No, not all JR stations have elevators. Perhaps all the major stations do, although I don't recall JR Osaka (one of the largest) having any. Certainly the smaller, non-express stations don't. Hell, they aren't even staffed in the evening!
There are also LOTS of wheelchair-unfriendly buildings. To their credit, an awful lot of intersections have audio signals for pedestrians, which I rarely see on this side of the Pacific.
And the toilets aren't aimed at the handicapped. Hell, I longed for one this week, as I fought a case of food poisoning.
I hear you, man. I programmed for a company in Osaka, and it nearly drove me nuts. Not only specs in Japanese, output in Japanese, docs in Japanese, but also dealing with double-byte characters. And then there was the 3 hours of unpaid overtime every day and the 3-hour commute.
On certain cars, that is. I think the Toyota Crown (used for a large proportion of taxis) does. It may also depend upon the model and year.
Besides, I'm not sure that it really gets rid of blind spots. Because they are farther away, the mirrors also appear smaller, so seeing WHAT is behind you is more difficult.
I have two brothers who are doctors (as is my father). Family members ask them for opinions and for the latest stories of extracting foreign objects from colons, but not for treatment.
I give advice on computer topics, other family members advise on real estate, clothing, etc. "From each according to his ability" works well for us. I guess we respect each other and value the family bonds more than the time and effort it takes to maintain those bonds.
My company makes the software that several universities in Canada are using for their used-textbook stores.
They seem to be doing well, if the record sales at Waterloo are anything to go by. They pay students a lot more than 10% of the original price, because they operate on a consignment basis: they only have to pay when the book is sold.
Wikipedia is more explicit. I think it's unfair that they call you ignorant, but maybe they know you better than I do.
And if you're going to go with the French spelling and use accents, you'd damn well better use both; accents affect the pronunciation of those vowels, you know!
Seriously, don't you think that we have been brainwashed, to a large extent, to view clean, smart, funny people as good, and those who aren't (i.e. people not like us) as bad, or at least suspicious.
It starts in childhood, when we watch Disney movies in which the good people are beautiful, and vice versa. In Beauty and the Beast, the connection is even clearer.
This is done, in my opinion, because people who feel inadequate will do what is necessary (i.e. buy the advertised products) to become beautiful/good.
I don't understand it. Surely any of the actors playing a character whose face is hidden and voice isn't used (i.e. Chewbacca, R2D2, or Darth Vader) is completely dispensable. Why is it such a big deal to keep Peter Mahew? The only qualification for someone replacing him would be height!
I know who Hide and Spread Beaver are (were). If you look at the pictures, you will also see that some thoughtful soul has added a definition (probably from some slang dictionary) so it looks like:
Spread Beaver Showing the vaginal area
By the way, it's nice of you to throw in a gratuitous slur on my Japanese abilities. Given that I worked in a more-or-less exclusively Japanese environment for three years, you might be surprised.
I'd have to disagree. Sure, laughing at people's attempts to communicate in English is in bad taste, but these are people using English either for purely cosmetic reasons (i.e. because it is "cool"). They are also using it not in personal conversations, but for business.
I've seen this up close (I lived in Japan for many years), so I think it's a reasonable distinction, especially when so much advertising uses English, and very poor English at that.
(Disclaimer: I have a photo on engrish.com, the girl in the "spread beaver" T-shirt.)
There was a baby at the new Lord of the Rings movie -- the 9:30 pm showing, no less. Sure enough, it began crying about five minutes into the movie. And I thought that my friend was flirting with child abuse for bringing his 11-year-old son.
I also saw a 3-4 year old child being carried by her father when the lights came up.
C'mon you cheap bastards, spring for a babysitter!!!
And your last comment of "The tinpot dictator was probably installed there by the US anyway, so the pitiful serfs are stuck with that until the US empire crumbles." shows just how much of a tool you are.
Ummm. Pinochet? The Shah of Iran? Marcos? Mobuto? Noriega? The House of Saud? Countries like Guatemala? El Salvador?
if a typical Japanese worker had their way, they'd work Saturdays too
As someone who has lived and worked in Japan, I'd like to correct this. No one I knew enjoyed all the unpaid overtime. They did it because they felt compelled to by their company.
Actually, there was one programmer who would have worked even if the boss/company hadn't demanded it, but the other 500+ would gladly have taken the time off.
In fact, in seven years, I met three people who told me they enjoyed their work. One was the aforementioned programmer, the other two were the presidents of their companies.
Workers are only part of the system. Money going into a country at all is a big benefit, wether it goes to workers, a corporation, or a government.
Yeah, that must be why the people in the Phillipines and Zaire/Congo enjoy such fantastic living conditions. Oh wait, that's right. Ex-presidents Marcos (Phillipines) and Mobuto (Zaire/Congo) stole all that money, spent it on (foreign) military hardware and put most of the rest in Swiss bank accounts, and none of it trickled down.
The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference. --Elie Wiesel
What do you mean "out of context"?
And what do you know about how I feel or what my city is like?
Not supplying a complete bibliography is not exactly the same as using a specious argument. The previous response carried a good quotation.
In a nutshell, both countries have used law and military might to exclude large portions of their populations from basic rights. In both cases, the oppressed people fought back. I won't try to justify suicide bombings, because I think there is no justification, but I do believe that the Palestinians feel they have NO CHOICE.
The word "apartheid" simply means separateness. The whites in South Africa decided that they would have their land, and the blacks would have theirs. Never mind that 15% of the population enjoyed 80% of the land (leaving the parts with not agricultural, mineral or economic value).
If you really are interested, there are dozens of excellent books and movies to help you understand what was going on in South Africa.
And then of course, S.A. and Israel were cooperating in the development of missiles (supplied by S.A.) that could carry nuclear warheads (supplied by Israel). Yes, they understood each other.
* Most Israelies would rather just get on with thier lives. They neither hate nore care what happens to the "Palistinians" any more
This says a lot. Ever heard "The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference"?
No, I haven't lived in Israel. I have, however, lived inside South Africa (but not in South Africa; bonus points for anyone who figures that out), and the similarities to the Apartheid state are illuminating. Maybe that's why Israel and S.A. were such good allies in the pre-Mandela days.
P.S. Setting up straw man arguments on behalf of those opposed to you doesn't advance the debate .
I didn't say whether I believed the allegory was accurate (although I think it is). It IS allegory, though, and Donaldson has been quite clear that it was entirely deliberate -- I've met him and he said so.
If you look at the books, they are in two trilogies. The first trilogy is analogous to the Old Testament (the Staff of Law == Mosaic Law), the second trilogy to the New (the Law has been corrupted).
Names like Sheol, Jehannum, Elohim. Even time is used. Look at durations of 3 and 40 days used in the book. The evidence is there.
Can you imagine how boring the books would have been with a perfect hero as the protagonist?
Slashdot Mirror
No, not all JR stations have elevators. Perhaps all the major stations do, although I don't recall JR Osaka (one of the largest) having any. Certainly the smaller, non-express stations don't. Hell, they aren't even staffed in the evening!
There are also LOTS of wheelchair-unfriendly buildings. To their credit, an awful lot of intersections have audio signals for pedestrians, which I rarely see on this side of the Pacific.
And the toilets aren't aimed at the handicapped. Hell, I longed for one this week, as I fought a case of food poisoning.
Roughly:
"Hey, can I do bukkake on you?"
Your mind isn't NEARLY close enough to the gutter!
I hear you, man. I programmed for a company in Osaka, and it nearly drove me nuts. Not only specs in Japanese, output in Japanese, docs in Japanese, but also dealing with double-byte characters. And then there was the 3 hours of unpaid overtime every day and the 3-hour commute.
Not at all a fun gig.
I've probably written pages and pages of stuff since I was 8(18 now)
:-)
Don't you think this is a bit of an exaggeration? Oh, but I see you used the word probably.
On certain cars, that is. I think the Toyota Crown (used for a large proportion of taxis) does. It may also depend upon the model and year.
Besides, I'm not sure that it really gets rid of blind spots. Because they are farther away, the mirrors also appear smaller, so seeing WHAT is behind you is more difficult.
I am currently taking my THIRD assembly class at the University of Texas. And I know that there are others to take.
:-D
Don't worry, some day you'll pass!
I have two brothers who are doctors (as is my father). Family members ask them for opinions and for the latest stories of extracting foreign objects from colons, but not for treatment.
I give advice on computer topics, other family members advise on real estate, clothing, etc. "From each according to his ability" works well for us. I guess we respect each other and value the family bonds more than the time and effort it takes to maintain those bonds.
I think you mean "razing the standard of living."
My company makes the software that several universities in Canada are using for their used-textbook stores.
They seem to be doing well, if the record sales at Waterloo are anything to go by. They pay students a lot more than 10% of the original price, because they operate on a consignment basis: they only have to pay when the book is sold.
Unless, of course, vitae was the genitive (possessive) singular form of vita.
Although, to be fair, dictionary.com seems to want it both ways.
Wikipedia is more explicit. I think it's unfair that they call you ignorant, but maybe they know you better than I do.
And if you're going to go with the French spelling and use accents, you'd damn well better use both; accents affect the pronunciation of those vowels, you know!
Seriously, don't you think that we have been brainwashed, to a large extent, to view clean, smart, funny people as good, and those who aren't (i.e. people not like us) as bad, or at least suspicious.
It starts in childhood, when we watch Disney movies in which the good people are beautiful, and vice versa. In Beauty and the Beast, the connection is even clearer.
This is done, in my opinion, because people who feel inadequate will do what is necessary (i.e. buy the advertised products) to become beautiful/good.
I don't understand it. Surely any of the actors playing a character whose face is hidden and voice isn't used (i.e. Chewbacca, R2D2, or Darth Vader) is completely dispensable. Why is it such a big deal to keep Peter Mahew? The only qualification for someone replacing him would be height!
I know who Hide and Spread Beaver are (were). If you look at the pictures, you will also see that some thoughtful soul has added a definition (probably from some slang dictionary) so it looks like:
Spread Beaver
Showing the vaginal area
By the way, it's nice of you to throw in a gratuitous slur on my Japanese abilities. Given that I worked in a more-or-less exclusively Japanese environment for three years, you might be surprised.
I'd have to disagree. Sure, laughing at people's attempts to communicate in English is in bad taste, but these are people using English either for purely cosmetic reasons (i.e. because it is "cool"). They are also using it not in personal conversations, but for business.
I've seen this up close (I lived in Japan for many years), so I think it's a reasonable distinction, especially when so much advertising uses English, and very poor English at that.
(Disclaimer: I have a photo on engrish.com, the girl in the "spread beaver" T-shirt.)
I think you forgot Darl Bigbooty
"That's 'Bigbootay', 'Bigbootay'!"
That was my point! I was pointing out some of the dictators who have been installed and/or supported by the U.S. in modern times.
I'm surprised you didn't see that, considering that my list contained exclusively lying, theiving, murdering sacks of shit!
There was a baby at the new Lord of the Rings movie -- the 9:30 pm showing, no less. Sure enough, it began crying about five minutes into the movie. And I thought that my friend was flirting with child abuse for bringing his 11-year-old son.
I also saw a 3-4 year old child being carried by her father when the lights came up.
C'mon you cheap bastards, spring for a babysitter!!!
And your last comment of "The tinpot dictator was probably installed there by the US anyway, so the pitiful serfs are stuck with that until the US empire crumbles." shows just how much of a tool you are.
Ummm. Pinochet? The Shah of Iran? Marcos? Mobuto? Noriega? The House of Saud? Countries like Guatemala? El Salvador?
if a typical Japanese worker had their way, they'd work Saturdays too
As someone who has lived and worked in Japan, I'd like to correct this. No one I knew enjoyed all the unpaid overtime. They did it because they felt compelled to by their company.
Actually, there was one programmer who would have worked even if the boss/company hadn't demanded it, but the other 500+ would gladly have taken the time off.
In fact, in seven years, I met three people who told me they enjoyed their work. One was the aforementioned programmer, the other two were the presidents of their companies.
Workers are only part of the system. Money going into a country at all is a big benefit, wether it goes to workers, a corporation, or a government.
Yeah, that must be why the people in the Phillipines and Zaire/Congo enjoy such fantastic living conditions. Oh wait, that's right. Ex-presidents Marcos (Phillipines) and Mobuto (Zaire/Congo) stole all that money, spent it on (foreign) military hardware and put most of the rest in Swiss bank accounts, and none of it trickled down.
The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.
--Elie Wiesel
What do you mean "out of context"?
And what do you know about how I feel or what my city is like?
Not supplying a complete bibliography is not exactly the same as using a specious argument. The previous response carried a good quotation.
In a nutshell, both countries have used law and military might to exclude large portions of their populations from basic rights. In both cases, the oppressed people fought back. I won't try to justify suicide bombings, because I think there is no justification, but I do believe that the Palestinians feel they have NO CHOICE.
The word "apartheid" simply means separateness. The whites in South Africa decided that they would have their land, and the blacks would have theirs. Never mind that 15% of the population enjoyed 80% of the land (leaving the parts with not agricultural, mineral or economic value).
If you really are interested, there are dozens of excellent books and movies to help you understand what was going on in South Africa.
And then of course, S.A. and Israel were cooperating in the development of missiles (supplied by S.A.) that could carry nuclear warheads (supplied by Israel). Yes, they understood each other.
Bingo! 1988-91 as a volunteer. It's, er, character building for a computer geek to live in a hut (no water or electricity).
* Most Israelies would rather just get on with thier lives. They neither hate nore care what happens to the "Palistinians" any more
This says a lot. Ever heard "The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference"?
No, I haven't lived in Israel. I have, however, lived inside South Africa (but not in South Africa; bonus points for anyone who figures that out), and the similarities to the Apartheid state are illuminating. Maybe that's why Israel and S.A. were such good allies in the pre-Mandela days.
P.S. Setting up straw man arguments on behalf of those opposed to you doesn't advance the debate .
I didn't say whether I believed the allegory was accurate (although I think it is). It IS allegory, though, and Donaldson has been quite clear that it was entirely deliberate -- I've met him and he said so.
If you look at the books, they are in two trilogies. The first trilogy is analogous to the Old Testament (the Staff of Law == Mosaic Law), the second trilogy to the New (the Law has been corrupted).
Names like Sheol, Jehannum, Elohim. Even time is used. Look at durations of 3 and 40 days used in the book. The evidence is there.
Can you imagine how boring the books would have been with a perfect hero as the protagonist?