ArtfromArk

In the United States, even though pro-war demonstrators have been quoted as referring to anti-war protests as a “vocal minority”,<sup id=”cite_ref-vocal_minority_4-0″ class=”reference”>[4]</sup> Gallup Polls updated September 14, 2007 state, “Since the summer of 2005, opponents of the war have tended to outnumber supporters. A majority of…[Read more]

is that as an expat in Japan, my job is to try to make a brighter future for both Japan and the US. Russia is an iinvader in Ukraine, and has occupied Japanese islands for more than 70 years. And Putin is an “Ex” KGB agent. So take that for what it’s worth.

The Mariner spacecraft (NASA) and Venera spacecraft (USSR) provided pictorial information about the Venusian surface in the 1970s.

were the Searcy, Arkansas missile accident (just before the start of the school year in my town, 150 miles away), and the fact that the local library was a “fallout shelter”. Oh, and the “tests” on TV– “This is a test, of the Emergency Broadcasting System…”

BRI is a debt trap, and many countries are finding that out. China seeks out impoverished countries and offers them huge loans for “infrastructure”, which is built by Chinese workers. Then, when the countries cannot pay back the loans, China gets access to important infrastructure, like ports in Pakistan and Sri Lanka that can accommodate Chinese…[Read more]

I went to my local onsen hot water spa today. It was great. although we had to wear masks to check in, and had our temperature taken, but after that there was no problem. I shared baths with other men (although to be honest, bathing with other men can be BORING 🙂  ). No problem. I don’t like the restrictions this Covid stuff has placed on…[Read more]

“Through most of the Cold War, Washington regarded military neutrality as noncommittal and a cause of uncertainty; it was unclear what the Swedish and Finnish response would be were war to break out. Washington pushed Sweden to join NATO, even offering to appoint a Swedish general as commander of the Northern flank in 1951. With no formal…[Read more]

Finland does not plan to join NATO in the near future but is ready to stand with its European allies and United States by imposing tough sanctions on Russia if it attacks Ukraine, Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin said on Wednesday.
“It would have a very substantial impact and the sanctions would be extremely tough,” Marin told Reuters in an…[Read more]

Here in Japan, the government has been taking a much more flexible approach to Covid. I just got a flyer in my mailbox (distributed to everyone in my city) which reminds people that vaccines are NOT mandatory, and asks people not to discriminate against people who have had the illness or have been close to someone who has had it, and not to shame…[Read more]

I hope he’s in a better place now.

Bitcoin is the ultimate ponzi scheme. Something that only exists in cyberspace, made from and existing of absolutely nothing, whose “value” is heavily influenced by “whales”, that is, deep-pocketed pumpers and dumpers who raise and lower the price at their whim to fleece the gullible.

Many of those countries happily jumped ship in 1989-90, and joined NATO precisely to keep from being “re-integrated”. And I doubt that Finland, which won its independence from Russia in 1917-18, and fought a war against Russian invaders in 1939-40, would be too keen on “integration”.

I started school in the mid-60s, and we never had “duck-and-cover” drills in my schools. We had tornado drills, where everyone would go into the hall, and fire drills, where everyone would go outside. Ironically, on the one day we actually had a chance of getting a tornado, we all just stared out the windows as the sky turned pitch black at noon…[Read more]

I think Eridani meant “cash”. And some of us use it more than others. I have to spend around $200/month in cash just to recharge my mass transit card. And some of the local supermarkets and other businesses prefer cash, as they don’t have to pay credit card fees.

“A beaming Daniel K. Inouye, longtime Democratic United States Senator from Hawaii, stood in front of an ebullient audience of some 20,000 American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians, the largest indigenous gathering in history in Washington, D.C. It was September 21, 2004, the grand opening of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the A…[Read more]

got the ball rolling on the US submarines. One of the main selling points of a submarine, besides safety, is stealth. The French diesel-powered subs are apparently easier to detect than US nuclear-powered subs. No doubt that the Trump people made that part of their sales pitch to Australia, and the Australians started to get “buyer’s remorse” and…[Read more]

“on the rocks”, as per the Cambridge English dictionary: “likely to fail soon“.

French officials are adamant they learned that Canberra was ditching a $66 billion French submarine contract only when the first reports began to emerge in the Australian press. But Canberra insists France had long known the deal was on the rocks.

https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20210921-were-the-french-blindsided-by-the-aukus-submarine-deal

that was the GWBush administration.

since Iwo Jima is officially uninhabited and closed to tourists (due, ostensibly, to safety concerns).