Well, the next one to visit will be Sky Tree. It is something like three times taller than Tokyo Tower.

Here is an awesome photo (that I took myself!)

Photo by Mike Rogers (use this photo as you wish – please credit me!)

The Tokyo Sky Tree, now completed and opened in the capital’s

Sumida Ward, is seen from a helicopter in 2012.

The tower is 634 meters tall.

Japan to spend $4.4bn on gas stake

TROUBLED Japanese utility Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) has radically scaled back its plan to invest in the $29 billion Wheatstone gas project in Western Australia in the wake of last year’s tsunami disaster that destroyed the Fukushima nuclear plant and almost destroyed the company.

But a government-backed Japanese consortium appears poised to rescue the deal by paying $4.4 billion for a 10 per cent stake in the Chevron-operated Wheatstone gas fields development and an 8 per cent stake in the LNG project.

…

The Japanese government was last week forced to bail out TEPCO by injecting 1 trillion yen as part of a 10-year restructuring aimed at preventing one of the world’s biggest utilities from sliding into bankruptcy.

TEPCO and the Japanese government will hold stakes of 8 per cent and 42 per cent respectively in a special purpose company set up to acquire the Wheatstone stake, the paper reported. Mitsubishi and Nippon Yusen will control around 40 per cent and 10 per cent respectively.

What!? TEPCO gets bailed out with taxpayer then gets to own part of the new project?

If this was a good deal, then the government needn’t get involved… But, they will use taxpayers money to protect private industry from losses. If these companies make profits, they pocket them. If they lose money, the government takes taxpayers monies and bails them out…. This is State Controlled Capitalism… Used to be called Fascism…

And some people think that the government needs to do more about the economy, the environment and our daily lives?

Haven’t they screwed things up enough as it is?

Thanks to the empire, they no longer capture the world’s imagination, says Mike Rogers. http://lewrockwell.com/rogers/rogers249.html

I told him that it was a long story and a conspiracy with military implications.

“Yeah, right!” He burst out laughing…

Feeling a bit perturbed by his insolence, I reminded him that even the US government admitted in 1978 that the JFK assassination was a conspiracy; that I was telling people as far back in 2002 that Global Warming was a scam – and I said that publicly on the air on my radio program! I also said the same about SARS, Bird Flu, Swine Flu, etc. etc…

Jason just continued to laugh.

He immediately stopped laughing and beer shot out his mouth and nose when I reminded him that I told him not to buy Groupon shares back when everyone said Groupon was the best thing since toilet paper (which is the direction that the value of their shares are hurtling towards at this very moment)… That one “fun fact” shut Jason up immediately. I know he lost his ass on that buy and he knows that I will never let him forget it. His head hunched over and he furrowed his brow then stared at the rim of his beer in dismayed silence.

Like the Bismarck losing a rudder and going down, that comment completely sank his mockery and his frivolous mood…. He wasn’t laughing anymore… Jason took a big gulp of beer. He stared off into space for a moment again and then said, “OK… What have you got this time?….”

I went into the story…

I’d take her home in a second!.. The radio, I mean. Not the girl.

My wife wouldn’t let me keep the girl… Seriously, though,

about 95% of all Japanese under 35 years don’t even own a radio!

“Jason, in the metropolitan area of the capitol city of Japan, Tokyo, there are over 35 million homes. This metropolitan area accounts for 51% of Japan’s total GDP… So it comes as a great surprise to many visitors to Tokyo to tune into any radio and find the dial sparsely populated with any signs of life.

What I mean to say is that besides incredibly boring and staid FM radio stations, there are just a handful of them – 5 commercial stations to be exact! Compare that to a city like Los Angeles which has a population of under 4 million people - about 1/10th the population of Tokyo - yet has, by last count, over 59 FM stations; over ten times the number of stations that Tokyo suffers!”

“Yeah. I know this. FM radio in Tokyo sucks. Are you saying they are all in some sort of ‘sucking conspiracy’?” Jason asked.

“No. Just shut up and listen,” I added. “This is a complicated story and is worth an entire book by itself…. But since both you and I are drinking, I’m just going to touch on the main points and you think about what this implies by yourself…. The reason why Japan in general only had 5 major terrestrial television stations (in a country with half the population of the United States) and why there are so few TV and radio stations in general has to do with the Cold War and the military-industrial complex as well as incredible Japanese government incompetence!”

Jason chuckled knowingly about the incompetence part, yet said nothing…. He rolled his eyes, took a sip of beer and motioned for me to continue…

Digital TV proto-type

“Let’s go back even one year, Jason, before all the TV stations went digital. At that time there were only 5 commercial TV stations in the Tokyo area that were accessible by most people. There were only 5 commercial FM stations…. Why was it, do you suppose, with all this available band-width that the Japanese government never allowed more TV or FM stations (or AM stations, for that matter) to be made? I’ll tell you why; it was a conspiracy of the military industrial complex….

Here’s pieces of the puzzle. Now I’ll tell you what I saw, then you tell me what you think happened…. I’ll definitely tell you what I think happened after putting ‘two and two’ together!

In 1984, I moved to Japan. I needed a job so I got one teaching English. One assignment I had was teaching English to a bunch of engineers at an organization called NASDA (today called NAXA). NASDA was Japan’s own version of NASA – you know, the people who waste gazillions of taxpayer dollars sending golf carts into space? Yeah. I taught those guys English. I even had security clearance. Not very high security clearance, mind you, but I could walk around the hallways with my handy neck strap and people wouldn’t hassle me… So I was a sort of a ‘regular’ there. This next part is very important: NASDA was founded in 1969. This is critical information to this scandal….Don’t forget that NASDA was founded in 1969!!!…

Anyway, I taught these “rocket scientists” English for a few years or so… The mere fact that I taught “rocket scientists” English proves that they don’t know what the f*ck they were doing! Hell, I didn’t even have a teaching license!

NASDA founded in 1969!?… Wait a minute!!? Man supposedly landed on

the moon that same year! Hey! Haven’t I seen this toy on TV before…

Like on a moon landing that some say was staged???!!!

After a while teaching these guys, they became buddies of mine. Sometimes we went drinking together. One time they told me that they were so excited about a new project. So happy about it were they, that they showed it to me in person a few days later; it was Japan’s first ever rocket. They were getting ready to launch this thing into space (or the air, or to where ever they could get it to go). They were so excited about it that it reminded me of my youth and how we gleefully launched model rockets a few hundred feet into the air from our backyards. They clucked with delight to show me this “huge” project….

On the other hand, I was so surprised when I saw the “rocket.” I thought I was going to see something like we saw on TV of Apollo launches; you know, massive structures like rockets standing 100 or 150 meters tall into the sky… Taller than a building… But what I saw really did look like a big version of the toy model rockets that we launched when we were kids… The thing looked like it was at the most 16 feet tall and there was no way any sort of animal could ride in it – excepting maybe a mouse (and that would be considering that it were so narrow in the cockpit that he wouldn’t have enough space to even change his mind!)….. The engineers told me that their mission was to send rockets into space with satellites to circle the globe….

I laughed at the absurdity of this nonsense and wondered why Japan was wasting tens, nay hundreds, of millions of dollars on this toy rocket nonsense…

It wouldn’t strike me as a conspiracy for nearly a decade later…

No… Don’t look to the left!!! Those are not props and walls on the left side!!!..

Nothing to see here, folks….  Move along… Move along…

Fast forward to about 1990 or 1991 or so…

Incredibly, somehow NASDA was able to launch this toy rocket and, by the early nineties, had grown their technology (no doubt a big thanks to NASA) and announced to the world that Japan was preparing to join the space race by sending up their very own communications satellite.

Now, of course, Japan has to call this satellite a “communications satellite” because Japan’s constitution forbids her from having any military. They could never say, “Spy satellite.” But what do “communications” satellites do? The pick up on and bounce around communications…. It’s not rocket science (pardon the pun) to figure out that a ‘communications satellite’ can also spy on people and countries….

I believe in order to counter any claims against this… The government opened up 1/2 of the satellite for commercial broadcasting… It was never announced, of course, what other functions of the satellite were for obvious reasons….

The folks at the Japanese government proudly announced to the Japanese people that they were finally opening up the airwaves and were offering channels to companies who wanted their own TV and radio stations! Finally! Freedom of choice! “Our very own broadcasting station!” thought many big Japanese corporations who had asked the Japanese government for a broadcasting license for many years past only to be denied each time…

With that news, many big corporations lined up for the chance to get a broadcasting license… They salivated at the chance! Finally, they could have what they’ve wanted since the beginning of the Japanese economic miracle of the sixties through the eighties: their very own station to broadcast as they wish and to better their sales and businesses…. It was a dream come true!

Or was it?

“So Ziggymoto! Perhaps you laughed too soon, eh?”

Of course, as I said, it seemed obvious to me, and a lot of other people at that time, that this satellite also served the purpose of spying on North Korea and China… Of course, though, the governments of Japan and the United States would never want to spy on North Korea or China, right? We’re the good guys….

Anyway, many stations started up at that time on this satellite named CS Baan; those were both digital radio stations (I worked at one owned by Kadokawa publishing – one of the biggest publishing companies in Japan – called Radio Zipang) and many other TV stations. I don’t recall the exact number, but it seems to me that there were a few hundred of these stations….

The biggest catch with this entire satellite broadcasting extravaganza that caught everyone by surprise (sort of) was that, while having a station to broadcast as you wish is wonderful, it doesn’t mean anything if no one sees it or hears it. Sort of like the old question, “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?”

The price for tuning into one of these stations was extremely expensive. One needed a satellite dish hooked up to their balcony as well as a tuner. The entire set plus installation – at that time – ran anywhere from ¥150,000 ~ ¥300,000 per unit  (about $1,800 ~ $3,600 USD)… Throw on top of that the extra monthly fee the stations charged for subscriptions, and you had companies asking people to fork over several thousands of dollars to watch or listen to the same type of sh*tty music or TV programs that the 4 or 5 free stations were airing….

Several thousands of dollars for crappy TV and radio? A tad bit of a problem…. So, needless to say, there were very few people who had bought the satellite tuner so that they could tune into this stuff…. In fact, I can’t say that I knew of anyone who bought or owned one and I even worked at those stations…

Soon, of course, a bunch of these stations started going bankrupt… Radio Zipang did and I don’t recall that it survived even one year in the broadcasting business.

Imagine that if you were Kadokawa, the owner of Zipang. You just forked over millions of dollars for a broadcasting license to the Japanese government for a broadcasting license on a station that no one can listen to and now your station goes bankrupt…. I think you’d be a little bit pissed off. I think your lawyers might be considering some way to sue someone in court (like the Japanese government) for misleading you and pulling a ‘Bait and switch’ on your dreams of having a proper broadcasting station. That’s a very important point! This is critical information to this scandal….Don’t forget that it is quite conceivable that many of these corporations lost millions and would consider suing the Japanese government in court. I know I would. Wouldn’t you?

By this time, I was already alert to what was going on. Think about it; there’s no way one can just decide today that they’re going to launch a ‘communications satellite’ or rocket and get it done in a few weeks or even months… It takes years…decades of planning and testing…

Don’t forget that NASDA was founded in 1969… What would be the purpose of founding a space agency? To launch sh*t into the air, right? I propose to you, Jason (and dear reader) That the Japanese government knew well before 1969 - most probably since the late 1950s - that they wanted to launch this satellite (that, of course, has military spy capabilities) and that they needed to do two things to cover their incompetent asses:

1) They wanted to get Japanese corporations to help cover the costs of building and launching this contraption by buying a broadcasting license (sneaky plan “a”).

2) By also doing 1) (above) they could deflect criticism over the possible military uses of a satellite as this is obviously a violation of Article 9 of the Japanese constitution renouncing the establishment of a military or military capabilities (sneaky plan “b”).

Japan’s original plan to protect the peace

As an aside, one of the guys working for my company had a TV show on MTV Japan. MTV Japan was a channel on this silly satellite. They were losing millions. One day I was at that station and the Vice President of the entire company (a totally crazy woman named Rebecca) asked me,

“How can we get a channel on a regular VHF TV station?”

That’s easy,” I answered, “Sue the Japanese government in court.” She looked at me as if I were nuts. No, she’s the nutty one. I’m the one who knows what he’s talking about.

As I spoke, finally, Jason’s eyes grew large. He looked at me and said something along the lines of the government of Japan being a total and complete clusterf*ck with conspiracies and incompetence galore….

Of course he is right.

“Get it, Jason?” I added. “Now think about it…. All these years, all these companies wanted a broadcasting license but the Japanese government denied them, not because there wasn’t any space on the dial, but because they planned on launching a satellite! A satellite that had some military and spy purposes. Then, when they get ready to launch the satellite, they go back to the companies and say, “Remember when you asked for a broadcasting license? Well, we got it for you now!” Those companies cough up millions to the government. Ka-ching!

Then they launch the satellite and, soon after, all these channels go bankrupt and even today the few remaining ones are all losing millions of dollars annually so, today, the Japanese government just can’t grant new licenses on free terrestrial channels because if they do they might get sued in court… By any of the other companies who lost money in the past because those companies will ask why they weren’t given the free channels instead?

Example: Company A, that lost 50 million dollars on their satellite broadcasting station (as well as another dozens and dozens of others), might sue the government if said government allocates a free channel to a different company. Get it? The companies that lost money might sue the government if the government gave away any new licenses! Hence! No new stations! And today only 5 FM stations in Tokyo!

Now, it doesn’t matter for TV anymore as the remaining TV stations all went digital and three of them are about to go bankrupt. It doesn’t really matter for radio anymore either as no one listens to radio. The Internet has come along and every company now has an Internet website to do with as they wish… No government interference… And, with the Internet, NO COMPANY EVEN WANTS A BROADCASTING LICENSE IN JAPAN ANYMORE – THE GOVERNMENT COULDN’T GIVE THEM AWAY!!!

So now you know why there are only 5 FM stations in Tokyo… You may think this is a conspiracy, but, in a way, it was at one time, but now it’s just one more piece of evidence on how incompetent and F’ed up the government is….

The government had ulterior motives (wanting to launch a satellite) in not allowing broadcasting licenses… Then they sold the licenses to takers. Then those companies went bankrupt. Then the government was afraid to give out licenses to other companies because they might get sued by the companies that lost money. Now? The internet has come along and no one even wants a license and all the rest of the remaining stations are all losing money… The government probably couldn’t give away broadcasting licenses today for free!

What happened? A conspiracy? In the past… Yes. Ultimately, the end result? A government interfering with business; ignoring the constitution; back scratching and big money payola; and that same government doing whatever it can to cover their a*ses for decades and wasting hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayers and corporate tax money… On what?

An obsolete broadcasting business that is in the red across the board that no one watches or even cares about and a satellite that is only good for spying on North Korean missiles that don’t work.

Nah, that couldn’t be a conspiracy… It’s just plain a government f*ck up… That’s MUCH more believable.

Thanks to David Scott, John Shippen and the guys at NASDA

What’s a “Sales Point?” A “Sales Point” is something that should make your audience think, “Wow! That sounds great!”

A sales point” is supposed to be something extra or special or, as the vernacular goes, “Value Added.” Words used to describe sales points are adjectives like, “Deluxe,” “Giant,” “Extra,” “Premium”….

Whenever you make an ad or sales pitch for your business, service, event or campaign and you add sales points they should be things that make the prospective customer sit up and take notice. They should be something that makes them think, “Special!”

Yesterday, I heard a radio commercial on a Tokyo radio station that just made me slap my forehead. It was a contest to win a vacation for two to Hawaii!

The commercial went like this;

“Something-or-other FM radio station in Tokyo is offering you a chance to win a vacation on Japan Airlines, economy class, for two to Waikiki, Hawaii…”

Read that sentence again….

“Something-or-other FM radio station in Tokyo is offering you a chance to win a vacation on Japan Airlines, economy class, for two to Waikiki, Hawaii…”???

Economy class!? In the case of airlines tickets, a good sales point would be saying something like, “Business Class” or “First Class” for two. Business class and First class are “premium” and “up-grade.” Saying “economy class” is not a sales point. In fact it is a demerit. It cheapens the experience and the lessens the excitement. There was no good reason at all to add that.

Saying “Economy class” could be a sales point if this were an event run by some small organization, but when you are a major broadcasting station in the most crowded city in the entire world with over 35 million homes in your broadcasting area, saying “Economy class” is not a plus in any sense of the meaning….

For the accommodations, did they say, “The cheapest dump motel we could find?” Nope. They didn’t. If it’s not going to be at least a 5-star hotel, then there’s no reason to say anything. Free accommodation sounds nice enough as it is. No reason to add, “Cockroaches no extra charge!”

Which is better? “Free accommodations” or “The worst dump we could find”?

They should have left out the “economy class” part of the commercial and just stuck with;

“Something-or-other FM radio station in Tokyo is offering you a chance to win a vacation on Japan Airlines for two to Waikiki, Hawaii…”

Like I said, adding the words “economy class” just cheapens the experience and the excitement for the listeners… If economy class weren’t the cheapest seats available, I can imagine saying it, but the last time I heard, the airlines don’t normally allow people to ride in the tire wells or in the luggage area.

I doubt that the purpose of the campaign was to create for the listeners an image that this radio station does everything second-rate, but I suspect that is probably the ultimate result.

In June I will be running a campaign with Delta airlines for a lucky couple to win a vacation to the USA for seven nights and nine days – to a destination of their choice – on Delta Airline’s Top Quality Premium Business Class… Now THAT’S a sales point. You’ll be able to find information about that here this very blog.

Stay tuned.

The Heiwa no Mori Koen Field Athletic Course is an obstacle course for kids. The entire course, from start to finish has 40 obstacles that the kids have to challenge. There’s climbing giant rope and wood jungle gym types of structures to climbing over walls using ropes to jungle bars and rowing across ponds full of deadly piranhas (oh, and I’m kidding about the piranhas part). You and your child could have a wonderful time at this fun park.

I’d say that it is best for children between the ages of 6 to 12 but younger ages will also have a blast at this park as mom and dad can help them out with the obstacles that are too scary!

Yesterday, I went there with a bunch of 8 and 9 year olds to chaperon for a birthday party and I also wanted to check out the facilities. I was very impressed. The Heiwa no Mori Koen Field Athletic Course is run by the local government (please don’t get me started on what the heck the local government is doing running an athletic course for kids, as that’s another story) but admission for children was an incredibly low ¥100! Adults are ¥360!

Okay. I’ve found the best and cheapest place to enjoy a Saturday or Sunday in Tokyo for under ¥500! Parking is available and dirt cheap (I parked for more than three hours and it was only ¥600).

This place is a real diamond in the rough, folks! I think this is one of the best and most refreshing and healthy places you could take your kids to on a day and have some real fun!

The kids love it!… (Thanks to Mr. & Mrs. Patrick Humphrys)

Here is a map of the park at the entrance featuring all the obstacles. See a larger map online here.

Looks daunting. It is, but safe. Kids start at the left, climb over the log, up the ramp,

then climb down the rope ladder on the other side.

In the west they might call this the Tom Sawyer ride. In Japan it’s like Issun Boshi.

There were about 5 huge structures like this that are fun to look at as they

are to challenge and climb! Take your child and have them bring a few friends!

Great for a kid’s birthday party!

Heck, this one looked so fun even I wanted to ride it… (But I’m afraid of heights!)

Not quite as tough as the Marines or Navy Seals, but pretty darned tough for an 8 year old…

What kid wouldn’t go crazy over riding in a basket over the dangerous valley?

Speaking of danger, watch out for the crocodiles and piranhas! Moms! Dads!

Definitely need to bring extra clothes & shoes two kids fell in when I was there!

The kids would get to the top of one of these and want to stay there.

I had to tell them to hurry to the next obstacle.

This area kind of reminded me of Disneyland’s Adventureland…

It just looked like fun and the obstacles didn’t disappoint! At this obstacle

kids had to help each other to get across. Team work!

Running across the floating logs? Yep. Scary and a distinct possibility of getting wet!

Older kids can do this… But I even saw parents with 3 or 4 years old kids

and the moms and dads carried their kids while they challenged

the obstacles… A great time together!

Great fun. Exercise. The Outdoors. Camraderie.

What more could a parent want for their child?

I give Heiwa no Mori Koen Field Athletic Course (平和の森公園 フィールドアスレチックコース) 5 stars for a great cheap place to take your children where they can spark their imagination with adventure and get a day out and some great exercise. It’s fun, cheap and a wonderful memory!

NOTES:

1) Definitely take at least one pair of extra clothes and shoes in case your child falls into the water.

2) There are no restaurants or coffee shops nearby

3) There are no shower facilities.

4) There is another park outside so if you want to have a birthday party there, you’ll need to have the cake and pizza or sandwiches at the park outside the entrance of the athletic course.

5) I hear it gets crowded on weekends around lunchtime so I recommend getting there early!

6) If the course weren’t crowded, then I expect that it should take an hour or two to complete depending on the age of your child.

Here’s a great explanation and more detailed photos of entire course (in Japanese).

Heiwa no Mori Koen Field Athletic Course

(平和の森公園 フィールドアスレチックコース)

Address:

Heiwa no Mori Koen 2-1

Ohta-ku, Tokyo

Te: 03-3766-1607

Business hours:

Opens at 9:30 am (last entrance at 15:00) Closed at 16:00

Closed on Mondays and bad weather days

Entrance fee:

Children and Junior high school students: ¥100

Above high school and adults: ¥360

“By the time you hear the thunder, it’s too late to build the ark.” ~ Unknown

Did you ever see that sixties movie where the guy was diagnosed with a deadly disease and told that he only had a short time to live? He took all his money out of the bank and maxed out all his credit cards and lived the high life for that short time. Then, to his shock, he found out that it was all a misdiagnosis and that he was actually perfectly healthy? I can’t remember the name of the movie but when he found out he wasn’t going to die, he realized that was in deep doo-doo and was in debt waaaaaaaay over his head? It was a pretty funny movie.

I wonder why these people today who think we’re doomed any minute now don’t borrow all the money they can and live the high life if they really do think we’re all going to die any day now? Maybe it’s because these people are a bit twisted and being twisted is all relative to one’s financial status? Meaning they have no money…

I mean, everyone knows that poor people are crazier than rich people, right?

…Or are they?

Yesterday I posted about how so many people worry too much about too many things. Please refer to: Worrying Too Much About a Worse-Case Scenario is a Sign of Serious Mental Illness and Paranoia….

Really, these people who worry constantly? I don’t know how they can stand themselves. Isn’t just trying to survive on a daily basis enough to worry about for most people? It is for me. I have my hands full worrying about taking care of my family and paying the bills and making sure they are happy and healthy (and other sh*t like, “Is there anything to eat in the refrigerator?”) without having to worry about things that I cannot control, like the end of the world. Here’s a short list of those world ending things! Things like:

1) Fukushima ending life on this planet as we know it

2) Nuclear War ending life on this planet as we know it

3) Out of Control Government Spending ending life on this planet as we know it

4) Terrorists killing us all

5) Inflation destroying our lives

6) Rogue nations killing us all

7) China taking us over (I don’t speak Chinese!)

Crime killing us all (or just me)

9) Tomorrow – will there be one?

10) Life on other planets and will there be alien invasions

11) Will Global Warming/Cooling or even Global Moderate Temperatures end life on this planet as we know it

12) Who is going to be the winner of the next American Idol, Dancing with the Stars or “Survivor Nicaragua”?

Of course I write about these things (it gets them off my chest) but trust that I do not run around thinking about them all the time.

Girls just wanna have fun, ya know?

I actually met Cyndi Lauper at a Okonomiyaki in Osaka once!

By the way, you’re far more likely to die of heart disease, cancer, emphysema, stroke, accident, alzheimers, diabetes, the flu, suicide, chronic liver disease (drinking yourself to death), high blood pressure, parkinsons or pneumonia than anything on the above list of 1 ~ 12. (Although if you do care about #12 and watch too much TV, why don’t you just kill yourself and do us all a favor?)

Well, now I found an article that I thought might give you a moment to pause and think and relax if you are one of these people who worry all the freaking time. If you are one of these people (especially) who are foaming at the mouth and screaming “If the water pools at Fukushima collapse, then life on this planet will end as we know it!” (as if you have somewhere to run and/or something that you could do about it if that were to happen) then, read on. This is for you.

It seems that this sort of nuttiness hasn’t a financial basis. I mean to say that being this sort of paranoid crazy may not have such a big correlation to eating junk food. Why? Well, I have anecdotal evidence that rich people can be just as crazy as poor or middle class people. Yep.

I have this weird idea that rich people don’t eat as much junk food or processed food as poor people do. Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s a notion that I entertain. Well, my friends, here’s proof that some rich people are getting caught up in the Zeitgeist of the end of the world too! I remember in the sixties that some people had nuclear bomb shelters… It struck me as odd, even then, the existence of these shelters. I mean, if the world comes to and end and there’s deadly radiation everywhere, how is staying in an underground bunker going to matter anyway? Won’t that just prolong the inevitable? Won’t the end of the world and the radiation kill you soon after anyway? Someone help me out here.

Anyhow, folks, here you go. If you are really worried about the end of the world, then I have a suggestion; work your ass off in the next few days and save up to buy one of these. Or, if there’s no way that you could make a few million by day after tomorrow, then if you really are worried about “life ending on the earth as we know it” then take all of your savings, max out your credit cards, and buy all the lottery tickets you can afford. Then, if you win, buy one of these apartments:

It won’t matter that you go into debt up to your ass, right? The world is going to end anyway, right? And, when it does, you’ll never have to pay off the banks! Everyone is happy!

Check out what the lunatics on the other side of the tracks are buying… The Daily Mail reports in “Doomsday Shelter Being Built Below Kansas Prairie where millionaires will be able to sit out the Apocalypse in Style“:

When you buy a house, you end up feeling like you will be paying it off until the world ends.

The doomsday condo – What? No free parking?!

This developer is a smart guy… But anyone who buys one of these needs to see a psychologist.

Don’t worry though, even if the psychologist is $195 an hour, rich people – who could afford one of these apartments – can afford it.

Wow! Is that a load off my mind. I can’t wait to move in. I hope the neighbors are nice!

Mit der Fuhrer dein Fuhrerbunker 30. April 1945

It seems that the missile warning system that the Japanese government were bragging would alert the public about the North Korean missile launch as it happened (Japan spent hundreds of millions of dollars on when they bought the system from the United States) failed and the Japanese authorities had to rely on foreign news reports to confirm the launch.

Seriously, this comedian could probably run any department or agency in the government much better than any politician Japan has today… At least he’d be good for laughs…

Hilarious! I burst out laughing on this news…. Maybe they forgot to install the four AA batteries (not included) in the system?

Japan Today reports: Japan’s rocket alert system failed due to lack of info from defense ministry

How do you say, “Doh!” in Japanese?

Japan’s missile defense that doesn’t work is extremely effective against missiles

that don’t work either… At least on paper!

http://www.interfm.co.jp/yatsura/index.php?mode=mon&id=449

I’m sick of people “poking” me. I hate it when people “Poke” me. What the hell is that poking business? What’s that all about? It reminds me of the game “Ding dong ditch” we played as a kids on the neighbors. You know, you’d run up to the neighbors house and ring the doorbell and run away. They’d answer the door and no one would be there.

Ha! Ha! Ha! Yeah. Real funny… Yeah funny, if you are about nine-years-old. Don’t poke me anymore. I don’t like it.

I also hate it when people never do anything but click the “Like” button. What is that? You post an article about children dying of starvation in Africa or getting killed in wars or a new flesh eating virus that peels your face off and leaves a read jelly-like mess and people click the “Like” button? What’s to like about that? Are people too stupid to make a comment?

Or do they really mean they’d like to have flesh eating viruses rip their flesh off their face? Not even a simple-minded comment like, “Yeah. What he said!” Or, something really insincere and useless like, “I hope things get better!” Have people become so stupid these days that the only reaction they can have is to consider whether or not they want to click a button? Oh, the choices to be made! How can anyone find the time? Really!

What’s not to like?

I also hate Facebook birthdays. Nothing says insincerity and “I don’t care about you at all, but since I am here anyway and wasting my time, might as well send you a birthday greeting – uh, how do you spell your name again? Never mind, it’s written right here!” like a Facebook birthday greeting.

I hate it when I get the weekly Facebook notice that tells me that “You have 53 friends with birthdays this week.” Who the hell wants to get a bunch of insincere birthday wishes from people who they probably wouldn’t recognize if they walked by them on the street? I don’t…

When it was my birthday last time, I got so many “Happy Birthday” wishes that it pissed me off going through them all and clicking, “Like” so that people would know I insincerely acknowledged their insincere wishes that I gave up after a while. Being so insincere to so many people is time consuming and exhausting!

Facebook has become the best (worst?) and most insincere way to send greetings of any sort. It really sucks and, instead of bringing people closer together, I suspect that it is actually pulling us farther apart and lowering the quality of our relationships. Good relationships require work and much effort… Facebook lowers the effort and time and thinking required… And that means our relations with each other are getting worse, not better.

You know, a relationship needs nurturing; like the flowers in a garden need nurturing. Just clicking “Like” is akin to remotely turning on the garden sprinklers in the garden: It is a great way for weeds to grow.

Nurturing the garden of love

If you really do care about someone, you’ll send them a real card or call them on the phone. Sending a Facebook birthday wish, a Poke, or a Like, is the real way to show that you are insincere and don’t actually care; you are too busy to be bothered.

People who do really care will admit that what I write is truth.

You won’t be getting any birthday wishes from me. If you do, I’ll really mean, “Happy Birthday.” Which means I won’t send those out through Facebook.

Happy Birthday and a big poke to my friend Garin Dart!