Joined: 15 Jun 2004 Posts: 46182 Location: Los Skandolous, California Country:
Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2007 2:01 am Post subject:
Man sends Japanese PM finger
23.8.2007. 16:02:11
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe found himself the target of an unusual protest when a man sent him a severed finger in the post.
Fervent nationalist Yoshiro Tanjo, 54, was reportedly angered by Mr Abe's decision not to pay his respects at a controversial war shrine.
Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine venerates Japan's war dead, including war criminals. It has long been a point of confrontation with the country's neighbours, many of whom suffered under Japanese wartime occupation.
Mr Abe refused to take part in a ceremony there on August 15, the anniversary of Japan's surrender at the end of the Second World War.
To highlight his displeasure at the move, Mr Tanjo chopped off part of his little finger and posted it to the headquarters of the PM's Liberal Democratic Party, along with a DVD and a letter explaining his actions.
Intimidation charge
The unemployed protester, from the western city of Kurashiki, was arrested by police on Thursday, and has been charged with intimidation tactics.
"In the DVD there were very graphic images of him chopping off a part of his finger, which he had filmed himself," the Kurashiki police spokesman said.
"The man is detained here with part of his finger gone, cut at the first joint, I'd say."
Shinzo Abe has visited the Yasukuni shrine on several occasions in the past, but has not returned since taking office as Prime Minister.
It is thought his choice to stay away from the site is in an effort to improve relations with China and South Korea.
In Japan's underworld, gangsters sometimes chop off their little fingers to demonstrate loyalty or to take responsibility for failure.
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By CARL FREIRE, Associated Press Writer
Thu Aug 23, 7:52 PM ET
It's still beyond the reach of science to predict exactly when an earthquake will strike, but Japan will soon get the next-best thing �\ televised warnings that come before anyone feels the ground shake.
Japan's Meteorological Agency and national broadcaster are teaming up to alert the public of earthquakes as much as 30 seconds before they hit, or at least before they can bring their full force down on populated areas.
The system �\ the first of its kind in the world �\ does not predict quakes, but officials say it can give people enough time to get away from windows that could shatter, or to turn off ovens and prevent fires from razing homes.
And in one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries, every second counts.
"If we can give people enough time to take even a few steps to protect themselves before the shaking starts, it could help reduce injuries and damage," said agency spokesman Makoto Saito.
The warnings, to begin in October, will be based on data provided by the Meteorological Agency, which maintains a network of sensors deep underground that estimate the intensity of a quake as soon as the ground ruptures.
Alarms can go out before the shaking starts because there is a lag between the time it takes for different seismic waves to travel to the surface.
Japan, which sits atop four tectonic plates, has been hit by 83 earthquakes strong enough to cause injury since March 1996, including one last month that killed 11 people and caused a fire and small radiation leak at a nuclear power plant.
The warning system works by detecting primary waves, which spread from the epicenter of a quake and travel faster than the destructive shear waves. When waves of a certain intensity are detected, the alarms are set off. The national broadcaster, NHK, will relay them almost instantaneously to its television and radio audiences.
The agency started issuing warnings last August to more than 500 organizations such as power companies and train operators.
The system is not perfect.
Lightning or other interference can cause false alarms, for example, and early warning won't work for areas directly above the ruptured fault because the two waves would be nearly simultaneous. And residents would have to be watching TV or listening to the radio to get an alert.
Still, the agency says the system helped it issue a tsunami alert for a magnitude-6.9 earthquake in northern Japan this March two minutes faster than its old early warning system would have. The agency also was able to put out a warning ahead of last month's magnitude-6.8 quake.
How the public will react has been a concern.
"Chaos and injuries could result, for example, if an urgent earthquake warning is sent to a facility with large numbers of customers and a crush forms at the exits as people rush to get out," a meteorological agency study group said in a report last year.
The warnings, it was decided, must come with explanations of what people should do �\ stop cars and elevators, get away from things that can fall and, most of all, protect their heads.
"We realized the warnings won't work if confusion is the result," said Saito. "The public needs to be educated about how and how not to react."
Since early last month, NHK has begun preparing Japan for the alerts, carrying promotional spots accompanied by skits that show how to respond.
Officials say the system may serve as a model for others.
"A lot of the injuries in an earthquake come from secondary damage, like fires started from open gas lines," said Barry Drummond, who oversees seismic monitoring for Geoscience Australia. "If you've got enough time to shut the gas valve, you're that much further ahead."
Small-scale warning systems exist in parts of Mexico, Taiwan and Turkey. In the United States, commercially available, battery-powered seismic gadgets can warn a limited region, while seismologists at the University of California, Berkeley, are working on a system inspired in part by Japan's.
"The implementation in Japan is most important to us as a test of the concept," said Richard Allen, who heads the group. "We are particularly interested to see how the public react to the information and (who) starts to make use of the information and how."
Mike Blanpeid, a Virginia-based geophysicist at the United States Geological Survey, said the USGS would also be watching Japan's new program closely as they evaluate what kind of investments are required to improve warning systems in the U.S.
Blanpeid said Japan's dense network of seismometers, combined with a system that rapidly delivers seismic information to the surface, would make their early warning program particularly effective.
"You can do a lot if you know an earthquake is coming in less than a minute," said Blanpeid.
Joined: 15 Jun 2004 Posts: 46182 Location: Los Skandolous, California Country:
Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2007 1:07 am Post subject:
Tokyo housewife hid 400 million yen
TOKYO (Reuters) - A financially savvy Tokyo housewife who made 400 million yen (1.7 million pounds) trading in foreign exchange markets was fined on Friday for evading tax, a court official said.
Yukiko Ikebe, 60, got a suspended jail sentence and was fined 34 million yen, after she used relatives' names to make her gains look smaller and avoid paying tax, NHK said.
"She felt it was unfair to have to pay tax on her gains, when she made losses some years," NHK quoted the judge as saying. "She spent the money on kimonos and jewellery
TOKYO (Reuters) - A financially savvy Tokyo housewife who made 400 million yen (1.7 million pounds) trading in foreign exchange markets was fined on Friday for evading tax, a court official said.
Yukiko Ikebe, 60, got a suspended jail sentence and was fined 34 million yen, after she used relatives' names to make her gains look smaller and avoid paying tax, NHK said.
"She felt it was unfair to have to pay tax on her gains, when she made losses some years," NHK quoted the judge as saying. "She spent the money on kimonos and jewellery
Wow...
And ya know, the fine isn't that hefty when you look at how much she still gets. _________________
Joined: 28 Jun 2005 Posts: 3392 Location: peoples democratic republic of yorkshire Country:
Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2007 5:39 am Post subject:
Tu_triky wrote:
Tokyo housewife hid 400 million yen
TOKYO (Reuters) - A financially savvy Tokyo housewife who made 400 million yen (1.7 million pounds) trading in foreign exchange markets was fined on Friday for evading tax, a court official said.
Yukiko Ikebe, 60, got a suspended jail sentence and was fined 34 million yen, after she used relatives' names to make her gains look smaller and avoid paying tax, NHK said.
"She felt it was unfair to have to pay tax on her gains, when she made losses some years," NHK quoted the judge as saying. "She spent the money on kimonos and jewellery
mmm, i need to find a wife like that! _________________
The Japanese press has carried the news of the early death of the first Japanese supermodel, Sayoko Yamaguchi. That didn't really register with me even though Newsweek apparently judged her to be one of the world's top models in the Seventies. It seems that there is one major overseas link that is worth mentioning, however: she was the inspiration behind the cover of the 1977 album "Aja" by Steely Dan.
The Japanese press has carried the news of the early death of the first Japanese supermodel, Sayoko Yamaguchi. That didn't really register with me even though Newsweek apparently judged her to be one of the world's top models in the Seventies. It seems that there is one major overseas link that is worth mentioning, however: she was the inspiration behind the cover of the 1977 album "Aja" by Steely Dan.
the only japanese model i know is tominaga ai. _________________
Joined: 15 Jun 2004 Posts: 46182 Location: Los Skandolous, California Country:
Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 11:39 am Post subject:
Win an Instant Ramen Emergency Kit
You never know when you're gonna have to flee your home, and that's why The Institute for Fire Safety and Disaster Preparedness recommends that everyone have an emergency kit. For a limited time, you can win this awesome instant ramen emergency kit—so much better than Clif Bars!
Here's some more info:
The package contains:
-- Five servings of instant ramen noodles
-- Three 500-milliliter bottles of mineral water
-- A stainless cup
-- Solid fuel
-- A barbeque lighter
-- A pair of chopsticks
-- A wet towel
To apply for the giveaway, send a postcard with your address, name, age, sex, occupation and phone number to:
You do have to live in Japan, unfortunately, to enter the contest. I am going to enter anyway, even though I don't live there, by using my parents' and all my high school friends' addresses. Tee hee.
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I'll have to ask my doc next time I see him.
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