Fukushima! Super Typhoons! The Destruction of the Entire Northern Hemisphere!… And the Most Deadly Subways in Tokyo!
6月19, 2012
Oh God! Monster Typhoons! Nuclear fuel rod pools that are about to fall over and destroy the entire Western civilization! The greatest short-term threat to world civilization! (Wait a minute, you guys just said the radiation had a half-life of 30,000 years! I don’t know about you, but I don’t think 30,000 years is very “short term.”)
What’s a citizen to do? It’s the end of the world!
Tokyo subway. (Use this photo freely as you wish!)
You are going to die!!! Well, yes. You are going to die. But before you do, we in the mass media are going to do our best to make you miserable with worry before you do.
Since March 11 of last year and the Fukushima disaster, Japan has had nothing but “Super Typhoons” that all were going to go directly over Fukushima and probably destroy the entire northern hemisphere of the world! ENENEWS (a site that survives on sensationalist headlines) reports in: 150 mph Super Typhoon Sets Aim at Japan: Fukushima near center of forecast track — “Expected to intensify” and already the highest category storm.
And, as usual with ENENEWS, the headlines have zero to do with the story. Let me quote word for word:
Guchol, a tropical cyclone in the western Pacific, rapidly strengthened Saturday afternoon, local time. Winds are now in excess of 150 mph, making Guchol a super typhoon, the highest classification for tropical cyclones in the western Pacific.
If Guchol were an Atlantic Hurricane, it would be considered a Category 5 storm.
[...]
the storm is also expected to intensify further over the next day or two.
[...]
Guchol will still likely be a very powerful tropical cyclone upon reaching the Ryukyu Islands of Japan. Powerful winds, torrential rain and intense surf will be among some of the problems expected for the islands.
[...]
In fact, the main threat the storm poses to the main island of Japan will be its torrential rains. Heavy rain could lead to mudslides and flash flooding, especially in the mountains just west of Tokyo.
[...]
You see anything about Fukushima there? No? Me neither.
But we all know that doesn’t matter. What DOES matter is sensationalist headlines that scare stupid people and sell advertising.
And what does matter is not super typhoons (we have those all the time nowadays – every typhoon is now called a “Super Typhoon”)… It’s not spent fuel pools (they didn’t collapse in a 1 in 1000 year 9.0 quake; a 6.0 quake – that is 1/3000th the power of a 9.0 quake – isn’t going to knock them down)… What is going to kill you is the dangerous Tokyo subway system and the “People-eating danger traps” that they are (cue ominous music here).
Oh, fear for your lives people! Never forget that the next time you ride a Tokyo subway, it could be your last!
Josei Jishin, the oldest and most popular women’s magazine in Japan has the scoop in “The Top 50 Most Dangerous Subway Stations in Tokyo.”
The most dangerous subway stations in Tokyo! It’s kind of like old East Germany and West Germany… I mean, how it sizes up for Tokyo subway stations; the stations on the “old” east side of Tokyo are death traps! The higher the score (#1 Sumiyoshi) has a score of 61.6…. What does that mean? Hell, if I know… But 61.6 spells, “Death trap!” “Game Over!” “Dead as a Doorknob!” “Fin!” “Owari!”
Notice that all the death boxes are on the East end.
I circled Shibuya for your reference….
Be afraid. Be very afraid!
The top ten death traps subway stations in Tokyo are:
#1 Sumiyoshi on the Hanzomon Line
#2 Morishita on the Oedo Line (What!? They just built that train line!)
#3 Suitengumae on the Hanzomon Line (Going to Narita to fly in a jet plane? Ha! Hope you actually make it to the airport!
#4 Kinshicho on the Hanzomon Line
#4 Oshiage on the Hanzomon Line
#4 Kiyosumi Shirakawa on the Hanzomon Line
#7 Hamacho Station on the Toei Shinjuku Line
#8 Tsukiji Ichiba on the Oedo Line
#8 Nishi Oshima on the Shinjuku Line
#10 Higashi Ginza on the Hibiya Line (actually, I’m surprised that there’s not more stations on the Hibiya Line here on this list. They all seem like death traps to me!)
#10 Morishita on the Shinjuku Line (Your chances of dying at Morishita station are double!)
Here’s the next 11 ~ 50…. Look, I’m not going to translate this for you. If you live in Japan long enough to care about this nonsense and you can’t even read your own station’s name in Kanji, then you deserve to die!
Trust, citizen, that you are going to die someday! It is a proven medical fact that every single person who has – and ever will – ride a Tokyo subway has died or will die! Sometimes, and some rare cases, those are a painful and incredibly excruciatingly painful death!
Could that be you? I think it might!
Be afraid. Be very afraid!
Sure, you are going to die, citizen….
But before that, we are going to make damned sure that you worry to death…
Please make sure you tune in next week (or buy next week’s issue for more “dangerous man-eating subways!”)
-Thanks to Ken Nishikawa
Destroying My Blog – I Don’t Want to Be Dishonest Like Getty Images
6月11, 2012
The Internet was supposed to be this wonderful playground for us all to explore and make friends… But it isn’t that at all. It’s full of traps and minefields that one must be ever mindful of. If you blog, you must be particularly careful as, if your blog becomes popular (and that is the point of blogging, right?) then you will become a target.
Recently, I’ve destroyed my daily pages views numbers. A few weeks ago, I got a particularly nasty email from a lawyer representing Getty Images (insert booing here) who claims that they want to sue me for use of their images (well, no… That’s not right. They want to sue me for use of one image). This is the trap.
Why is it a trap? Well, I guess I must be confused, but if you have something that you want protected, but you don’t protect it, then you are negligent if someone else comes along, picks it up and borrows it. I certainly didn’t steal it.
Say you left a baseball bat on a baseball diamond and some kids came along and started using it… Then you come along and then you think you can claim that they owe you money for rental fee? Ha!
If you go to Google image search and search for some particular picture (all blogs are nicer with pictures) then you will see lots of pictures that are watermarked, “Getty images” or the like. Many aren’t. In fact, after I checked, you’ll see the exact same images that have the Getty Watermark and some that don’t.
Being stupid (or thinking like most people would think) then if they aren’t watermarked, they aren’t copyright protected. WRONG! You could get sued. As I was threatened with. I think that Getty’s way of doing business is quite distasteful and disturbing (I can see them asking that you delete – but aggressively and threateningly – like Yakuza – screaming at you over the phone over court? And for one image on a freaking blog!???)
Two men playing Chinese Chess. This looks exactly like a Getty Image…
But it’s not. I took it. Use it all you want!
So now there are no photos on this blog at all unless I or my wife or friends took them. No Getty Images at all… My company will never use Getty again and I will make sure our designers at the media and broadcasting section never do again either…
I think Getty is sneaky and dishonest… I do know that their way of doing business is very bad business and they are getting tons of complaints from people all over Japan. I don’t like it. I especially don’t like their lawyer (who talks with an Osaka Yakuza accent) screaming at my wife (who has no idea what they are talking about) over the phone. Sure, it’s nice that someone is out protecting the rights of artists (well, hell, they’re getting paid to do so)… But the tactics are deplorable.
Getty Images in Japan is run by a bunch of a*sholes… Poor public image will ultimately result in very bad business. You’ll see, Getty. (Here is the horrifying story of someone who has dealt with this in Japan. Use Google translate: http://blog.livedoor.jp/kiku0319/archives/4314460.html)
That also means that if you see an image you like on this blog, then use it as you wish. Just call it my little war with Getty. Over time, I will have thousands of images (and I hope that you will do the same if you are a blogger) that people can use freely as they wish.
Businessmen at Tokyo intersection at lunchtime (use this photo free!)
Blogs need photos. It’s no big deal to take your own as I do from now on. Please use any images on this blog as you wish.
This has also caused me to go through this entire blog and delete every single photo that I didn’t take (and even some that I did because I wasn’t sure)… That means the cheesecake photos of the sexy Japanese girls won’t be appearing anymore.
And that brings me to the next part of this missive; I’ve written many times that this blog is an exercise and study in how the Internet and Google search works. I’ve pretty much figured most of it out until Google comes out with a new algorithm for its search engine.
And that’s where I’ve destroyed my blog page views!
They say that 70% of all Internet users are guys. They also say that 70% of all Internet surfers surf porn. Well my research bears this out!
Before the hassle with the photo Nazi’s at Getty Images (insert booing here) this blog consistently rated between 7,000 ~ 9,000 page views a day, every day. Now after deleting all the photos of sexy girls, as well as a few hundred others, where do we stand?
I’m down to about 2,000 a day… (But the number has been steadily rising these last 2 weeks.)
That’s OK, though. This blog is about Japan, marketing and the media…. Guys sitting at their computer and looking at hot girls and masturbating are not exactly my target audience…
I mean, I don’t look at this particular blog for that, I don’t expect that my readers do either.
I’ve also found out how to turbo and “double” my page views simply by using a different format for the blog, but I find that sneaky and dishonest too. That’s why I am now back to the old format (sort of) that I used for the first 1.5 years of this blog’s existence.
Sexy Japanese girls photos and others do not exist on this blog site anymore. I do not use sneaky blog templates that double or triple my page views. I’ve bled lots of page views (readers?) because guys don’t come here to masturbate to photos anymore.
Unless, of course, you like long, hard things like subway trains in tunnels (use this photo free!)
Making a blog and using tools to drive people outside of my target audience to this site is dishonest and sneaky.
I don’t want to be dishonest and sneaky. I don’t want to be like Getty Images. I don’t need people masturbating to the images on this site.
If my writing can’t make them feel good or feel like masturbating, then maybe my writing isn’t good enough for 9,000 readers a day. That’s OK.
At least it’s honest.
“Used by the State, Even in Death” New Article at Lew Rockwell by Mike Rogers
6月2, 2012
I have a new article on Lew Rockwell that was an extremely difficult article to write. It is about my father’s military burial at sea and the glorification of the US military and American exceptionalism…
While it is not readily apparent, this is a fraud. Read the article to see why.
I think it might be very disturbing to many people.
Used by the State, Even in Death
http://lewrockwell.com/rogers/rogers250.html
“In Japan, the old order before World War Two told people that they went to war in China and Asia to bring peace and to fight for the emperor. In the USA, the old – and current – order tell people that they go to war to be free and to protect American freedoms.
These things are all lies.
In this regards, the Japanese are decades ahead of the average American; they figured out long ago that the propaganda was a lie. The average American still buys this trash hook, line and sinker.”
Here’s some excellent letters from ex-military readers that I received:
———
Appreciated your article. As an Army trumpeter who has performed Taps for over 1,000 funerals, I can agree wholeheartedly with your sentiments. While the service itself, when done properly, is very reverent and moving, I have seen the deaths of young men and women exploited by the government in shameless self-promotion time and time again. Ironically, I intend to state in my will that I do not want Taps, or any kind of military burial when it is my time to go, for the exact reasons you so eloquently stated…
James
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Mike (in Tokyo) Rogers,
Thank you for your recent posting on LewRockwell.com [Used by the State, Even in Death]. I am a veteran who served in both the Army and the Navy. It took me a long time to get passed the propaganda and revisionist history before I could see the world for what it is. I’m making up for lost time by reading Lew Rockwell everyday. I’m sure you’ll get some hate mail, but not from me.
Thanks,
Dave
———-
Mike,
As a multi-military brat, I have an idea of the pride with which your father
wore his uniform. I would not have wanted my USAF father or my Army aunt to have understood – in their old age – that they were put in harm’s way in
WWII (and Viet-Nam) by a group of international bankers for profit and
control. The shock would have been too depressing. But I hope they know and
understand, now, somewhere. I hope hundreds of millions of soldiers from
all times and places (but especially the modern era) understand how badly
they have been used by their supposed ‘leaders’.
———-
Mike,
I, too, came to this same conclusion many years ago… The hype and the yard of bull crap about the sacrifices necessary to protect us from communism had me fooled for a long time … To see the broken bodies of the current warriors is sad… And the politicians make sure to stand beside these poor souls in their quest to gain reelection…
I support the efforts of the misguided military people… They in fact do a good job…but to what end..
I still do not believe or understand how the national guard became our fighting force in foreign countries…Did I miss the memo changing them from home guard in the states to what they are now?… Old guys with families dying or maimed in combat…
While the bureaucrats stand firm about this constant battle to protect us (we) citizens from harm from the invisible terrorists with our own form of terrorist called the TSA..
As the saying goes freedom isn’t free. And we are losing it fast…How easy to fool the masses of sheeple…Wave the flag and play the national anthem…gets them every time…
P T Barnum had it right…a sucker born every minute…or was that a fool and his money will soon be parted …either way we lose in the eyes of the rest of the world…we are tolerated not loved by them…and they want to come here to get on the gravy train not because its the last best place…
Charlie Schumer’s bill will disallow leaving with your money… so we are trapped inside this monster…the politicos want your money and will legislate it into the coffers of the govment…if all is not lost where in hell is it hiding…
Sorry for the loss of your father and also sorry it was not a proper ceremony with respect to his service…
I believe political war (and most are) is wrong…except for the revolutionary war…and I now think that outcome (constitution) is slowly being stolen from us… With that in mind… Keep the faith
————-
You`re not at all insane when criticizing the abuse of even an individual`s death by the criminal state and its military. Plain abuse of every individual not belonging to the ruling elites by the state is the truth and you should never be ashamed or afraid of the truth even if it concerns matters of family and heart. The sacrifices of soldiers were never made for protecting the freedoms of their loved ones back home but always for the interests of the ruling elites. If you are a moral and honest person and use your brain the only choice you have in life is to detest the military and say so explicitly. It doesn`t matter at all if you will be criticized for your article by people without a functioning intellect. The only thing of importance is that you always remain sincere vis-a-vis yourself!
Best regards
Ferdinand
————–
My condolences twice. Once for your loss of your father and then for the
thoughts that you must hold under the circumstances.
Having said that, this old Vietnam veteran jar head laughed out loud
(really) at your last line.
Peace,
Dave
———