indeed, it is an engineering marvel: a submersible aircraft carrier! If that's not cool, I don't know what is.

This is very important, as they did not randomly pick studies but rather chose the ones they "Deemed Worthy". As they did not want to be proven bad scientists (I assume), their conscious or unconscious bias will have been towards sound or easy studies.

The solution is to give one island to North Korea, one to South Korea, One to Taiwan and one to Japan. Watch the fireworks for a while, and realise when the smoke has lifted that there are no spots left above the waterline. Everyone has had their opportunity to blow off some steam and very few citizens will get hurt.

You could consider that, but the stockholders would get personally offended. They'll then split up the companies and sell the bits for scrap to maximise their profits. Nearly happened to Philips a while back.

" It doesn't help that China feels they have still never received a proper apology"

Which is interesting, as there have been a fair few apologies from the Japanese:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_war_apology_statements_issued_by_Japan

But somehow, even among the Dutch, there is a persistent belief that Japan never apologised.

There was a report the other day saying that China is trying to claim enough islands around the east china sea so that it can claim the entire sea as an "inland sea". Hence the disputes over islands with everyone, from Indonesia to Japan. It seems like they are hoping to claim enough barren rocks to make this dream a reality.

It was said back then that this is necessary for fishing and mining.

"The reason it has been around so long, perhaps is an indicator it has merit."
No, that's an argumentum ad antiquitatem. Just because it is old does not mean it is good. The bible and its ideas are quite old and tenacious, but that does not necessarily mean they have any merit.

Just wanted to point that out, and would like to indicate that if you google "how to win every argument", you'll end up with a PDF of a quite nice book detailing the argumentative fallacies.

Most ports do not allow nuclear-powered ships to moor, so change that first.

FYI, the EU consists of quite a few countries, not just four.

Don't you mean beryllium? That has the benefit that if a few beryllium atoms leave the surface and enter the plasma, you don't immediately collapse your plasma. Also, beryllium is one of the nastier materials to machine.

B.

Actually, you can use most ATMs around the country, but most close in the evening and at night.

But yes, they generally distrust computers. And given the latest NSA/GCHQ revelations, I have to agree!

Funny enough, when they build something here in Japan, they *can* build it on time and within budget. There's a lot wrong with the Japanese, but they do know how to plan and budget construction. It seems like we are under a mass delusion in Europe (place of origin) that it is impossible to build things on time or within budget.

Why should the severity of border checks be proportional to land area?

And the .jp security checks at their international airports never gave me anything but very professional responses. It is one of the few places where they also don't raise a stink when I ask them to hand-check my photographic film.

Yes, most of the online backup services offer this. Crashplan does the same. I have the keys, they don't.