News Stories

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by aohige

I still think the job for JR where you have to go around the nation, picking off body parts of idiots who stood in front of the train and cleaning the tracks is worse.

It's infamous urban legend of "job no one wants to do but someone has to" in Japan.

It's one thing to look at pictures, it's another to peel flesh and flying body parts with a pair of tweesers.

I think I'd prefer to pick up the pieces after the fact than see it again and again on video...

[Zakoo]

Originally Posted by Xion Valkyrie

They should just hire people from /b, no therapy needed.

Saintess would be fine with such a job, his sanity is already void.

[ganbaru]

Tweak to U.S. bill on Iran sanctions opens door to damages
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...87N0TM20120824

A little-noticed provision tucked into the latest Iran sanctions bill may have done just that for American victims of a 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut.

The sanctions bill, signed by President Barack Obama on August 10, set out additional penalties against Tehran to curb the country's nuclear ambitions.

[SeijiSensei]

As a follow-up to Irenicus's posting about religion, I've been browsing public opinion on religion in the US and other countries. One especially striking result comes from surveys by the Pew Center on the differences in values between Americans and Europeans. While Americans are perhaps not surprisingly much more individualistic than Europeans, one other item nearly jumped off the page. When Christians in the surveys were asked if they identified themselves first by their religion or first by their nationality, American Christians were evenly split, with 46% choosing one or the other option. In Britain, Germany, and Spain, only a quarter chose their religion, and in anti-clerical France that figure was a mere eight percent. A majority of Americans (53%) say that a belief in God is a requirement to be a moral person and have good values. In the European countries that figure ranges from a third of Germans to 15-20% in the other three nations.

When surveyed, Americans have always far surpassed most other countries in their expressed belief in God. A study by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago found just three percent of Americans in 2008 said they did not believe in God. Only Chile, Cyprus, and the Philippines had lower rates of expressed athiesm. Topping the list were respondents in the former East Germany where half claimed to be athiests.

Japan is rather an interesting anomaly. Only 8.7% of Japanese agreed with the statement "I don't believe in God," but the Japanese also had the lowest level of agreement (4.3%) with the statement "I know really God exists, and I have no doubts about it." I suppose that could be read to mean that Japan is largely composed of agnostics, or it could mean that the term "God" does not have the same meaning across cultures, or both.

Americans do not just believe in God; many of them accept the Bible at face value. Nearly half of Americans say that God created humans in their current form within the past 10,000 years, a figure that has remained rather constant for two decades. The proportion accepting evolution as a process without any form of divine guidance has increased slowly over that period from a mere 9% in 1982 to 16% in 2012. (The remainder agree with the statement that evolution occurred but was guided by God.) Apparently whatever we teach about science in schools is no match for the power of parents and pastors.

Anyone trying to understand America and American politics needs to understand what a religiously devout society my country is. The politics of magical thinking, where raped women can mysteriously wish away conception, is alive and well, and very powerful, within the supposedly "advanced" nation called the United States.

[ganbaru]

Chicago's August 2012 Murder Total Surpasses 2011 Numbers
http://chicagoist.com/2012/08/21/sat...go_tie_201.php
And the month isn't even finished.

[flying ^]

BREAKING: NASA Astronaut Neil Armstrong dies @ age 82.

[zarqu]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...87O0B020120825

R.I.P. Neil Armstrong. To quote Fark.com: One last step for a man. One giant loss for mankind.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

As a follow-up to Irenicus's posting about religion, I've been browsing public opinion on religion in the US and other countries. One especially striking result comes from surveys by the Pew Center on the differences in values between Americans and Europeans. While Americans are perhaps not surprisingly much more individualistic than Europeans, one other item nearly jumped off the page. When Christians in the surveys were asked if they identified themselves first by their religion or first by their nationality, American Christians were evenly split, with 46% choosing one or the other option. In Britain, Germany, and Spain, only a quarter chose their religion, and in anti-clerical France that figure was a mere eight percent. A majority of Americans (53%) say that a belief in God is a requirement to be a moral person and have good values. In the European countries that figure ranges from a third of Germans to 15-20% in the other three nations.

When surveyed, Americans have always far surpassed most other countries in their expressed belief in God. A study by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago found just three percent of Americans in 2008 said they did not believe in God. Only Chile, Cyprus, and the Philippines had lower rates of expressed athiesm. Topping the list were respondents in the former East Germany where half claimed to be athiests.

Japan is rather an interesting anomaly. Only 8.7% of Japanese agreed with the statement "I don't believe in God," but the Japanese also had the lowest level of agreement (4.3%) with the statement "I know really God exists, and I have no doubts about it." I suppose that could be read to mean that Japan is largely composed of agnostics, or it could mean that the term "God" does not have the same meaning across cultures, or both.

Americans do not just believe in God; many of them accept the Bible at face value. Nearly half of Americans say that God created humans in their current form within the past 10,000 years, a figure that has remained rather constant for two decades. The proportion accepting evolution as a process without any form of divine guidance has increased slowly over that period from a mere 9% in 1982 to 16% in 2012. (The remainder agree with the statement that evolution occurred but was guided by God.) Apparently whatever we teach about science in schools is no match for the power of parents and pastors.

Anyone trying to understand America and American politics needs to understand what a religiously devout society my country is. The politics of magical thinking, where raped women can mysteriously wish away conception, is alive and well, and very powerful, within the supposedly "advanced" nation called the United States.

Some days I don't consider us any different than some backward tribal desert-skygod-patriarchy-gone-nutters country

But the poll is interesting in that it used the term "God" - a distinctly J-C-I biased monotheistic concept. Even I'd be more apt to say "maybe" to concepts like "kami" or forces in the universe one might anthropormorphize or give respect to. One might be respectful of the Sun, for example.

Buddhism, also, doesn't require a supreme deity in some of its varieties.

And of course, the idea that one *needs* a particular religion to be moral is just utter crap, yet there they go...

[Zakoo]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Some days I don't consider us any different than some backward tribal desert-skygod-patriarchy-gone-nutters country

Huh yeah, totally, between a Iran with nuclear bomb or the US I barey see difference since the two countries are diriged/have a majority of illuminated citizens worshipping the invisible unicorn.

And the main point of this post aside the above kind troll, France isn't anti clerical, it's secularity/laicity, how do you even call this in english?

[Anh_Minh]

It's all a matter of perspective. And relative to most other countries, we are anti-clerical. Or at least, a lot more aggressively secular.

[kyp275]

Neil Armstrong passed away today, may he rest in peace among the stars.

[Kyuu]

Originally Posted by kyp275

Neil Armstrong passed away today, may he rest in peace among the stars.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19381098

[Bri]

Originally Posted by kyp275

Neil Armstrong passed away today, may he rest in peace among the stars.

Indeed, Amstrong was one of the truly inspirational people in the 20th century.

Makes me sad to realize that there hasn't been anyone on the moon in almost 40 years.

[SeijiSensei]

Originally Posted by Zakoo

And the main point of this post aside the above kind troll, France isn't anti clerical, it's secularity/laicity, how do you even call this in english?

Historians see anti-clericalism as an important force in French politics beginning with the Revolution and extending through the late 19th century Third Republic. The Church/State "cleavage" is one of the primary dimensions of political conflict in the influential model of European political development and party organization proposed by Lipset and Rokkan in their classic opening essay to Party Systems and Voter Alignments.

[Der Langrisser]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

Historians see anti-clericalism as an important force in French politics beginning with the Revolution and extending through the late 19th century Third Republic. The Church/State "cleavage" is one of the primary dimensions of political conflict in the influential model of European political development and party organization proposed by Lipset and Rokkan in their classic opening essay to Party Systems and Voter Alignments.

And the irony is that Combe, the man responsible for the French law of 1905 was a very devout Catholic, who thought that religion should be kept as far as possible from the political sphere.

[Dextro]

Originally Posted by Der Langrisser

And the irony is that Combe, the man responsible for the French law of 1905 was a very devout Catholic, who thought that religion should be kept as far as possible from the political sphere.

Which goes to show that you can be religious while still realising that it doesn't have to dominate every aspect of public life.

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by LeoXiao

Maybe people care about things other than his statements on China. Maybe he has good charisma. I doubt it's because he is a racist.

i guess they don't care about his statement on Korea either.

Tokyo mayor Shintaro Ishihara’s latest foray into promoting international goodwill is to assert that Japan’s wartime “comfort women” were all willing Korean prostitutes only interested in the money.
Ishihara’s remarks came at one of his infamous press conferences:

“Where is the proof that Japanese forced them to do this?
It was an era of poverty, these women grudgingly turned to the only trade they could make money in, prostitution.”

He also called a 1993 apology for their fate, made by the then chief cabinet secretary, “idiotic for accepting their claims like that.”


[NSFW]http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2012/08/26/ishihara-our-korean-sex-slaves-were-just-in-it-for-money/[/NSFW}

Link to original statement (I think) in Japanese. if it was taken out of context or misquote please correct.

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20...000113-jij-pol

[ganbaru]

Tropical Storm Isaac drenches Haiti, swipes Cuba
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...87L0PH20120826

[MrTerrorist]

Sad news to all Sesame Street fans and Mathematics fans.

Voice of Sesame Street Count von Count dies aged 78

Rest in peace Count. Rest in peace.

[Excelion]

Possibly strongest typhoon in five decades to hit Okinawa, China, Korea

http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/26/world/...html?hpt=hp_t1