syria, Sudan, Thailand, Turkey, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen.

The Japanese government is also planning to legislate regulations of ‘harmful’ Internet content. Now, the Liberal Democratic Party’s Sanae Takaichi is preparing to an Internet censorship law. We can see clearly how the government is preparing the public for such a law. When governments want to pass some laws which strip away basic freedoms, they have to find stories to make the public frightened. If the public are frightened, the government can say "We need to take away some fo your rights to protect you."
The recent stories in the news about "encounter" websites (出会い系)　and Japanese people learning how to grow marijuana from the internet quote the NPA (National Police Agency http://www.npa.go.jp/ ) as blaming the internet. I fully believe this is the beginning of an assault against the freedom of speech and exchange of information on the internet. This will allow the government to filter information out of the public eye in Japan. I cannot expres to you how dangerous I believe this is. If you think I am overreacting, I ask you to please look at the list of countries I posted above. Japan will join that list in less than two years.

Does anyone have any suggestions for how to stop this?

I have included 2 articles in which the NPA blame the internet for problems which they obviously cannot control. The NPA need to deflect the blame away from their own terrible policework.

Jus




Internet profile sites become hotbed of child sex crime, NPA reports
Thursday 19th February, 10:26 AM JST
TOKYO —
Internet profile sites, a type of social networking, have become a more dangerous source of sex-related crime for children than dating websites, the National Police Agency said Thursday in a survey. In 2008, 792 children under 18 became victims of sex-related crimes such as pornography and prostitution as a result of using profile sites. The figure surpassed 724 children who became sex-crime victims after accessing Net dating sites, the agency said.The latest NPA survey, for the first time, looked at profile sites and other social networking sites in terms of the possibility of their use for illegal sex services.NPA officials judged that criminals have been shifting their focus from dating sites to social networking sites in search of potential sex-crime victims as authorities have significantly restricted the business of dating-site operators.The NPA said it will ask operators of profile and other social networking websites to delete messages suggesting illegal sex services.In the reporting year, sex-related crime cases involving children under 18 using these sites on the Internet totaled 994, the NPA said. The number of obscenity cases came to 648 cases involving 545 victims, child prostitution and pornography 299 cases involving 204 victims, rapes 17 cases involving 15 victims and attempt murders two cases involving two victims.The number of people who became crime victims after using dating sites, including those aged 18 or older, came to 852 in 2008, down by 445 from the preceding year.The figure included 328 senior high school students, 211 junior high school students and two elementary school students. Of those under 18, 714 people, or 98.6%, accessed dating sites via cell phones, the NPA said.

Crimes linked to cannabis, marijuana spreading in Japan
Friday 20th February, 06:24 AM JST
TOKYO —
Sumo wrestlers, actors and college students caught for marijuana possession are apparently proving to be just the tip of the iceberg as police authorities say the number of cannabis-related crimes has risen to record levels in Japan. A National Police Agency report made available Thursday showed police departments across the country handled 3,832 cannabis-related cases involving 2,778 offenders last year, both all-time highs since the NPA began tracking records in 1956.The figure for total cases marked a 16.8% increase from the previous year, with the number of offenders rising 22.3%. There were 2,374 first-timers, accounting for 85.5% of the total offenders and posting a 20.6% year-on-year increase. As for breakdowns in age groups, the combined number of offenders in their teens and 20s went up to 1,736, or 62.5% of the total and a 10.6% rise.
The agency says a main factor in the increase appears to be numerous Internet websites that provide information officials say helps facilitate illegal acts related to marijuana, including how to grow it, indoors or outdoors, and produce it.Acquiring seeds of the plant over the Internet is relatively easy and seed trades are not illegal under current Japanese laws, making it possible for seed sellers to ward off a police search as long as they post a description noting that growing cannabis is illegal.Authorities have belatedly launched countermeasures against such deals and their efforts led to the arrest last year of a group who had engaged in Internet seed sales and delivery on charges of helping to grow cannabis.‘‘There has obviously been an increasing number of occasions in which people get cannabis seeds or learn how to grow it,’’ an NPA official said. ‘‘And there’s misunderstanding among them about the toxicity (of cannabis and marijuana). Probably that’s part of the reason they tried to get into it very easily.’’

Men See Women as Sex Objects When Looking at Sexy Calendars

Scientists revealed that calendars with sexy women and images of nude models published in newspapers make men think of women as objects. In a study men were shown pictures of models in bikinis. Scientists noticed on brain scans that when men watch such images, a certain area in the brain lights up, and that area usually lights up when men think about DIY tools as well as other objects.
Brains scans also showed that the area in the brain that men use to tune into another individual's thoughts and emotions tunes down.
"The only other time we have seen this is when people look at pictures of the homeless or of drug addicts because they really don't want to think about what is going on in their minds," mentioned the study's lead researcher Susan Fiske of Princeton University in the U.S..
It might be obvious, but still, the scientific team also discovered through brain scans that men enjoyed looking at nude women more than at fully clothed ones. The researchers presented their report on the study and its results at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual conference where they concluded that when shown images of topless women men are led to think of women as "less than human". Fiske stated that in case there are girlie calendars in the workplace, they could lead men to sexualize their female colleagues.
"I am not saying there should be censorship but people need to know of the associations people have in their minds," outlined the professor.
When she was asked whether women had the same effect when seeing half-dressed men, Fiske stated that women were more inclined to rate age and bank balance over a man's look.

Which one?

I think we should keep the one on the left. The one on the right, we should sell to the North Koreans.

There is too much violence in the world!

So much violence. It makes me so sad..

Obama is in Canada. He still hates cats!

Obama is in Canada today for his 1st official visit to a foreign country since becoming President. Most American Presidents visit Canada 1st because they like Canadian beer and bacon.

He's discussing trade and environmental issues with Canada's idiot Prime Minister, Harper.

Maybe Canada should ty to trade our Prime Minister for Obama. Many Canadians would like to keep him - especially my mother!!!

Jus

The Yamaguchi-gumi wants their ￥12,000 too!

From a Japanese wire service:

In the hope of jump-starting the economy, the government has earmarked some 2 trillion yen this fiscal year in the form of direct handouts and other subsidies.
According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, all Japanese with legally registered domiciles, as well as foreign nationals, who were registered on or before Feb 1, 2009 will eligible for the handouts.
The standard amount will be 12,000 yen per person, with those over age 65 or under age 18 receiving 20,000 yen. A household consisting of a married couple with two children under 18, for example, would receive 64,000 yen.
When the question was posed as to whether the approximately 80,000 members of the nation’s 22 designated criminal syndicates—referred to in the media as “boryokudan”—will also be on the receiving end of the government’s largess, the answer was, almost certainly yes. When and if the system is implemented, simple mathematics says that 960 million yen will move from the national treasury to members of organized criminal syndicates.
Apparently, Sankei Shimbun (Feb 15) reports, the hoods are hurting as badly as everyone else.
“With the recession, the gangsters’ means of generating revenues are way down,” says attorney Yukio Yamanouchi, a former adviser to the Kobe-based Yamaguchi-gumi, the nation’s largest syndicate. “Whatever activities they attempt, they’ll be nabbed by police. So they’re really between a rock and a hard place.”
While it’s possible some hoods may waive the handout, Yamanouchi thinks they’ll accept it. “Even though the amount isn’t that big, I suppose they’ll be glad to receive it,” he shrugs.
The above exception notwithstanding, the article notes that the general trend to bar gangsters from public services, such as welfare payments, has been accelerating. In March 2006, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare issued guidelines to prevent welfare subsidy payments from falling into the hands of members of criminal syndicates. Other measures, such as exclude gangsters from public housing, have also been adopted on a nationwide basis.
Despite such efforts, an Osaka municipal official tells Sankei he’s concerned part of the handouts are indeed likely to flow into yakuza coffers.
An unnamed police official agrees. “Not only is there a chance the gangs will get their hands on some funds via indirect means, but it’s extremely vexing to think that even the top boss of the Yamaguchi-gumi will be entitled to receive tax money. As long as there’s no means of excluding gang members from receiving handouts, all we can do is devise other methods to keep the gangs from using the handouts as a source of revenues.”

Chimpanzees are not nice people!

This chimpanzee was kept as a pet by a 70 year old woman in America.

It used to be a showbiz chimp - trained for performing on tv and it appeared in a Coca-Cola commercial.

Well, on February 16th, this pet chimpanzee freaked out and TORE THE FACE OFF a friend of the owner. The chimp was shot and killed when it later tried to attack a police officer.

Chimpanzees are not cute, they are not pets, they are not people. THEY ARE WILD ANIMALS!

Nakagawa was DRUNK!

This is the man who is supposed to save the economy!

Samsung vs LG : Showdown on the Peninsula

In the West, SONY and other Japanese electronics companies are losing customers to Korea's Samsung and LG. Inside, Korea, the battle between the two companies is very interesting.

I read this article today in The Economist (a business and foreign-affairs magazine).

The article is written at a higher level of English than most newspapers.

Many Japanese readers will be shocked to learn that these 2 companies outperform all Japanese electronics companies in LCD television/display and mobile phone sales.

LG v Samsung Looking Good?

Jan 22nd 2009 SEOULFrom The Economist print edition

LG Electronics is optimistic about 2009. Samsung, its larger rival, is not. In a meeting room next to the office of LG Electronics’ technology chief, Paik Woo-hyun, a copy of the film “Good Night and Good Luck” sits beside one of the company’s flat-panel TVs. Mr Paik is no stranger to showbiz, having won an Emmy award for his digital-TV research. The film’s title sums up the way in which South Korea’s second-biggest electronics firm, a division of the giant LG Group, hopes to leave its rivals behind. Despite the economic crisis, it sees 2009 as an opportunity to grab market share. LG hopes to boost its share of the global mobile-phone market to 10% from below 8% last year. (By some estimates it has just overtaken Motorola to become the industry’s number three, behind Nokia and Samsung, its local rival.) It also wants to boost its share of LCD TV sales from 10.2% to 14.5%, as strong sales in the MiddleEast, Brazil, India and China overcome slumping demand in Europe and America. Samsung Electronics, the corresponding unit of the rival Samsung Group, is much less bullish. After more than ayear of intense scrutiny in the wake of corruption scandals involving its controlling family, the humbled conglomerate said this month that its executives would take a 20% pay cut this year. It has also consolidated its various units and reshuffled its management in order to speed up decision-making. Analysts predicted that itwould report its first ever quarterly loss on January 23rd. LG’s own results, announced on January 22nd, show that it too is hurting as demand for electronic gadgets slackens. Sony, Japan’s electronics giant, is expected to report a record loss for the year to March. Only Apple,the American maker of the iPod, which reported strong results on January 21st, is bucking the trend. Despite reporting its first net loss for seven quarters, LG Electronics says it has no plans to reduce pay, reshuffle managers or cut jobs. It is older than its larger rival, having been founded, as Goldstar, in 1958, more than a decade before Samsung entered the electronics industry. Samsung went on to become South Korea’s best known brand and a magnet for the brightest graduates. LG has repeatedly insisted that it will regain the upper hand. In 1996 it pledged that by 2005 it would be number one “in quantity and quality”. Yet its sales in 2007 were $44 billion, comparedwith $105 billion for Samsung Electronics. Today Samsung is the world leader in flat-panel TVs and the number two in mobile phones. Mr Paik says Samsung’s success is largely due to its memory-chip business, which “worked as a cash cow for them.” LG soldits own chip unit in 1999, after the Asian financial crises. LG also made much less of an effort than Samsung to promote its brand, focusing instead on improving its manufacturing efficiency. Plunging memory-chip prices mean that Samsung can no longer rely on its cash cow, however. And last year the group’s patriarch, Lee Kun-hee, resigned after being charged with tax evasion and arranging for shares in Samsung subsidiaries to be sold to his son at artificially low prices in an effort to transfer control to his heir. This took the shine off Samsung’s brand. LG’s corporate structure is more transparent. The Koos, its controlling family, were among the first to establish a holding company for their conglomerate, in 2003. Since 2004 LG Electronics has been run by professional managers. Yong Nam, the chief executive since 2007, has hired non-Koreans to run marketing andprocurement, and proclaimed English as LG’s working language. He likes to ask everyone, from secretaries to division heads, what they think of LG’s products. Will his firm’s optimistic view of its prospects prove to be farsighted,or rose-tinted?

Manicure, anyone?

Lee Redmond, the Utah woman listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for her long fingernails, lost them in a car crash on Tuesday.
Her nails, which hadn't been cut since 1979(!) were shattered in the crash.

The Worst Movie Ever Made!

Sweden's Ingmar Bergman made The 7th Seal in 1957. Many cinephile(s) (check your dictionaries, please) think it is one of the greatest films ever made.
I THINK NOT! Hahaha! Oh my god, it's bad!

BUY JAPANESE!

With all the recent controversy in Japan about the "BUY AMERICAN" talk in Washington, I was interested to find out somethings that Panasonic and Toyota are doing. It sounds like "BUY JAPANESE" to me. Am I mistaken? Comments, anyone?

Panasonic orders 10,000 employees to buy its products by July
Friday 13th February, 02:58 PM JST
OSAKA —
Panasonic Corp has directed about 10,000 managerial-level group employees to buy company products by July under the ‘‘Buy Panasonic’’ campaign to shore up shrinking sales that have eroded its profits, company officials said Friday.Executives and senior managers are being asked to buy at least 200,000 yen worth of Panasonic goods, such as refrigerators, flat-panel TVs and Blu-ray disc players, said Akira Kadota, the spokesman. Lower level managers are asked to buy at least 100,000 yen worth of such products, he said.The campaign is voluntary, but Panasonic is an old-style Japanese comany where loyalty to the company is deeply rooted among its ranks.The “buy Panasonic” campaign follows a similar effort among managers at Toyota Motor Corp, who are being asked to buy a Toyota car. Panasonic is expecting a 380 billion yen net loss for the fiscal year through March, its first annual net loss in six years, and is slashing about 15,000 jobs and shuttering 27 plants worldwide. Panasonic blamed plunging consumer demand, lower gadget prices and the soaring yen, which erodes overseas income, for the poor performance.Toyota is sinking into its first net loss in since 1950, forecasting a 350 billion yen net loss for the fiscal year through March—a stunning reversal from the record 1.72 trillion yen profit it posted the previous year.

Wire reports

This is Sickening

More crazy stories about the police in this morning's news:

Jus

27-yr-old police sergeant arrested for having sex with 14-yr-old girl
Friday 13th February, 09:53 AM JST
TOKYO —
Police on Thursday arrested a 27-year-old police sergeant for having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old school girl in a karaoke booth in Shinjuku. Hiroshi Imai, a sergeant at Machida police station in Tokyo, was arrested on suspicion of having sex with a minor at the karaoke establishment last July. The girl told her parents who reported it to police in January.
According to police, Imai met the girl on an online gaming website through his mobile phone and the two exchanged messages. Imai pretended to be a college student, police said.
Police said Imai had admitted to the allegations, but says he did not give any money to the girl.

Franz Ferdinand

Franz Frerdinand are, in my opinion, the greatest thing to happen in music in the past 4 years. I got their new album last week and I listen to it twice, everyday. Every song is great!

Jus

How I live

Sometimes students express interest in my lifestyle. I'll show you some things on here from time to time.

These are my vitamins which I take everyday! I order most of them from DHC but I have Seal oil sent from my home in Canada and I also take ビタローク２０００　(Vitalock 2000).

Jus

Albino turtle?!?!?

I like turtles and this little guy was so interesting looking that I had to show you.

Jus

Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES
An albino turtle is seen at the Biological Reserve of Abufari in Tapaua, Amazonia, Brazil.

What? My flight is late? $500 per hour, please!

This is funny! A politician in Canada is trying to pass a new set or regulations for airlines. If he is successful, airlines would have to pay people cash if their flights depart more than one hour late! The Canadian government can be so mean to businesses, sometimes and so nice to cnosumers. In my opinion this politician will never succeed with this idea but many times, businesses will change their policies if these stories get into the media.

I especially like this part: "carriers (airlines) would face fines of $10,000 every time they advertise base air fares instead of the full amount to include taxes and fuel surcharges"
I LOVE IT!

Jus

BRENT JANG
Globe and Mail Update
February 10, 2009 at 5:39 PM EST
Canada's airline industry is warning that a passenger bill of rights envisaged by a New Democratic Party MP threatens to send airfares soaring and throw flights into chaos.
Winnipeg MP Jim Maloway introduced his private member's bill Tuesday in Ottawa, prompting swift criticism from the National Airlines Council of Canada.
With severe weather a common occurrence in Canada, it would be counter-productive to penalize airlines that scramble to keep flights on schedule even during ideal conditions, said council president George Petsikas, who is also Air Transat's director of government and industry affairs.
“It's not a simple thing to load passengers,” he said in an interview. “When you get a foot of snow on the tarmac, it gets a lot more complicated. We don't have control over security screening, airport authorities and air traffic towers.”
Under the bill of rights, travellers kept on planes for more than 60 minutes after the doors close would be entitled to start receiving compensation at a rate of $500 an hour. As well, there would be a $1,000 fine slapped on any carrier that fails to make an announcement about delays, cancellations or diverted planes within 10 minutes of employees learning any such information.
Airlines would have little choice but to pass such “punitive” costs onto consumers, said Mr. Petsikas, whose group represents Air Canada, Air Canada Jazz, WestJet Airlines Ltd. and Air Transat.
Mr. Maloway's bill covers a wide range of consumer irritants, with proposals such as compensation of between $500 and $1,200 for travellers who are bumped off overbooked planes, depending on the flight's length.
While a private member's bill generally faces tough odds of becoming law, the airline industry is taking the MP's initiative seriously, sounding the alarm about how costs would mount in an already difficult environment of weakened travel demand during the recession.
“You don't stimulate demand by raising prices for consumers,” Mr. Petsikas said.
Some planes lined up for de-icing would feel pressure to find an open gate at congested airports to avoid the $500 an hour cost for each detained passenger, further disrupting scheduling, he added.
Mr. Maloway, who disclosed details of his bill last week, played down the criticisms.
“The airlines are getting hysterical and exaggerating,” he said Tuesday from Ottawa.
Instead of fretting about rising costs, carriers should focus on delivering more customer-friendly service, and in improving their performance, most of the compensation and fines proposed would be averted, Mr. Maloway said.
The bill of rights also says carriers would face fines of $10,000 every time they advertise base air fares instead of the full amount to include taxes and surcharges, but Mr. Petsikas cautioned that “all-in” advertising of ticket prices isn't feasible because airlines are federally regulated while travel agencies fall under provincial jurisdiction.
Currently, only Ontario and Quebec require travel agencies to publish the all-in ticket price, but in other provinces, travel agents would be able to advertise seats at a lower price than airlines do.
Last September, the Conservative government unveiled Flight Rights Canada, a summary of existing aviation rules, in an effort to highlight protections for consumers while promoting a code of conduct for Canada's airlines.

Sad stuff

This is a very sad story.
I understand the arguements on both sides, but I cannot imagine that these people would have to be deported.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20090210zg.html

Jus

Obama hates cats!

HAHA!

Balance

Ok, this is getting completely out of control. Today I found ANOTHER marijuana "news" story. The police, government and their tool, the mass media are very good at using sensationalism to distract people from the real problems of Japan "DEBT, DEBT, DEBT" by constantly running what I call "panic stories" about INFLUENZA "oooooooooooooooooooooooh abunaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii" and soft drugs like MARIJUANA "ooooooooooooooooooooooooh, dameeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee". I think it is time that there was some balance in the news and some truth needs to be told.

I'll start the balancing with my statement "Marijuana is not a dangerous drug". If you want to tell me it IS dangerous, then please introduce me to someone whose life it has ruined. I could introduce you to about 50 marijuana users in Canada whose lives are just fine. And if somebody wants to tell me that marijuana is a stepping stone drug, then I can point to alchohol and tobacco as being stepping stone drugs to marijuana. The arguements are completely ludicrous. Japan banned marijuana because Douglas MacArthur said so. That IS the truth about marijuana.

Here's today's foolish news story:

AOMORI —
A seaman of the Maritime Self-Defense Force was arrested Saturday for allegedly possessing marijuana in violation of the Cannabis Control Law, a local headquarters of the MSDF in Aomori Prefecture said. The MSDF’s Ominato District Criminal Investigation Command arrested Leading Seaman Takeru Narumi, 30, after finding marijuana at his home in Mutsu on Saturday, according to the MSDF Headquarters of the Ominato District.

The MSDF police searched his home Saturday after he tested positive for marijuana in a drug test conducted last Monday. No other members at the base turned out positive in the tests, according to the headquarters. Katsunori Kawamura, Ominato district commandant, said in a statement, ‘‘It is an inappropriate act as an MSDF member. We will make efforts to prevent any recurrence of such misconduct.’’

© 2009 Kyodo News.


And here are some statistice about drug related deaths in the United States in 1988:


Sample year 1988. U.S. federal government Bureau of Mortality Statistics.

SUBSTANCE............................................NUMBER OF DEATHS PER ANNUM.

TOBACCO... 340,000 to 425,000

ALCOHOL (not including 50% of all highway deaths And 65% of all murders)...150,000 +

ASPIRIN (Including deliberate overdose...180 to 1,000 +

CAFFEINE (From stress, ulcers, triggering irregular heartbeats etc) ...1,000 to 10,000
LEGAL DRUG OVERDOSE (Deliberate or accidental from legal, prescribed Patent medicines and / or mixing with alcohol) ......14,000 to 27,000

ILLICIT DRUG OVERDOSE (Deliberate or accidental from all illegal drugs).........3,8000 to 5,200

THEOPHYLLINE (Prescribed asthma drug) ...................50

MARIJUANA..................................................0

See? Marijuana does not kill people, while legal drugs like alchohol, aspirin, caffeine, and tobacco.

Real news, NO PROPAGANDA.

Jus

Kabuki-cho street child photo book

From the current buzz around Hollywood, the movie “Slumdog Millionaire,” about a destitute boy from the Mumbai slums who becomes a phenomenally successful quiz show contestant on Indian TV’s version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” seems a sure thing to win numerous Academy Awards.

Perhaps this need to empathize with the underprivileged may help boost sales of the recently released photo collection “Kabukicho no Kokoro-chan” (Kodansha, 1,500 yen).

According to Shukan Gendai, Kwon Chol, a 42-year-old Korean photojournalist, has chronicled the mean streets of Kabukicho for the past 12 years. Kwon’s newest work introduces touching scenes of a homeless 4-year-old girl he first encountered there in September, 2007.

“What’s your name?” he asked her. “Kokoro!” she replied, holding up four small fingers to indicate her age and grinning to reveal badly stained teeth.

Her parents, from a nearby prefecture, had moved to Tokyo, where they shifted from job to job, and eventually wound up living on the streets of Shinjuku.

Apparently from age three onward, Kokoro was left to wander around Kabukicho on her own, waiting for her mother to return from work. According to Kwon, other homeless fed her—items such as hamburgers with expired consume-by dates and ice cream—and she adapted naturally to her surroundings.

“Her living room was a game arcade,” he’s quoted. “Her toilet was the toilet in the arcade. She’d walk around the plaza in front of Koma Theater in her bare feet. Maybe she regarded it the way other kids think of their own backyards.”

Kwon tells Shukan Gendai he became emotionally involved in the child’s well being, helping her father to find a job and assisting the family in the search for affordable housing. But at the same time he couldn’t resist snapping photos of Kokoro-chan, padding about the entertainment district in a tiny hooded sweatshirt, carrying discarded cardboard boxes and sleeping on the sidewalk.

“I have to accept that I’m not really a professional,” Kwon admits. The scenes in his book, of a street child smiling with a mouth filled with cavities, seem out of place in Japan’s prosperous capital city.

Kwon was relieved when the homeless chapter of Kokoro-chan’s saga came to an end, and her mother obtained admittance to a welfare facility. Assuming things have since gone well, she should be entering first grade from April.

What is wrong with the police in Aichi?

Monday 02nd February, 01:13 PM JST

NAGOYA —
A police officer fired two warning shots early Monday after being beaten by a teenage boy he tried to question on a riverbank in Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture, police said. The 14-year-old, a second-year junior high school student, was uninjured in the incident as the officer fired the shots into water several meters away from the teenager as the teen was about to grab the pistol, they said.

The teen was arrested for obstruction and inflicting injuries, including a shoulder dislocation, on the 26-year-old officer, they said.

The boy told investigators that he attacked the officer because he did not want to be arrested, they said.

The male officer from the Toyohashi police station was out on patrol when he stopped the teen at around 2:30 a.m. Monday to ask him questions. The teen began punching him and tried to grab his pistol, police said.

The officer then fired the warning shots toward the river, they said. He sustained minor injuries to his face and abdomen.

An official of the police station said the officer’s use of his gun was appropriate as the teen had violently resisted and tried to take the weapon.

According to police, the officer was in a patrol car with another policeman when they found four male students riding double on two minibikes, which is illegal, and started following them.

When one of the teens hopped off the back of his bike and began to flee, the officer got out of the patrol car and chased him before getting into a scuffle with him near the river.

The other police officer, 58, was not at the scene of the shooting as he was going after one of the minibikes, police said.

© 2009 Kyodo News.

Chicken wings

I made somethng like this today. It was great!
You can try it too, if you use your oven range on 220℃.

Tasty, tasty!
Jus

Batman Can't Speak English

I feel sorry for The Joker. He's a smart guy, even if he is a little crazy. Ok, he's ALOT crazy. But how is he supposed to answer Batman's questions if Batman can't speak English?