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I-401 is Found! 20 March 2005.....I-401 was one of three huge Japanese submarines taken by the US Navy at the end of the war, studied and eventually scuttled in deep water. This boat and her sister I-400 had watertight aircraft hangars that housed small floatplanes which were to be used for scouting. These boats were surrendered to US Navy forces at the end of the war, taken back to Hawaii to be studied then because the Soviets were demanding access to these boats, they were taken out to sea on 31 May 1946 and used as torpedo targets of USS...

LONDON -- In October, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Hu Jintao stood together in the State Guest House in Beijing while their respective foreign secretaries signed an historic agreement defining the two countries' common 4,374-km border for the first time. The border was an issue over which several battles had been fought in the past. It took a while to close the deal because of disagreement over a few islands in the Amur, Ussuri and Argun rivers, which make up China's northwest border with Russia. Nobody spoiled the party by pointing out that this border is between Inner...

Bulb shines brightest right before it goes...poof!

Gold Core October 31, 2014 Stocks globally surged, while gold fell sharply today despite renewed hopes that the Bank of Japan’s vastly increasing money printing will fill some of the gaps left by the apparent end of Federal Reserve bond buying. The BOJ decided to increase the pace at which it expands base money to a whopping 80 trillion yen ($726 billion) per year. Previously, the BOJ targeted an annual increase of 60 to 70 trillion yen. The BOJ sailed into deeper uncharted monetary territory with the announcement that they would triple annual purchases of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and Japanese...

* Nikkei surges 4.8 pct to highest close since Nov 2007 * Asian shares extend gains made after U.S. GDP data lifts Wall Street * Dollars spikes 1.7 percent to near seven-year high against yen * Yen crosses surge after BOJ reignites carry trade Japanese stocks soared 4.8 percent to their highest close since November 2007 and the yen skidded to near seven-year lows against the dollar on Friday, after the Bank of Japan surprised markets with fresh easing steps it called a pre-emptive move to stoke inflation. The Nikkei stock average marked its biggest one-day gain since June 2013...

Mike Bird October 31, 2014The Nikkei closed up 4.83%, hitting a seven-year high after the Bank of Japan (BoJ) unexpectedly announced it was expanding its monetary easing policy Friday morning. In a tight vote, the BoJ backed an 80 trillion yen ($720 billion) target for expanding the monetary base (a measure of the amount of money held by the central bank and in the economy). That's up from a previous target of 60 trillion to 70 trillion yen. Analysts were basically not expecting anything Friday: this one was a genuine surprise. Just as the Fed this week announced the final...

Would you eat “nuclear soup”? Japanese artists serve broth made with Fukushima-grown vegetables Philip Kendall 17 hours ago Would you eat a bowl of soup made mainly with vegetables grown in Fukushima Prefecture? What if the cook swore to you that everything that went into the soup had been tested and was safe for human consumption? Would you be able to push all thoughts of Fukushima Daiichi, contaminated groundwater and Blinky the three-eyed fish out of your mind long enough to risk a spoonful? A pair of artists from Japan recently gave visitors to the Frieze Art Fair in London...

Yoshitomo Imura has become 3D printing's first martyr.  He was sentenced to two years in prison for designing and producing blank firing guns on a 3D printer.   From the-japan-news.com: YOKOHAMA (Jiji Press) — The Yokohama District Court sentenced a former Japanese college employee on Monday to two years in prison for producing guns with a three-dimensional printer. I have not seen that any of the guns actually fired a projectile; the only ones that I have seen on videos fired blanks.   Imura stated that he did not believe that he was violating the law.   Building blank firing...

Officials from Japan's health ministry say they are testing a Canadian man for Ebola. The man entered Japan from the West African country of Liberia with a fever that may be a symptom of the deadly disease. Ministry officials say they will send a sample of his blood to the National Institute of Infectious Diseases to be tested for the Ebola virus and other pathogens. They say he will be treated at the National Center for Global Health and Medicine in Tokyo. The test results are due early Tuesday. The officials say they have not yet confirmed whether the man...

Japanese health officials tested a man for the Ebola virus on Monday, after the Japanese-Canadian showed a 100-degree fever at Haneda airport in Tokyo after traveling to Liberia. Test results were expected early Tuesday. The 45-year-old man is a journalist who spent two months in the West African country devastated by a massive Ebola virus outbreak, according to the Japan Times. He was transported to the National Center for Global Health and Medicine in Shinjuku, where his blood was tested by the National Institute of Infectious Diseases. The man flew to Belgium and the United Kingdom before arriving in Tokyo....

From Shinto to Christian Pastor by John D. Morris, Ph.D. * The Institute for Creation Research recently hosted a delightful guest: Pastor Nobuji Horikoshi. (He tells people to remember his last name by noting it sounds somewhat like “Holy Ghost”.) He pastors one of the largest churches in Japan, the growing Souai Church in Mie Prefecture in south-central Japan and heads up an effective “creation voice” in Japan. He even installed an extensive creation museum on the church grounds. Recently, he visited ICR with his lovely wife of many years and his youth pastor, Satoshi Miyazaki.

A man in Britain has been convicted for his fantasies. Robul Hoque, 39, was found guilty of downloading "prohibited images" of cartoon girls, some in school uniforms, doing dirty deeds. The fact that these manga drawings are available on legitimate sites did not sway the judge. Nor did the fact that—oh yeah—there were no actual humans in the pictures. No humans. So how old, exactly, is a cartoon? Is the cartoon 7, or 9, or just shy of 18? Trick question: A cartoon doesn't have an age, because a cartoon is never born. The life meter never started ticking. If...

JAPAN is preparing to change the sub-surface propulsion system for its Soryu submarines, dumping German and Swedish technology in a move that could clear a potential barrier to Australia purchasing the Japanese boats. Tokyo’s plans to switch from the Kockums propulsion system to specially developed lithium ion batteries eliminates the potential embarrassment for Australia in ­rejecting German and Swedish bids in favour of using a sub that is powered by their intellectual property. The Kockums air-independent propulsion (AIP) system was designed in Sweden but licensed to Kawasaki Heavy Industries to incorporate into the Soryu class to power the subs on...

A Russian container ship carrying hundreds of tons of fuel was drifting without power in rough seas off British Columbia's northern coast Friday, a scenario a nearby First Nation community described as its "worst fear." The Canadian Forces' joint rescue coordination center in Victoria said the Russian carrier Simushir lost power late Thursday night off Haida Gwaii, also known as the Queen Charlotte Islands, as it was making its way from Washington state to Russia. Canadian Navy Lt. Paul Penderghast said the ship was drifting nine nautical miles from shore, though he said it was largely maintaining that position. "It...

A drop in global oil prices, driven in part by a boom in U.S. shale oil production, is threatening to hit the economies of energy-exporting Russia and Iran harder than Western economic sanctions have done.

China will need to produce about 1,200 fourth-generation fighters to be able to confront the air forces of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, if the three nations are successful in their bids to acquire advanced American fighters, in any potential conflict, according to the Moscow-based Russian Military Analysis on Oct. 9. Even though Taiwan maintains close economic ties with mainland China, the Russian-language newspaper said that the Taiwanese government under the leadership of Ma Ying-jeou has not given up its intention of purchasing advanced fighters from the United States such as the F-16C/D and even the F-35. Japan and South...

A HIGH-POWERED German submarine delegation is in Canberra to demand an open competition for the nation’s biggest ever defence contract — a new navy submarine. German giant ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS), the parent company of leading submarine builder HDW, has launched an aggressive bid to head off Japan for the multi-billion dollar job. And in good news for thousands of shipyard workers at the ASC yard in Port Adelaide and elsewhere around the nation, TKMS said it would be happy to build the boats in Australia. The company has built more than 160 diesel powered submarines and it has promised...

The United States and Russia are dangerously close to stumbling into a war over Ukraine that could go nuclear and kill hundreds of millions of people in a single day, a Nobel laureate who is one of the world’s leading experts on the dangers of nuclear weapons warned in Washington this week. “It’s an incredibly dangerous situation. …If there’s a nuclear war tonight, that’s the Northern Hemisphere (of the entire world) gone, Dr. Helen Caldicott told a National Press Club Newsmakers news conference on Wednesday. She was speaking on the topic: “Ukraine: Is Nuclear Conflict Likely?” Caldicott is an Australian...

One U.S. airman has been found dead and two others are missing after waves caused by Typhoon Phanfone swept them away in Okinawa, according to a U.S. military official.  "Three airmen were washed out to sea from the northwest coast of Okinawa," the U.S. Air Force at Kadena Air Base said at 3:45 p.m. local time Sunday.  Typhoon Phanfone is lashing southern Japan with strong wind, high waves and torrential rain as millions brace for what looks to be a direct impact. At one point on Saturday, the U.S. military's Joint Typhoon Warning Center analyzed 150 mph winds within Phanfone, designating it...

The iconic image of majestic bullet train blasting past the snowcapped peaks of Mount Fuji has become a symbol of Japan's growth into an economic and technological juggernaut. This month, the blue-and-white liveried Shinkansen Bullet Train that stars in the photo above is officially 50 years old. Over the past half century, the Bullet Train has become inextricably linked with the nation and the people it has served so diligently. Since its debut in 1964, the Shinkansen has grown from a single line connecting Tokyo and Osaka to lines linking all parts of the country. These days, the BBC reports...