ArtfromArk

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).

On-going, as of September 9 (last update).

https://jrct.niph.go.jp/en-latest-detail/jRCT2031200120

China quit buying anthracite coal from Australia because China felt “slighted” by something some Australian said, so they quit buying Australian anthracite, even anthracite that was already in Chinese ports. India said that it would by that anthracite, no problem. As a result, China started scrambling to buy lower-grade coal from Mongolia and…[Read more]

If you buy a brand new car, you get a 3-year inspection. After that, inspections are required every 2 years. Inspections are very rigorous, to keep klunkers off the roads. It used to be that inspections were required every year after a car reached its 11th year, but now it’s every 2 years, no matter how old the car is. However, parts become harder…[Read more]

except, perhaps, mild painkillers for lower back pain. They tend to stay out of the vaccine debate, since no Japanese chiropractors administer any vaccines. I haven’t noticed the need to visit a health care professional since then. They’ve just relieved the restrictions for entering a public gym have been lifted, and I am glad for that. Everyone…[Read more]

Rock mining, and brine mining. Australia is the leader in rock mining, while the “Lithium Triangle” of Chile, Bolivia and Argentine, are the “brine” leaders.  “Brine mining” is probably better for the environment. The thing is, though, if you want electric vehicles (EVs), you’ll probably have to choose between one or the other.

and Suga was some sort of dyed-in-the-wool right-wing Japanese nationalist. Now they’re backing different candidates. LOL!

And for your information, Suga was never any sort of frothing-at-the-mouth right-wing nutcase who was longing for the days of the pre-war Japanese Empire, as you portrayed him to be.

Really, you don’t seem to have a CLUE…[Read more]

Would you rather live in NORTH Korea, or SOUTH Korea?

It’s CHINA that is taking the aggressive approach. China never had a “claim” to the islands, until it found out that there were potential gas fields in the area. Then suddenly, “Those islands are CHINESE”

which makes them fairly easy to detect. The US-UK nuclear subs are much harder to detect. When Australia learned about that, they wanted to get out of their deal with France. I have no idea why Australia signed the deal with France in the first place, but it would be worth looking into how the original deal was made.

A previous Democratic governor, Gray Davis, was “recalled” because he was investigating the then- California “energy crisis” (instigated by Enron and other out-of-state “energy” companies), and he had no chance to run in the recall election. In his place, California got a foreign-born action movie actor as governor, and he promptly shut down…[Read more]

that Douglas MacArthur did a lot for Japan by giving the country a decent constitution.

when he went before the UN holding up a vial of what looked like powdered milk and claiming the Saddam was producing anthrax.