You know, Tokyo used to have the 'crazy uncle' mayor, the guy who would sit down at the table and then suddenly erupt in a racist diatribe involving everything from Nathan Bedford Forrest to the KKK as a public service organization.

Well, Ishihara's not around anymore, but now it looks like (Trigger Warning: Sexual Assault) Osaka is getting into ( Read more... )

ENGRISH FAIL (some profanity involved).

Or should that be ENGRISH FAIR? Or perhaps ENGRISH FLAIL?

Since this journal normally looks more like a news and politics blog then anything else, here are some updates from the last month for things I'm watching that could go boom just to prove that if I've been replaced by a doppelganger, he's at least consistent.

( The World Keeps Going Faster )

Fukushima has largely fallen off the news, but when it re-emerges it tends to be in some sort of panic-laden title that doesn't actually say anything. Nevertheless the crisis continues. At first we were worried about the reactors exploding, then about the Spent Fuel Pool burning to the ground. Now we're down to high-radiation water leaking out ( Read more... )

Recap of this week's headlines:

Japanese Reactors On Verge Of Meltdown!
Widespread Radiation Fears as Engineers Battle to Control Reactors!
Engineers Locked in Life Or Death Struggle to Control Nuclear Plant!
Foreigners Evacuate as Nuclear Plant Situation Continues to Escalate
Struggle at Nuclear Power Plant Exhausts All Exciting Metaphors
( Read more... )

So, this is what I've gleaned regarding Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi. Most of it is boring, but that's a good thing. When things about reactors become exciting, that's when you should start being worried ( Read more... )

Apparently I was too optimistic yesterday about the chances of Japan's nuclear reactors - I thought they would do better then they did. While they are still subcritical, I did not anticipate that they would blow up the containment building on Fukushima One in a cooling accident (although, in retrospect, it should have been an obvious possibility ( Read more... )

Dear America,

Don't be stupid.
The Coast Guard was searching for a man in the Pacific Ocean near the Klamath River in Del Norte County in Northern California. The man was swept away after he and two friends reportedly traveled to the shoreline to take photos of the incoming tsunami waves, Lt. Todd Vorenkamp said. His friends made it back to shore ( Read more... )

In Japan, in order to be executed apparently, you have to have your execution order signed by the Justice Minister. The new justice minister, Keiko Chiba, has spent twenty years of her life campaigning against the death penalty. Therefore it's unlikely that any execution orders will be signed in the immediate future ( Read more... )