SuperApples

In the Saigon women's museum I read about a older lady who would create mines from unexploded US ordinance and blow up US tanks with them. That's pretty badass.

My point is, by looking at one of the replies, that people might just be misunderstanding the argument being presented, as they have a different understanding of what 'inherent' means, and if you look up a dictionary definition, you can understand why.

For example: in "existing in something as a permanent, essential, or characteristic attribute.", the first two clauses are immutable, but third is mutable.

As last names are a social construct, their characteristics and usage can change over time. Just because they started as, or are predominately used as a tool of patriarchy, doesn't mean that's what they will be in the future. If you believe that something 'inherent' is an immutable trait, that you would disagree with the premise of the argument, but if you think it's just a characteristic trait, then you would generally agree - if I change my last name to 'Orange' to signify my love of the fruit/colour, it is still a last name, but has nothing to do with patriarchy, proving that patriarchy is not an immutable trait of last names.

Personally, I think that both marriage and last names are predominately used as tools to enforce patriarchy historically and currently, but can imagine that changing in the future. But when I initially looked at the OP's statement, I disagreed, because I understood 'inherent' to be an immutable trait.

I'd buy that for a dollar!

(that guy is 100% the Robocop version of Trump)

I think the downvotes come from a semantic disagreement, based on a strong or weak definition of the word 'inherent'.

For English sources probably the best book is Tokyo Noir by Jake Adelstein

If they are built and maintained correctly. And meltdown isn't the only problem that could occur.

I don't have much faith in a corrupt, self-regulated industry, with strong yakuza ties, to do things 100% the correct way, especially given everything we know about the industry post 2011. Knowing how much local political power the company has, I know they could literally get away with murder, as no politician or police would want to be on their bad side.

Don't get me wrong, the missile was still the biggest threat, but I do believe the power plant isn't necessarily safe. An engineering and/or scientific understanding of a modern power plant doesn't mean shit if you don't consider the political and capitalist systems the that underpin their construction and maintenance.

We were in this scenario last year, when NK launched a missile towards Hokkaido, and we were on the west coast, just next to a nuclear reactor.

After getting the altert, we put on clothes, went downstairs to the sturdiest room, stuck on the TV to the NHK news, and waited. The missle plopped into the ocean off the coast, and we had tempura for lunch.

There's really nothing you can do in these situations but stay calm and do the small, sensible things.

Do you spend money to improve your life, or just to get through the week? Earning more money is hard, but money makes money - the less you spend, the less you'll need in the future, and the more you'll have to invest. It's a snowball. Once you internalise this, tracking your finances, reducing your spending, increasing your wealth, and reducing your workload becomes a fun game.

Once my wife and I realised this is what we wanted to do, it took us 7 years to quit work completely. Frugality is the most important part - not earning, not investing - lifestyle creep is a big part of why.

See:

• your money or your life
• early retirement extreme
• Mr money moustache

Many people saying 'live for the now', which is totally valid, but there's an alternative as well, which is the path I followed - devise a concrete economic plan for your life (5 year plan, 3 year plan, etc), and track ALL your spending until you have a strong grasp on how you like to spend your cash.

It's hard to make more money, so do everything you can to reduce spending in your life. No only will you increase how much can put away, but you'll need less to sustain yourself when you reduce how much you earn, due to the cultivation of a spendthrift life.

Last time I was in Bangalore there was an 80% completed, multi-story downtown building that 'didn't exist'.

It's not the laws that matter, it's who you know.

It's mostly supply and demand. In Tokyo and Osaka / satellite cities, prices are going up, everywhere else they are dirt cheap.

However, in urban areas prices still aren't as crazy unaffordable as you may think, because Japan has a very narrow wage gap (everyone in Japan thinks they are middle class, and their not wrong compared to other countries).

Another thing that makes Japan different to other housing markets, and is affected by the laws, is earthquake concerns. What other countries would call 'established' dwellings, they call 'second hand'. Laws are updated every ten years or so that mean newer dwellings are much safer than older ones. Knockdown/rebuild is so common that there is competitive prices, as there's plenty of builders to choose from. The builders are also very efficient, and apart from safety law, regulations are low (you can build whatever you like, so long as it's robust), so labour costs are much lower compared to other countries.

If you go on Suumo.jp you'll find plenty of very affordable houses, even in good areas/good rail links, but it's because they don't expect anyone will live in the house as-is - the buyer will most likely "reform" it (massive rennovation) or replace.

The state of the Japanese housing market is due mostly to cultural/economic/low immigration. If you want a policy solution other high-income countries can use to solve housing issues, the state-capitalism solution of the Singapore HDB is the best model I've come across. Second would probably be Vienna's focus on social housing.

opossums

Oh, interesting! I never realised Opossums are actually marsupials. I don't think I'll start feeding wild ones apple slices and petting them like we do brushtail possums, though.

I just came across this chunky Indonesian boy on wikipedia.