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Here is a non-goatsed version of the article.

The main reason Toyota Roof Garden was founded was to mitigate the urban heat island effect, which is becoming a real problem in densely populated areas in Japan. By using green roofs the amount of vegetation in cities can be increased, which reduces the UHI effect.

They have simply taken an existing Toyota product and increased it's efficiency by 30%. It has nothing at all to do with hybrids.

I do believe that the present Emperor of Japan had visited a Korean shrine on the island of Saipan in June 2005, but otherwise, apologies from the emperors seem sparse. News reports: [1] [2]

The Prime Ministers on the other hand, seem to have issued many war apology statements.

In any case, you don't have to listen to modern political rhetoric very closely to notice that WMD do hold a special place in people's minds. It's not just about body count, otherwise we'd be having a "war on automobiles" instead of terrorism.

Now lets compare that number to these. Miami at 60%, New York at 36%, London at 28%, to name a few.

In this day and age for a major city to be down there at 2.84%, qualifies it as 'ethnically isolationist'.

But hey, claiming that Japan is isolationist MUST BE RACIST!

Yawn, more excuses. You must be aware that the days of forced bussing are mostly over. Already many places have eliminated or greatly deemphasized ethicity based admissions policies. Already most census tracts are effectively resegregated. Already most premier specialized schools and top-tier colleges have very few "disadvantaged" kids. So it strikes me as a bit laughable that the problems of American youth and education boil down to "Im not abel 2 lrn propperly becoz of teh minorties."

Boo hoo. Plenty of first generation immigrant children have no problem knocking out straight A's in mostly urban school settings. If a kid wants to learn, and the parents provide the proper home environment for doing so, then the incidental presence of supposedly inferior genotypes in the school system should be of little import.

Also of interest is how the Japanese roundly criticize their own educational system (particularly with respect to bullying problems) despite their near-total racial homogeneity.

Perhaps, Tokyo should consider using Japan's arsensal high-performance computers to advance the state of the art in fighter aircraft and space vehicles. Designing these devices requires intensive numerical simulations which are ideally suited to such high-performance computers, which have been relegated to more mundane tasks like terrestrial simulations (e.g. weather simulation). Building the precursor to a starship seems to be a tad more interesting than terrestrial simulations.

Derailment usually isn't a problem for bullet trains unless the rails themselves fail

"The train is equipped with a new air-brake system that deploys in the event of an earthquake or other emergency. The retractable cat ear-shaped spoilers that can protrude from the roof are expected to help slow the train more quickly than conventional brakes." - From Japan Times

On your other point, you really notice the length of the rails (generally 1km sections I believe) on these high-speed trains - amazingly smooth rides with no 'clackety clack'.

One of the odd points about this train (other than the retractable cat ears) is that it isn't symmetrical. One end is a completely different shape than the other. Apparently this is just for testing purposes. The US airforce calls it a "flyoff", where two designs are built and tested head to head. In this case it seems they are having trouble determining what the best nose shape is. Normally this is a fairly simple problem, but Japan has a lot of tunnels, and diving into a tunnel at 360kph is a rather difficult aerodynamic problem. Nothing like a full-scale model. For much more detailed information, see this press release. (Japanese press releases have a habit of actually being informative, unlike their North American counterparts.)

I believe this was the article in question:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5 ?ek20050421ks.htm

False. Clinton signed it, congress didn't ratify it, Bush controversially un-signed it.

I don't believe a policeman asking to see my ID card qualifies as harrassment. And as someone who has been on the receiving end of police harrassment, lemme tell ya that getting my ID checked out is paltry compared to what they CAN do to you.

It's funny...other democratic nations have laws in place where cops can ask anyone for their ID whenever they like, and no one even so much as sez anything. Take, for example, Japan; granted, Japan has all kinds of problems, but I personally don't believe this to be one of them.

And, as debatable as it might be (read: flame away ), suspicion of being a terrorist could one day become just cause. It pretty much already is here in New York.

Forget stairs!

This is covered by other agencies than the BBC.
[Pity I submitted the story 6 hours after the poster! Damn my timezone! ^-^]

The Japan Times has something interesting to add to the discussion;

Reporters invited to a Tokyo demonstration Tuesday were instructed not to touch the two still-experimental robots for safety's sake.

I just could not get OCP's ED209 out of my head.

Justsystem ordered to halt Ichitaro sales due to patent.....orz

#Why only by using the standard function of windows....?

For those who would like to read a similar article without having to give out information:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5 ?nn20050112a1.htm

and here:

http://www.out-law.com/php/page.php?page_id=bluele dinventorse1105540939&area=news

Pretty nice chunk of change for this guy. Although the company made quite a cunk themselves off of his work.

If so, perhaps it is yet another plan to keep track of suspicious foreigners?

• The mountains they excavated were above ground, not below sea level. That makes removing the material a fair bit easier than trying to do it huindreds of feet below the sea.
• Once the material was removed from the mountains, all they had to do was dump it into the sea (OK, it was a bit more complicated than that).
• Kansai Airport is sinking

Article from Nov. 24th in Japan Times.

You're kidding right? This thing has been out for a month. Before it came out there was a lot of hype but from the people I know who've seen it the movie wasn't very good.

But it did do well in the box office:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5 ?nn20041124b1.htm

They can't even decide where to build it! Why can't I vote to spend my (US) tax money on putting one of these over here. Even as a test bed it will give the contry it's in some home field advantage.

That isn't a problem any more. The EU decided a few weeks ago to build ITER in france by themselves and inviting the Japanese to join if they like (dont know what's happening with the US participation, but considering that they didn't join until a short while ago and wasn't paying much anyway it hardly matters)

On the other hand, they look quite committed to actually go through with it (judging, for example, from the notes on the French ITER website [in English]). As the EU is the largest sponsor on the project and China and Russia support the French site, it looks like they can actually pull this off. The US is committed to the Japanese site; it is unclear as to whether this is due to the recent anti-French stance of the US administration or other factors. However, since the US contributes next to no money, their position doesn't really count that much. (Note, however, that ITER is not expected to actually generate power until about 2020.)

The Japanese had other ideas, such as building a datacenter in France and the reactor itself in Japan, but it looks as if they're seriously under pressure now.

The Chinese claim that this story is a lie. Such is the nature of the Chinese bigot.

By the way, Pyongyang admitted to the kidnappings about 3 years ago.

This is nice and all, but I'd be interested in comparing how babies and toddlers learn spoken languages vs. non-spoken ones like American Sign Lanugage or Nicaraguan Sign Language.

They also never apologized and didn't really care that they are some of the greatest villians in modern history.

Actually Japan has done a number of things , including APOLOGISE for it's actions during World War II as well as paying reparations to countries it tried to colonise, with the exception (as far as I know) of North Korea. They also recently apologised for the 'Comfort Women' aka civilian women forced to be prostitues. At the end of the war, some of the Japanese in charge were also executed (I include this, because I am sick of hearing people saying that the Germans had war crime hearings and the Japanese didn't - the truth is, both did, and those responsible were executed).

Now, before you jump down my throat, there are some things they haven't apologise for and tried to cover over. (just to balance it out) My Great Uncle was a POW at Changi and then later on the Burma Railroad (remember that film "Bridge on the River Kwai" ... well, he was one of the Aussies who help build that railroad). After the war my Great Uncle George was head of the Aussie POW's trying to get an apology from the Japanese Government for their mistreatment of Aussie POW's. That was one thing he couldn't get, because the Japanese Government said that it wasn't covered in thier surrender. Unfortunately George died last July, so he will never get to have that apology.

Also, the Japanese Government recently censored a Manga comic because the Japanese writer refered to the Nanjing Massacre. The Japanese Government still considers this to be fake. Read more here. On top of this, a textbook which glosses over the war has now been approved for Japanese schools. (I can't be bothered looking for a link to this, I think most people may have heard about it).

From the comic book, (and the fact that I know some very well versed Japanese people), most Japanese people want the Japanese Government to apologise for these sorts of things, as they really DO care about what happened. The Average Modern Japanese person is truely ashamed and amazed that their countries forces acted in such dispicable ways. It was actually the Japanese people who got the Japanese Government to admit to the fact that Unit 731 really existed, not outside influence from China or anyone else.

Now, I am assuming that you were speaking out of ignorance with what you said, but to a Japanese who is aware of the facts I mentioned above, (as opposed to an ignorant one), your comments smack or racism. (No, I didn't call you a racist, I think you were speaking from ignorance. Re-read your comments now that you know the facts, and you will see how a person could misinterpret your comments).

I hope you take these comments on board in the spirit of how they are ment, and not as a personal attack.

This link might be of some benefit too.

I probably could have added a lot more too, because I am a little knowledgeable on Japan, knowing the language a bit and being able to read and write it.

I hope this is enough to convince you of the truth about the Japanese apologising and that the Japanese People DO care about, and are repulsed by the inhumane behaviour of the occupational forces during WWII. If you meet Japanese people who don't know much about the Japanese WW2 attrocities committed by their country, it isn't their fault. They, like you, are probably unaware of the facts. With the nature of most modern Japanese being to seek peace, so the acts of thier forces during W

Kirin had a self-cooling keg a little more than a year ago:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5 ?nn20030626b5.htm/

There's more links (including diagrams of the process) if you Google.

Here are some links:

UK. There're quite a few sites out there about facilities in the UK. Anyone remember a film (fiction) from the 80', called 'secret underground', or 'underground London', or some such?

Tokyo. Google +tokyo +underground +secret +"Shun Akiba" for more. Thanks for reminding me that i want to look into whether Mr. Akiba's book has been translated to english.

Moscow. Great article. Riveting stuff. Google +Moscow +underground +diggers "Vadim Mikhailov" for more. You might see a bunch of links to stories about the Moscow theatre hostage event (by Chechen extremists). Yes, Mr. Mikhailov showed the police how to approach the theatre basement from below.

Washington/US is much trickier, as there is a *lot* of foil-hat-type stuff out there. here's a good overview of some places.

There is an English article at the Japan times

The thing that gets me, is the tying of products to regions.

On one hand, we have all the big media companies pushing for uniform (and to them, highly favourable) IP laws around the world. On the other, they engage in what is essentially price fixing by charging differing amounts in different markets, and then seeking technical and legal means to prevent the free trade of their own products.

This current story would be a storm in a tea cup if there were no issues in importing games from other regions.

Highlighting this sort of hypocrisy is the recent move in Japan of the music publishing industry to restrict through changes in copyright law the importation of CDs of Japanese artists' music from overseas. These CDs, containing pretty much the same music, sell for a third to a half the cost in South Korea and Taiwan, and after importation, can be about 1000 yen (circa US$10) in Japan. How did these CDs get to be printed legally? Because these very same companies sell the rights to do so to the foreign publishers in the first place.

It must be great to have enough money that you can buy laws that grant you even more.

If they want to up the ante, maybe they should consider using some of the Emperor's Waka Poetry (more syllables == more boring).

What's so funny about it?

Libraries probably are next. Maybe not by the RIAA (yet), but journal publishers already have them in their sights.

Libraries under attack
Pat Schroeder's New Chapter
Publishers vs. Libraries

Japan has pitched an idea to create in 30 years a a robot with the capacity of a 5 year old child. The idea struck a cord in me, and I decided to take a break and just think on that.

Let's define the nature of the ultimate goal in robots in the business - I'm sure there will be quibbles, but this is my definition:

Ultimate Goal: To create a robot with human level intelligence and physical manipulation without sentience or self awareness.

By this definition, we mean the capacity to learn, to be instructed in tasks and incorporate ideas into itself and understand commands without detail, but without sentience or self awareness, never having emotions or being able to make fully independant decisions about freedom, what to do for itself.

In a word, the ultimate metal slave.

Let's throw ethics out the window for a moment - we'll get to those in a minute. But let's say you could make such a machine. One that you could give orders to "go clean the house", and it would intelligently understand and fulfill your wish without the "evil genie" effect (where a badly ruled wish has unintended consequences - see "The Monkey's Paw" for an example, where you could wish for a million dollars, and you would get it - after your son was killed in an automobile accident and the money was payment from a life insurance policy).

Ignoring if such a goal is possible (and, seeing how far we've come in 100 years, is it so far to reach that in 500 years we would be capable of building such a machine?), let's see what would happen to society.

Employees, especially blue collar, farmers, manufacturing and the like, could be mass produced. A whole army of robots that would work without tire, without pay, and if you could make them mass produced to be cheap (say $20,000 - $40,000 a year), if they break, get a new one. They could work day and night, rotating in 8-12 hour shifts for maintenance and repairs. Farms could be worked all day long, and if there was a problem, robots could go out and fix the issue. Need to pick the cotton/coffee beans? Just hire the robots to go out and do it. Wars fought by machines - never tiring, truly "bloodless" wars where a million "soldiers" could be airdropped into the field loaded with advanced weapons to wipe out the enemy by beings that have no conscience. (Granted, hacking would truly become the greatest weapon in society at that point, but just go with me a moment on the idea.)

Food prices, car prices - hell, prices for everything could actually drop, since the human cost of making them would be negligable. Ah - but for one major problem:

What do the people do?

Millions - let's even say 25% of the work force alone, just to argue - out of work. They're not needed at McDonald's or Ford or even Dell - replaced by machines. So what do they do? Not everybody could work in a robot making factory. Does the world start to become a place where human labor is practically no longer required? Where only a few work because they want to to design new things or create art, while millions simply live a life of leisure? Where everyone is guarunteed a certain level of life and comfort, and those who want more can sell their services of entertainment or some unique idea they are able to create in this new utopia of fully attained basic life for all people?

Or a world where millions can not get work and search but become homeless? If people think that having jobs from their country exported to foreign places willing to do it for less, how will they feel when the factory is still on native soil, but the jobs are for those tireless, non-paid, non-complaining machines? When they can't provide for their children, and the line between "haves" and "have-nots" is larger than ever?

I actually see a lot of promise in the idea - I really do. The benefits to business, to humanity could be huge. But I have the feeling should such a creation actua

Well then, Shuji Nakamura must be a nasty anti-Japanese racist too, since he makes essentially the same arguments. I guess that's just 'drivel' to you, and never mind that he is the most accomplished Japanese scientist since Shinichiro Tomonaga.

Did you bother to read the link I provided? Would you please do so, and then also go read this white paper from a representative of the Japanese ministry of science and technology. It not only reiterates many of the same points I have made, but provides quantitative statistics and pertinent examples to back them up. Oh, and read this article from the Japan Times, too.

Nasty racism, indeed. Chirping politically-correct twits like you cheapen the term 'racist' and dishonor the memory of true victims of racism. You think calling someone a 'racist' or 'mean-spirited' or 'bourgeois' settles all arguments. Wait until you get out of college, you stupid little nose-picker, and see how things really are in the world.

-ccm

OPEC is considering trading oil in Euros rather than Dollars. This would reduce the need for many firms and countries to hold dollars, and instead increase their need to hold euros. Combine that with the rapidly dropping value of the dollar and you'll realize that the dollar isn't keeping its value, and very well might plummet in value in the near future. There are even rumors and signs that the current American administration is willing to accept a lower valued dollar compared to other currencies.

It's a little late for first-person "experience" of World War II. (Closest you can get is something like "The War 1939-1945," edited by Desmond Flower. Amazing book, mainly because it's almost all first-person accounts and it includes any perspective you can imagine.)

If WWII is your model, doing a Google by "D Day" and "invasion of France" has just got me around 5,000 hits.

For a party that makes a big deal out of not being "politically correct," our R'pubs do seem to have a problem saying this word all of a sudden. Iraq's another sovereign state. We may have all sorts of legitimate reasons for doing it, or not, but sending troops into another state to depose that state's government is being called an "invasion" by sympathetic sources like The Japan Times and unsymathetic ones like This Singapore newspaper.

Lord, how Orwellian we're becoming. "Liberate" is okay, but "invasion" isn't? Can I say "war" or do I need to say "police action" -- because we're supposedly enforcing the resolutions of the body that was so divided over whether we should do this? C'mon, give me some guidance here -- I'm not sure how to adhere to the party line. Re-educate us, comrade.

Here at
The Japan Times

http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Towers/9151/educate .html

Corporal punishment is officially outlawed in Japanese schools. But reasearch does seem to indicate that it goes on quite a lot, and not just by the teachers. Far more deaths (many of them suicides) have come about as a result of student-to-student bullying, called iijime. Iijime is a serious problem in Japan. Just how serious depends alot on who you talk to, but the raw statistics on the number of iijime-related deaths do seem to indicate that it is worthy of attention. of course, iijime is not exactly sanctioned by school authorities, but they do very little to stop it, and arguably a lot to encourage it.

Some interesting reading to coincide with Spirited Away: Prof. Susan Napier is author of Anime: From Akira to Princess Mononoke which offers an insightful introduction to the works of Miyazaki, most of all Naussica (which should be released here in the US on DVD at least, dangit!). Animerica also has a great interview with Prof. Napier about her book.

Last summer, I saw Prof. Napier give a speech on Anime in the US at the Japan Society (as part of the 2001 Big Apple Anime Fest). Her primary thesis was that Princess Mononoke failed in American theaters largely because our audiences didn't "get" its ambiguous morals and "unresolved" ending

(Point of debate acknowledged - many fans complain that Disney did not support the movie. In fact, Disney spent millions on an all-star voice cast and promotions - something then unheard of for foreign animation).

However, more interesting is the revelation concerning Japan that she raises in her book. The strong women protagonists found in Miyazaki's films simply do not exist in Japanese society, whereas they have been a staple here for decades both in film (Aliens, Terminator, Silence of the Lambs, Star Wars (Princess Lea) - also Disney animation such as Little Mermaid, Aladin, etc.) and reality (Oprah, Hillary and so on).

Perhaps the spectacle of a strong independent woman protagonist is what makes Miyazaki's films such runaway successes in Japan. Here, strong women are not uncommon in popular culture - so American viewers come away only remembering the high animation quality? At any rate, it will be interesting to see how the Miyazaki fares this time around.

• Legislation enacted in 1999 that introduces the system requires the government to take relevant measures to ensure the protection of personal information. However, the Diet failed to enact a bill submitted by the government on the protection of information during its latest session, which ended Wednesday, amid concerns that the laws will also threaten the freedom of expression.

• Legislation enacted in 1999 that introduces the system requires the government to take relevant measures to ensure the protection of personal information. However, the Diet failed to enact a bill submitted by the government on the protection of information during its latest session, which ended Wednesday, amid concerns that the laws will also threaten the freedom of expression.

2002-04-24 04:19:23 Jet of future powered by water? (articles,science) (rejected)

Oh well...

2002-04-24 04:19:23 Jet of future powered by water? (articles,science) (rejected)

Oh well...

Correction on that URL for the Manjusri Effect. Should be here: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/ shukan-st/st-articles.htm The article.

You've been told by your government and your biased media that Bin Laden is indeed responsible, and that the talibans have supported him. Now, pray tell, have you seen any proof?
No.

Perhaps you were misinformed. That's the only non-insulting explanation I can think of. If you read this entire post and don't believe any of it then I'd be truely fasinated to hear your explanation. Don't forget to explain why anyone would go through all this effort against uninvolved parties.

I did this search using evidence+linking+bin+laden. 3,360 matches returned. I quit after the first 20 results. I'm sure you'll dismiss some of these items, but don't overlook the guilty verdicts in the embassy bombings near the bottom. :) The only reason Bin Laden wasn't tried in court years ago is because the Taliban are protecting him. Note, any link below longer than 1 line is merely to provide the source of the quote.

"Federal authorities have identified more than a dozen hijackers of Middle Eastern descent in Tuesday's bombings and gathered evidence linking them to Osama bin Laden". Oh yeah, US gov and US media are all lying. Ummm, could you remind me why they'd want to let the actual guilty parties keep blowing stuff up? " Within 48 hours some 4,000 special agents and 3,000 support personnel were assigned to the case, with about 400 FBI laboratory specialists deployed to examine the forensic evidence." There must be over 10,000 people involved in this conspiracy, not even counting everyone in the media.

"A German government spokesman said Wednesday that German, British, French and Israeli secret services had also linked the Saudi dissident to the world's worst terrorist atrocity." Ummm, I guess that means Germany, England, France, and Isreal are part of the conspiracy too? Could you give me a clue why?

During an active investigation eveidence is kept confidential. Here's the leak that prompted a major lockdown on information: "A US Senator Orrin Hatch has said that FBI official intercepted telephone calls, which indicated bin Laden had been involved in plotting the attacks on New York and Washington." Damn, would have been helpful if other operatives in the US phoned Al-Qaida too. I guess that's the end of that source of evidence.

The specific evidence may not be public, but governments are getting to see it. "Meanwhile, the U.S. began providing its allies with what some governments said is clear evidence linking Saudi-born Osama bin Laden to the Sept. 11 attacks. Some reports said that evidence includes records of communications by bin Laden's aides, notes left by suicide hijackers before the attacks, and reports that some of the hijackers received training in bin Laden's military camps."
and "information linking Osama bin Laden with the terrorist's plot. Britain's Tony Blair has seen it. Pakistan's top leaders have seen it. Some evidence has even been published on the Internet." I guess we have to add Japan and Pakistan to the conspiracy list.

"Authorities are also reported to have been gathering evidence that some of those involved in Tuesday's attacks may also have been behind, among others, the bombing of the USS Cole off Yemen and the Millennium bombing plot on U.S. soil." Oh yeah, must be more dis-information.

Specific public evidence hard to come by on in any active investigation, but there's plenty of evidence on the 1998 embassy bombings available. Take a look at this declassified summary of findings of the FBI investigation into the Kenya and Tanzania embassy bombings on August 7, 1998. Written November 18, 1998. There was enough evidence to indict Bin Laden and others on murder and other charges. "In total, the U.S. government has public indictments against 26 members of bin Laden's international group, Al Qaeda. Of those men, three have pleaded guilty and are cooperating with the U.S. government as witnesses. Four were tried this year [and convicted]. Six are in custody in the U.S. or abroad and are awaiting trial. Thirteen, including bin Laden himself, are fugitives. The six other bin Laden associates in custody include several high-ranking members of Al-Qaeda." August 1997 raid on El Hage's house in Nairobi yielded this letter linking Bin Laden to the cell that bombed the embassy.

And Bin Laden implicates himself: "journalists with access to bin Laden said he and his followers openly boasted in recent months that they were preparing for attacks against the United States in retaliation for American support of Israel.
A videotape has been circulating in the Middle East for several months in which bin Laden recites a victory poem about the Cole bombing, and then issues a call to arms: 'To all the Mujah: Your brothers in Palestine are waiting for you; it's time to penetrate America and Israel and hit them where it hurts the most.'" and I still say the video Bin Laden released afterwards amounts to a confession and promise to continue.

There is a much better article here from September, 11 1997. Does the 1999 article say anything new about this chip?
(There's also a blurb on the media demonstration here from the Nov. 17, 1997 Japan Times.)

-ac

• 1997 EE Times: price $960/chip.
• 1997 Japan Times