[k_semler]

According to Radio Australia International, a Japanese economist states that for every $2.00 USD raise in oil price, the cost to the Japanese economy is 0.3% in GDP, and it affects Asia's economy 0.8%. It appears that the media is slowly waking up to the news of Peak Oil. According to threads below, the price of oil is a regular feature on the American television stations such as CNN, (I cannot verify this, since I have eliminated the idiot box from my life). I just hope the outcome of this is a voluntary power-down, and not a last desperate effort for the remaining reserves using military force. I support a voluntary power-down over a "last one standing" policy any day of the week.

[Cid_Yama]

After reaching a 12 month high of 18240.29 in July the Nikkei has fallen over 20% closing today at 14548.34 bouncing off the 14500 mark. The Dow since October has lost nearly 15%.

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7174414.stm

[Bas]

phew....thought you were talking about today alone....you enjoy scaring people?

[Concerned]

phew....thought you were talking about today alone....you enjoy scaring people?

I thought the same, only I was excited

[like_the_dinosaurs]

Got me too. I thought perhaps the beast has finally stumbled and landed with a thud.

[ohanian]

Nikkei 38915
It wasn't just a dream
It was a reality

Deep in my heart
I know
One day

Nikkei 40000

will come

[Concerned]

Nikkei 38915
It wasn't just a dream
It was a reality

Deep in my heart
I know
One day

Nikkei 40000

will come

Oh the Nikkei will hit 40000 bread might be $100 a loaf but we'll get there.

[Magus]

Because I believe in my own justice, I felt the need to post this here...

I was looking at this game and thinking about how it possibly could have been one the inspirations for Bush's presidency.

Video 1

Liberty Island Video

Seriously, some of the dialogue here is just hideously bad...just watch.

[PenultimateManStanding]

384 defeated Samurai chose to commit suicide by opening their intestines with their own swords rather than surrender. The floor of the Fushimi Castle where they committed this act was turned into the ceiling of a temple to honor their holy act. Taught from childhood that an honorable death was their life's purpose, suicide was a ritualized way of realizing that pact with a code of life informed by Buddhist precepts. The main point of this ritualized way of suicide was that it had to be deliberately slow and painful to prove courage and honor. It meant that the Samurai's children would not lose honor and position. Now days, we hear that Japan has a very high suicide rate. I doubt that many are choosing the Samurai way, but its pretty high. They're probably taking pills or jumping off of high rises. Makes me think of the American Way: Nicholas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas. Yeah, this is morbid, but I'm watching a documentary about the Samurai.

[Ivan_M]

leaping in front of trains is a popular way to make your exit in Japan. Its painful enough to still be "honorable" apparently.

[Ivan_M]

haha, oh god. i NEED that game.

[PenultimateManStanding]

The modern versus ancient ideas about death seem worlds apart. We fret about lethal injection being "cruel." But cruel and unusual was the whole point in past ages. The Chinese were absolutely brilliant in their torture practices. Saddam Hussein's acid vats were child's play contrasted to earlier Middle Eastern Practices. Being fed figs with one's body suspended in sesame oil for months for instance. Being hung up by ropes and having pieces of skin removed daily for months for instance. The human imagination is frightfully fertile at coming up with this stuff. There must be some connection between self-awareness, awareness of death and this supra-animal penchant for imaginative torture. It is very disturbing and that is the point.

[bodigami]

I've "The Book of the Five Rings" by Musashi, but have not finished... Japanese culture is interesting. Zen is also mixed with Shinto, and suicide is a gray area in Buddhism. Basically each act is not "evil" or "good" by itself, everything that caused an event to happen can have a karmic consequence, so it varies among each case. Suicide by someone that is in Nirvana (and can chose the next rebirth) is basically leaving a house for another, but suicide out of desperation is an act of a fool.

[bodigami]

The modern versus ancient ideas about death seem worlds apart. We fret about lethal injection being "cruel." But cruel and unusual was the whole point in past ages. The Chinese were absolutely brilliant in their torture practices. Saddam Hussein's acid vats were child's play contrasted to earlier Middle Eastern Practices. Being fed figs with one's body suspended in sesame oil for months for instance. Being hung up by ropes and having pieces of skin removed daily for months for instance. The human imagination is frightfully fertile at coming up with this stuff. There must be some connection between self-awareness, awareness of death and this supra-animal penchant for imaginative torture. It is very disturbing and that is the point.

indeed, someone that is conscious of its own death but ignorant of basically everything else tend to be an imaginative demon.

[PenultimateManStanding]

The devout Hindu King Rajaraja was also concerned about Karma. He built some of the worlds most magnificent temples in southern India. He waged war against the north to finance these buildings but knew it was wrong to kill. Bad Karma. The solution was to build ever more splendid temples for the Gods. They were enormous, built from granite and rivaling the Egyptian Pyramids easily if not surpassing them. Thus he ensured his Karma.

[Angry_Chimp]

Suicide by someone that is in Nirvana (and can chose the next rebirth) is basically leaving a house for another, but suicide out of desperation is an act of a fool.

What a stinking pile of sappy shit. Killing yourself is killing yourself. Zensui if you ever get to “nirvana” again please do me a favor and “leave your house for another”. I’ll be sure to get you a nice house warming gift like a fresh new turd on your grave…

==AC

[bodigami]

Suicide by someone that is in Nirvana (and can chose the next rebirth) is basically leaving a house for another, but suicide out of desperation is an act of a fool.

What a stinking pile of sappy shit. Killing yourself is killing yourself. Zensui if you ever get to “nirvana” again please do me a favor and “leave your house for another”. I’ll be sure to get you a nice house warming gift like a fresh new turd on your grave…

==AC

You're talking out of ignorance. Continue living your life as a slave of anger, it's not my problem.

[bodigami]

The devout Hindu King Rajaraja was also concerned about Karma. He built some of the worlds most magnificent temples in southern India. He waged war against the north to finance these buildings but knew it was wrong to kill. Bad Karma. The solution was to build ever more splendid temples for the Gods. They were enormous, built from granite and rivaling the Egyptian Pyramids easily if not surpassing them. Thus he ensured his Karma.

Both karmas has consequences, they cann't be neutralised by each other. And that king is still part of kama-dhatu (Samsara).

[PenultimateManStanding]

Both karmas has consequences, they cann't be neutralised by each other. And that king is still part of kama-dhatu (Samsara).

OK, if those are the beliefs I can't quarrel with it. But history is history. btw, they used elephants to pull the 40 ton granite blocks up 6 mile ramps and they used those same elephants to wage their wars to get the gold to finance it.

[Angry_Chimp]

Suicide by someone that is in Nirvana (and can chose the next rebirth) is basically leaving a house for another, but suicide out of desperation is an act of a fool.

What a stinking pile of sappy shit. Killing yourself is killing yourself. Zensui if you ever get to “nirvana” again please do me a favor and “leave your house for another”. I’ll be sure to get you a nice house warming gift like a fresh new turd on your grave…

==AC

You're talking out of ignorance. Continue living your life as a slave of anger, it's not my problem.

Yes yes I see. You are attempting to say if someone kills themselves while in a state of “nirvana” it has, in some magical way, more "value" than someone just will-nilly putting a .45 in their mouth and pulling the trigger. Like this lad:
http://tinyurl.com/yre9ss

And I’m ignorant. LOL. Yes I’m a slave to anger and you’re a slave to illusions [nice choice I must admit]. Your illusions will bring you much more "happiness" than my anger but in the end we are all worm food my friend…

==AC

“I want nothing, I fear nothing, I am free”
~Nikos Kazanzakis, epitaph on his grave stone