US jail population reaches 1.3 million

1,300,000 US citizens in prison!
Highest in the world. This is only those in prison. There are people on parole, and people who don't get caught...Is this a scary place to live?

Canada won't attend the United Nations Follow-up Conference on Racism

It is a shame that Canada has decided not to participate in the upcoming United Nations Follow-up Conference on Racism in Durban, South Africa.
The UN says "racism is too important an issue for member states not to work out their differences."
The issue is centered around Israel. Unfortunately, Israel's over-use of the term "anti-Semitism" to describe any discussion of the activities and policies of the nuclear-armed nation (which is the subject of numerous UN resolutions), smothers free speech.
Only through discussion can an end be found to the disgusting existence of racism and bigotry. Ignorance exists beside racism, and if all nations can sit down and resolve their differences then the world will be a better place. What did conflicts like World War 2 and Rwanda achieve, apart from a historical example of what happens when societies don't talk about their differences?
Shame on Canada to become hostage to the Jewish lobby.

Lets love everyone!

Anybody care for Udo?

I found this veggie(called Udo) in a market stall in Takastuki. It was the first time I have seen it.

Udo is a vegetable grown for its tender, etiolated spring shoots, which are a bit like asparagus. The plant is a strong growing perennial, producing the edible shoots from the roots each spring.
Before eating, the shoots are boiled in salt water, or are sliced and soaked in cold water, to remove a turpentine like resin. They are then eaten raw as a salad or cooked.

How about Blair?

The truth slowly emerges that he lied about US Renditions(torture?). As well as illegally invading Iraq against the will of the people who voted for him, attacking the BBC for freely reporting criticism about Iraq, he also deliberately brought the UK to the forefront as a target of terrorism. He went from being the most popular Prime Minister to one of the most hated.

His new job "middle east peace envoy" has seen the expansion of Israeli settlement building, no dismantling of West Bank checkpoints, collective punishment wrought on the suffering Palestinians in Gaza, and continued Israeli bombardments on Gaza which of course solicit reprisals and the continuation of stupid violence.

Now he wants to be the President of EUROPE!

The only way to get ahead in life is to start your own business!

Someone has the right idea to make it big and make a million.
Selling BEETLES!
Why didn't I think of it!!!!

Menu
- Rich beetle soup with croûtons
- Roasted beetle on a bed of grass
- Beetle with hot chocolate sauce

There must definitely be a demand...

Rubbish in the sea

I love nature and I love the sea. So I am absolutely disgusted at the state of many coastlines in the world. In Japan, at beaches from Toyama to Okinawa, I have witnessed masses of pollution. Whether from China or Korea(easy to blame) or from Japan(especially the Japanese fishing industry) there is absolutely no excuse for throwing rubbish in the sea.
This is not just a problem in the Sea of Japan. I have witnessed disgusting litter on scenic Thai islands, the Mediterranean, North Sea...it is a worldwide problem and there is no excuse for this. Please do your bit...let's keep this world clean.

About 15,000 plastic containers have washed ashore on the Sea of Japan coast since January, with one third of them carrying Hangul characters, Environment Ministry officials said Tuesday. The containers have washed ashore in 11 prefectures, and the ministry plans to ask the South Korean government to investigate the cause and to take preventive measures, the officials said.
By prefecture, 4,662 containers have washed ashore in Nagasaki, 3,738 in Shimane and 2,078 in Fukuoka, the officials said. The plastic tanks have a capacity of about 20 liters. Some of them carry Hangul characters for "hazardous" or "oxidizing agent," while others carry chemical formulas for hydrogen peroxide solution and nitric acid, the officials said.

Japan Today

Who killed Diana?

If it wasn't a murder, why are there so many ambiguities?
If it was just an accident, why would so many "suspects" be hiding in the background?
And, what use is it caring about this one murder? Surely we should trust the motives of the alleged conspirators as it is their job to lead Great Britain and it is not up to us to question their methods . Or is it?

Mohamed Al Fayed claims:

The car crash in which Diana, Dodi and their driver, Henri Paul, were "murdered" was orchestrated by MI6 on the instructions of the Duke of Edinburgh

Britain is not really a democracy, but is controlled from behind the scenes by Prince Philip, the Lord Chamberlain and an organisation called the Way Ahead group "who decide the destiny of this country"

The murder was carried out at the behest of the security services by photographer James Andanson, who has since died, by using a strobe light to blind Mr Paul

Mr Andanson was later murdered by British security services

The then-prime minister, Tony Blair, was part of the plot

British and French security services employees may have been part of the ambulance crew that took Diana to hospital to ensure she bled to death. A hospital which could have treated her was 10 minutes from the site of the crash, Mr Al Fayed said, but she was not taken to another medical building for an hour

Robert Fellowes, the Princess's brother-in-law and at the time the Queen's then-private secretary, was at the British Embassy in Paris prior to the accident and took control of the building's communication centre to contact GCHQ

Sir Michael Jay, at that time the British ambassador to France, was also involved in the conspiracy

The CIA also took part by tapping mobile phones

Princess Diana told Mr Al Fayed personally that "she knew Prince Philip and Prince Charles were trying to get rid of her"

Prince Philip was a "Nazi" and a "racist", and his real name "ends with Frankenstein"

Diana's divorce lawyer, Lord Mishcon, wrote a note in October 1995 outlining her fears that there was a plot to kill her in a car crash. Lord Mishcon passed this to police after the crash

But it was only after the princess's ex-butler, Paul Burrell, produced a note from the princess making similar allegations in the Daily Mirror in October 2003 that the Metropolitan Police agreed to hand over the note to the inquest

Diana and Dodi told Mr Al Fayed one hour before the crash that she was pregnant and that the couple would announce their engagement days later. Mr Burrell was also told

Dodi told Mr Al Fayed: "I bought the ring"

But once the security services - who were bugging their phones - learned of their plans, the decision was taken to have them assassinated

Diana told Mr Al Fayed that she had kept a wooden box, and if anything were to happen to her the contents of the box must be made public

Mr Burrell and Diana's sister, Lady Sarah McCorquodale, had promised to keep this box safe, but failed to do so

Mr Paul was in the pay of MI6, as was Diana's close friend Rosa Monckton

Blood supposedly taken from the body of Mr Paul in a Paris mortuary after the crash - which appeared to show the driver had been drinking - was not really his

Professors Lecomte and Pepin at the mortuary were employed by French intelligence to switch the samples and assist the cover-up

In addition, mortuary staff took Diana's "guts out to really completely falsify the body" and conceal that she was pregnant. She was embalmed to "corrupt the body"

The former home secretary, Jack Straw, was acting on the orders of "dark forces" when he refused Mr Al Fayed a passport

Bodyguard Trevor Rees - the only survivor of the Paris crash - was "turned against" Mr Al Fayed by MI6, as were his colleagues Kes Wingfield and Ben Murrell

Journalists working for the Daily Mail, the Mail on Sunday, The Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph - acting on the instructions of MI6 - have all been engaged in a campaign to destabilise Mr Al Fayed's businesses as a punishment for speaking out against the conspiracy

Diana's relationship with heart surgeon Hasnat Khan was "not serious". Mr Al Fayed said she would never marry someone who "lived in a council flat and has no money."

(source BBC)

Deer surprise

Cars, motorbikes and buses pass by oblivious to two diners enjoying the abundance of food along the Kamogawa riverbed. First time I have seen deer so close to the centre of Kyoto!

Toxic raindrops a-falling on our heads

"President George W Bush has directed a U.S. warship to shoot down an out-of-commission spy satellite..."
The US lead worldwide protests after China shot down a weather satellite in orbit January 2007.

UN says 1 billion could die from smoking

Congradulations to Kyoto and all the other cities in the world for making an effort to limit the damage done from tobacco. The implementation and enforcement of the No Smoking Zone in the centre of the city is a great step forward towards ending the pain, misery, and cost to society of such a harmful, addictive drug. But it is only a start...

The World Health Organization estimates that there are around 1.3 billion smokers in the world, of which almost 1 billion are men. This represents about one third of the global population aged 15 and over. The consumption of tobacco is changing - from the developed world to the developing world. The vast majority of smokers, around 84% or 1 billion people live in developing countries. If current trends continue by 2020 tobacco will kill 10 million people each year, with 70% of those coming from the developing world.

USA owns Lebanon?

"There is no excuse for foriegn influence in Lebanon..."
Bush

(Currently the US-backed government in Lebanon is unable to elect a new prime minister against a backdrop of political violence)

I was wrong. They do eat all OUR fish so lets wipe em all out!

A whales diet

All cetaceans are carnivores and do not consume plants or algae as food. The large Baleen whales eat schooling organisms that range in length from minute drifting mollusks, copepods(1 cm or less), krill(1–5 cm), and small fish and squid up to about 40 cm. All these are consumed by whales in vast quantities with each concentrated mouthful. Certain smaller baleen whales, such as the minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata), also pursue individual fish up to 1 metre long. Toothed whales, which range in length from about 1 metre for the finless porpose (Neophocoena phocaenoides) to 20 metres for the sperm whale, eat an enormous variety of prey ranging from small shrimp, fish, and squid to bluefin tuna(3 metres long) and giant squid.

Encyclopædia Britannica

Greedy fish-eating whales

Conversation with a drunk salary man on the Shinkensen from Nagoya to Kyoto

God(me in disguise): Why do you have to come to NZ and kill our whales?
Salaryman: Why not?
God: Well, for a start, we love whales. They are our friends...
Salaryman: We have to kill all the whales because they are eating all our fish...
God: Our fish? But most whales don't eat fish...
Salaryman: Yes they do. Whales eat all our fish, that is why there is not enough fish...

Pix...Whale meat for sale in the local supermarket (for research purposes of course)!

February 14 2008

How do you spell cold?
Is it...-1 degree?
How can people live in Canada?
Why do we live in cold places without hairy backs? I never thought I would ever wish to have a hairy back, but every time I go outside...

Today I will go to Nagoya on the Shinkensen. I hope there are palm trees there!

Pix for today, is the view from my window....no, the white stuff is not ice cream!

North Kyoto, January 27 2008

WELCOME TO MY WORLD

Kyoto.
2 degrees
Snow