151E comments

Interestingly, in big cities across Japan private schools are considered elite / more desirable. But in the inaka it's often the public schools that attract elite students, while private schools mop up the rest.

IF participating athletes understand the rules, AND their doping regime is publicly recorded, what's the harm in letting CONSENTING / FULLY-INFORMED ADULT athletes do as they please? Besides, we might gain valuable insight into the therapeutic benefits of certain compounds that would otherwise be kept largely secret.

According to Snowden, the NSA put malware in place that could shut down Japan's power grid if it were ever deemed an unreliable partner. I wonder if this has anything to do with Japan's continued allegiance to the US.

This is not a sporting event with a "win at all costs " idea...it is a trial/retrial where someones liberty or life is at state.

I agree that the legal process should be focused on discerning the truth and meteing out justice, but when salary and promotion are based on successful convictions, there is naturally a strong incentive to "win at all costs".

OK, but is the prevalence of PFO stable or increasing? If it's increasing, why? Can't be genetic drift - that takes generations rather than decades. If stable, what has changed in the environment or lifestyle of younger adults that's making it more clinically significant than in the past, as evidenced by the reported increase in cryptogenic strokes?

While I agree people ought to be prepared with appropriate layers, I once spent two weeks hiking through the Rockies with only Tevas and was just fine. As long as you have reasonably strong ankles and watch your step, you don't need heavy hiking boots with ankle support.

I need to look at this study and see what assumptions are in the model, but based just on this story above I'm troubled by the idea that the authors conclude, "even in the best-case scenarios, the amount of carbon that grasses could sequester didn’t make up for the emissions of the cattle." If truly only pasture fed, all the carbon from the cows ultimately come from the grasses grazed upon in the pastures. If the rate of sequestration is lower than the rate of emission, the pastures would be eventually be overgrazed. This is by definition not best-practice for cattle ranching and rotational grazing, casting doubt on the assumptions used in the model. While traditional ranching most likely can not support the same demand as industrial farming, it flies in the face of basic evolution and ecology to think that traditional cattle ranching is equivalent to industrial farming with regards to carbon production.

Perhaps local or prefectural governments could periodically go out and use ground penetrating radar to survey roads and identify possible sinkholes before they collapse.

Students can write notes to annotate their digital books - this is ability is not exclusive to paper books. And looking at screens does not in and of itself cause nearsightedness; a lack of UV exposure and subsequent low levels of melatonin are the main driver of the myopia epidemic (which could be largely cured with more time spent outdoors). That all said, tablets are a great distraction as children open other apps, or simply enjoy zooming in and out instead of focusing on their work.

Wait until war with Iran kicks off, then we'll be seeing unprecedented oil prices!

Basic fact checking is just proper due diligence that should be done by all reporters who wish to maintain credibility. However, declaring some anonymous fact-checker with a bachelor’s degree at an Agency cutout funded organization to be the unfailing arbitrator of truth on contentious subjects, with the power to de-amplify, shadow-ban or outright censor those with non-concordant views -- especially on subjects where experts themselves are not in agreement, as happened during the pandemic (wet market or lab leak?) -- undermines the quest for the truth. The best solution is to allow an open public clash of ideas.

@Meiyouwenti - No need to destroy forests or farmland to install solar panels. It would be better to make use of parking lots (providing the additional benefit of shade in summer and protection from rain) and shopping mall and factory roofs. As for nuclear power, newer designs (such as SMRs) are much safer and, if you believe announcements from groups like Commonwealth Fusion Systems, commercially viable nuclear fusion (the real game changer) is just around the corner. My concern is Japan crippling herself like Germany by focusing on CO2 at the cost of all else.

While the effects of mesogravity (the moon being roughly 1/6th that of Earth, so not really 'micro'gravity, then why not 'meso' or 'middle'gravity?) are a long term concern, I'd first be more worried about the dangers from micrometeoroid impacts, cosmic radiation, and accidentally bringing electrostatically charged lunar regolith into the lunarnauts' living quarters.

This is beyond ridiculous. I'm no fan of kirakira names generally, but what gives the government the right to police citizens' names? Will they start regulating haircuts and bedtimes too? kwatt makes a good point about the difficulties some names present for the My Number Card and other administrative systems, but let people deal with those self-inflicted troubles when the time comes.

Hiring Mike Pompeo to advise them on the accusation doesn't seem to have been a good investment.

Well, US neocons seem to be proceeding with the list given General Wesley Clarke back in 2007, but at a slightly slower pace than the original overly-optimistic 5 year plan: Iraq (done), Syria (done), Lebanon (in-progress), Libya (done), Sudan (in-progress), Somalia (in-progress) and Iran (pending).

For internet service providers, the committee proposed a system in which illegal or harmful online posts are mandatorily deleted.

This could end up being a Trojan horse to allow more internet censorship. It will be interesting to see how vague the wording is of any proposed legislation.

Although called "early retirement" such programs are available to all employees, and not limited to senior staff. Through repeated interviews, management usually encourage low performers to take the package, although anyone is free to do so.

It's worth noting that emissions trading began as a policy under the Republican administration of George Bush Sr. The policy was designed as a market-based approach to environmental regulation, allowing companies to trade emissions allowances to meet pollution reduction targets.

Richard Sandor is credited as the key architect of emissions trading. Sandor was previously an executive at Drexel Burnham Lambert, a financial firm infamous for its role in the financial scandals of the 1980s, including the Savings & Loans crisis. The firm collapsed in 1990 amid allegations of corruption and illegal activities. Sandor is also the father financial derivatives, and helped draft the cap-and-trade system incorporated into the Kyoto Protocol.

The ECDC Factsheet for health professionals on mpox states that, *"In May 2022, a multi-country outbreak of mpox was declared, with all EU/EEA countries (except for Liechtenstein) eventually reporting locally acquired cases. The outbreak was driven by human-to-human MPXV transmission via close contact with infected individuals. The majority of cases were men-who-have-sex-with-men."* From this, perhaps one may be forgiven for surmising that in Japan, Europe, and the US (where I assume most readers reside) there is little risk for most individuals. However, in areas such as the DRC where mpox is endemic, the risk profile is indeed different as wallace and Fighto! helpfully point out.

I'm relieved to see that LC16m8 vaccine is a traditional live attenuated vaccine rather than a relying on the deeply flawed LNP/mRNA platform. Still this vaccine is not necessary for most people, since the group most at risk from mpox are those who engage in promiscuous gay sex.

How rich that there are "concerns that the sprawling intelligence community will become increasingly politicized" and that "the new administration could deploy intelligence for political ends" considering the infamous letter signed by 51 former US intelligence officials and repeated lies by the FBI to the FISA court (eg Carter Page) so they could spy on the Trump campaign. The only real concerns are that (1) the extent of the intelligence agencies' domestic political interference may be more fully revealed and (2) some of their pet projects may be somewhat curtailed.

A lot of elitist, anti-democratic sentiment in this thread. If one is worried about the quality of input from the plebs, perhaps the solution is to improve the quality of compulsory education, and not stifling democracy. Or just be upfront and admit you prefer an orderly technocracy over a rowdy and contentious democracy.

The only way that this works is for everyone who goes on line to verify their age, so a de facto national digital ID, completely voluntary of course, but you won't be able to go online and use sns without one. This will bring an end to online anonymity but, don't fret your pretty little head, Big Brother will be watching over us all and keep us safe from online harms.

Is the fact that some of the children were deaf and mute or that one had autism of significance to the story? I don't understand why these random details were included, especially in the headline. Is it a clumsy attempt to heighten readers' sense of pathos or does it have some greater salience? Is it not tragedy enough that innocent children were killed?

Hmmmm.... still no toxicology report on Crooks.

Many people are not interested in politics. Is it possible that even fewer women than men have political ambitions? Is every discrepancy in representation a result of discrimination? Some 36% of Japanese men have male pattern baldness? Is this equitably reflected in our politicians? Why the discrimination against baldness?!? Perhaps we need bolder action, such as a quota system.

Under the 'forced sterilization' compensation law, "if the victim or his or her spouse has died, their relatives, including children, grandchildren, or siblings can receive the compensation." Presumably those would be adopted children?

Interestingly, homogametic individuals (eggs XX females in (most) mammals, and ZZ males in birds) tend to outlive their heterogametic counterparts. So it’s not surprising then, for our species, that most centenarians are women.

Back in 2016, she threatened that the government could suspend network operations or even revoke broadcast licenses if programing did not remain "politically neutral", which many interpreted to mean "not too critical of government policy". She seems the perfect candidate in this age of increasingly heavy handed government censorship of online speech. Can't have the plebs talking freely amongst themselves, potentially spreading malinformation.