She bleeds...
http://ykk.misago.org/Afternoon2002/7
Most people probably think as robots being mechanical, well probably not after reading YKK.
Robots also seem to be able to do stuff with their skin:
http://ykk.misago.org/Volume7/78
"Her diet?" Does this mean that what they eat affects how they look? That means they must grow to some extent, maybe they grow in the biological sense, but are immortal in the sense that they don't age.
Their eyes are mechanical we know that, since Kokone said that the camera works like their eyes do, so it seems to imply that they are partially mechanical and partially non-mechanical.
- Michael Kao
Saturday, May 1, 2004
> Their eyes are mechanical we know that, since Kokone said that the
> camera works like their eyes do, so it seems to imply that they are
> partially mechanical and partially non-mechanical.
Just a thought:
It might be that the camera simply possesses the same bio-mechanical synthetic eye as robots do, not that they are necessarily "mechanical".
Yes, despite the mechanical-seeming way in which Sensei repairs Alpha's skin in "Rain and After", those hints you mentioned have made me think that robots in this world are bio-mechanical, perhaps similar to Replicants from Blade Runner or DADoES, but with longer, not shorter, life spans.
Personally, I am beginning to think of Alpha and the others as genetically-engineered beings (as some were intimating in a thread about the mushrooms). Rather than mechanical, constructed things.
The problem is, *how* do we account for the fact that Alpha is going to live far longer than humans, if not forever? If she is organic, I mean.
What continues to trouble me is how they can be "made of" those sounds and experiences that human value, as Kokone spoke of. I used to think of it as a programming metaphor, but what if she means it literally?
- Ian Darrow
Sunday, May 2, 2004
Just as Ian, I also thought about the time she was repaired by Sensei. It's only a small country clinic, but they can still exchange skin? I don't think so. And since Sensei is talking about coats and layers, makes it sound like her skin is pretty much some kind of un-organic "paint".
But, I do think she is pretty much organic, since she can do stuff like eat and cry (getting liquid to the tear channels would require some kind of organism to reach the eyes, since it doesn't seem like she has a "tear tank" she fills from time to time).
- Tomas Schonbeck
Sunday, May 2, 2004
Oh, and just after I posted the previous post, I noticed that Alpha talks about her eyes in the "Rain and After" chapter: "Originally my tear ducts was only so I could moisten my eyes." (MangaProject translation)
This would indicate her eyes are not exactly like the one in the camera, since it doesn't need moisture.
But, the YKK Tranlslations version says it's "to clean my eyes." Now that could make sense, since even camera lenses needs to be cleaned from time to time.
I wonder which translation is more on spot?
- Tomas Schonbeck
Sunday, May 2, 2004
I would translate it as "to lubricate my eyes".
- kGo
Sunday, May 2, 2004
Don't have a theory but in chapter 49 she gets sunburnt just like Takahiro & Makki. One of my favourites, reminds me of days out when I was a kid.
- Christopher Davey
Sunday, May 2, 2004
Living organisms can live for something near eternity. Given that they have enough resources and don't get blown over by wind, trees have been known to live for several thousands of years. Turtles can live for several hundred years as well. Atleast they used to be able to before humans started killing them all. Cancer is technically "immortal" because of some long and complicated stuff that I don't feel like explaining right now (just know that you can grow a cancer culture forever without the tumor tying because of old age).
Immortality is not necessairly far from us even now. In the YKK world I'm sure they've already figured out some part of it.
- Michael Kao
Sunday, May 2, 2004
Oh and one more thing I noticed and forgot to mention.
Alpha was there at the initial catastrophe. Atleast this is what I gather from what I have read. I don't remember exactly where she said it, but she says something about Mt. Fuji and liking how it used to look, so she remembers what happened before, assuming that Mt. Fuji was part of the great catastrophe in YKK.
- Michael Kao
Sunday, May 2, 2004
When i think of how Alpha and the others are constructed i think that they are syntetic creatures made with biotecholagy. where the technolagy involved is made to exactly mimic, or even be indesteguishable form the real thing. because when you think about it what are we but carbon baised machines. our muscles are just strands of protine that revert to a predetermined shape when electric stymulis is applyed via our nervious system. so its not hard to believe that an android would have a system of tubes to move a liquid that carries materials for system matainance to different parts of they're bodies, and how dissimilar would it be from our blood then?
As for eternal life. there's actaully no reason why our bodies HAVE to grow old and die. the only reason it happens is becase as our body replaces lost or damaged cells, itdoesn't make a perfect copy, even though its perfectly capable of doing so. This almost implies that we're programed to decay. it you take out that programming theres no reason why you wouldn't go on living with out getting old.
- Canti-sama
Sunday, May 2, 2004
I have the feeling the references to the robots' eyes is a homage to Blade Runner. If so we should also remember the parts about implanted memories, so we cannot be sure that Alpha really experienced the disaster and truly remembers mount Fuji before the disaster.
Implanting memories might be the most efficient way of uploading neccessary knowledge to a robot.
- C_P
Monday, May 3, 2004
Hmmm. Living tissue around a robot body... Where have I heard that before? I think Alpha's skin is an organic analogue, a synthetic material that matches the properties of human skin quite closely. It must be able to heal to some extent, as some advanced "memory" and self-annealing plastics are supposed to do (perhaps that's what the "blood" does), but gross damage must require repair. The other thing is that her hair required replacement, it wasn't a question of it growing back, it must also be synthetic (which is why I'm pretty sure Ayase's not a robot, the guy shaves).
As to Alpha's organic compounds, as has been said, she eats, though not as much as a human being, her fluid intake seems to be the same (if not more) and she can certainly get drunk. She doesn't seem susceptible to disease and we know she doesn't age (must have found a way to prevent telomere loss in whatever organic tissue she does possess). She does sleep though...
It's just one of the strange things about Alpha and her world I guess. Like the animals...
- Andy Tucker
Monday, May 3, 2004
Just some stuff on why robots would even have tear ducts. Same reason that (arguably) we have them, cleaning dust from our eyes. I can think of two cases where I've seen this before. Asimov's Foundation books, there is an excerpt where they talk about the (quite definitely mechanical) robots having tear ducts for cleaning the eye-cameras. And I think StarTrek with Data talked about similar things.
just a couple more thoughts, that's all.
- tadpol
Monday, May 3, 2004
Alpha's reaction to protein is very organic, isn't it?
I had to shudder watching her try drinking milk in chapter 11. I know exactly how that feels!
- Brad
Tuesday, May 4, 2004
There is another well known reference to tear ducts in literature, that of Molly in William Gibson's book Neuromancer. Molly is human but has artificial implants including eye implants. Her tear ducts were rerouted so she spits to dispose of tears.
- C_P
Wednesday, May 5, 2004
>that (eyes) of Molly in William Gibson's book Neuromancer
I always considered those glass implants bad sci-fi anyway: How are her eyes getting enough oxygen to prevent the cornea from being damaged (a problem with contact lenses), and how to prevent moisture from steaming up their inside? Small wipers?:-)
- Rainer
Friday, May 7, 2004
Person after ready the series up to now and watch the OVAs the "robots" in YKK are ether machines design to be like humans(think Nano-tech with their cells being machines). Or something along the lines of Bio-Androids like you can see in Outlaw Star and other animes, Organic and inorganic fused into one. Incase you'd never seen outlaw star think Cyborgs but instead of being modified after birth Bio-Androids are built.
More Likely I'm think it's a mixture of both.
As for her skin, people get skins graphs all the time any more. More then like after getting burned by the lightning she need a few graphs her self. Easier if you have the tech to simple replace damaged skin rather then to try to let it heal. Even for a human. Damage skin can get infected, scar ect.
- Miah
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
> I always considered those glass implants bad sci-fi anyway:
The background for her implants are as numerous as they are unclear (no pun). For instance it is quite possible these were borrowed from John Shirley's book City Come A'walkin (I think it was). Secondly mirrorshades was one of the trademark of this group of authors. Possibly straining it a bit but it might also be the works of the Zeitgeist, with links to the artificial eyes of the replicants.
I thought her eyes were replaced with artificial ones, not just implanted shades over her biological eyes though this is not entirely clear from the books.
In YKK a point is made about the robot's eyes being mechanical and used in cameras. I am not sure of the symbology in either story, gate to the soul perhaps?
- C_P
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
I wonder what happens if the "super brown sugar" [a2003, 66] is put into the "caramel-like thing" slot of the camera [v2, p22].
- kGo
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
It's pretty obvious that they are biological beings. Alpha "grows" skin and hair, and she has said that she does eat, although she need very little to survive. I would assume that they live on carbohydrate since there's not many land animal's left thus protien and fat would be harder to come by. This may explain her strange reaction to alcohol and sugar since both are concentrated form of carbs.
I don't think human being would replace themselves after they're extinct with mechanical robots. They must somehow create self-sustaining biological beings. However, the question is, how does robots reproduce? The manga only touches a little about their past so we it's easier to make girls than boys, and that they have to go to a "school" first, but how are they created in the first place? Can the robots reproduce themselves? They can't be dependant on humans or else when we're all dead how can they keep on existing? Hmmm...
- JC
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
Well, Ayase's flying fish appears to be an engineered lifeform. It reproduced.
- Loran
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
Hmmm... do we know for sure it was engineered? I was thinking they are more like the strange "plant" life forms; part of mutated new life of this Earth.
If they are indeed created life forms like the the robots, then I guess robots can reproduce then. That's good news since I don't think mankind can survive another 3-4 generations before extinction. Alpha's memories would be all that's left of humanity.
Boy, if even those fishes are "faked", then the animal life of this planet has indeed become extinct. Were fishes ever shown in the manga aside from the Ayase's pets? I know there's still insects around. So maybe only invertebrates became sterile?
- JC
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
There are plenty of fish around; Ayase's flyer, Kamas, is trained to catch fish and retrieve them.(Vol 2: 043.jpg).
There don't seem to be any large farm herbivores like cattle or sheep (but milk seems to be available for cafe au lait, Alpha's Nemesis. Goats maybe?) Perhaps Mr. Ashinano isn't good at drawing large animals...
- Robert Sneddon
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Come to think of it, I never noticed any even small furry animal during Alpha's year-long trip either. I mean aside from the trees and some isolated insects, whole forrests are devoid of animal life.
Maybe that's why nature created water gods. There's gotta be something else on land aside from insects and plants.
Anyone recall seeing reptiles? Amphibians like frogs in YKK? If fishes survived why not reptiles? We know there are no more birds around, so if reptiles and amphibians survived, then maybe only warm blood animals are doomed to extinction.
- JC
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Howdy,
The lack of large animals may be due to the fact that most of them (in current day Japan) are in the north of the country. The only real pasture land available in in Tohoku or Hokkaido. Further south, development pressures keep the animals out.
So it may be that now that there is more space, the animals are just centralized in the north. And since the areas are now separate "countries", they may be hoarding the animals as trade goods.
Best,
Dave
- dDave
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
That doesn't explain why there are no land animal, large or small, anywhere. Only kamas, fishes, and insects. I don't recall even seeing a bird in YKK.
I think a lot of people are not buying the exinction theory... I would strongly recommend all of you to re-read the series with this information in the back of your heads... a LOT of the chapters would suddenly make sense, and you would appreciate Asahino's sutlety even more.
- JC
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Howdy,
I think everyone agrees that there is some sort of extinction going on, but Ashinano has also taken pains to let us know that it's a slow, gentle process.
I can't recall any other animals at the moment, but there are birds.
http://ykk.misago.org/Volume8/101
Best,
Dave
- dDave
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Thanks for pointing out the bird, I've been trying to find a panel with birds and all I come up with are kamas. It's fair I guess... the dinosaurs did go through their own extinction event; won't be fair go through with another one. :)
So I guess it is a mammal-only extinction. Then it would make sense that Sensei and owner would experiment with bird DNA as well as fish/reptile DNA in the creation of robots. Now that also explains in my mind Alpha's "dream" about flying. She's part fish AND bird... it all comes together now.
- JC
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
The large animal observation invites me to recount New Year's Eve 2002 in Tokyo. The TV news reported the appearance of a good-sized wild boar loose in the streets of Roppongi (I believe, or Asakusa...I was having fun).
So, besides crows and cats, there are a few larger animals south of Hokkaido.
But in YKK, they seem to have been depleted. Radiation? Desperate and intensive post-event hunting?
Everyone is growing fantastic vegetables...where are they buying their meat and fish?
- steven austin
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
"But in YKK, they seem to have been depleted. Radiation?"
If radioactive fallout was responsible for the depopulation of the region, then almost all large land animals would have died off. Only humans capable of hiding in prepared shelters would have survive. It is doubtful that the shelters would have accomodated pets or farm animals.
After the radiation dropped to a tolerable level, the region's fish and bird population would have been restored by migration of species from unaffected areas of the planet. There would be a mad rush to fill the now empty ecological niches.
- Loran
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
As we all know there are frogs still living in Alpha's world. Now, frogs and other amphibians are highly sensative to radiation and would be the first species to die off if it were to increase. So, I'm not sure that we can say it is radiation that is causing these effects.
- Ian Darrow
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
There are more birds, cranes on the shrine entrance Alpha catches a boat past, seagulls around the cliffs, doves on the telegraph wires. We get amphibs and fish and reptiles and insects. Humanity (and a greatly depleted humanity) are the only mammals remaining.
I'm thinking plague, a cross-species broad spectrum disease that wiped out all mammalian species. You wouldn't get this in nature. But you could probably build one...
The only mammals to survive would be those humans who could get hold of a vaccine or had some natural (or intentional) immunity. If this was a biowarfare attack it was a nasty one.
- Andy Tucker
Thursday, May 13, 2004
You can find a cat in chapter 13 [v2, p96].
You can also find fair number of hawks [v2, p83] [v3, p73]. There must be plenty of small animals to feed them. Some of the animals have to be active in winter. (Frogs are not.)
- kGo
Thursday, May 13, 2004
There are plenty of cattle and pig farms in the main island of Japan. There's also a fair number of horse ranches.
As a devoted viewer of "Dotch Cooking Show" (#1 show in Japan, for gosh, years and years), I know that Kagoshima Island in Konshou (near Souther Japan) is well-known for their top quality pork, and the Kansai-region near Kobe is world-famous for their beef. The special cattle they raised, Wa-gyu", is considered the best meat cattle in the world.
The Japanese Emperor forbad the eating of land animals for almost 1,300 years, thus until the Meiji era no Japanese has a real tradition of eating beef, lamb, or pork (aside from the Ainu and a few mountain villages). But in the last 100 years or so they have caught up, and livestock farms can be found all over the place. Plus the Japanese always had cattle for farming use.
As for that cat, wow, that's the first mammal I've seen in YKK aside from human beings. Good eye! As for how it got there, well, we don't know the nature of the extinction event, like a few poster said, it could be a virus or some other biological agent. Maybe human being found a way not to get killed off entirely from the "event", and it would be sensible that the treatment is exteneded to a few house pets. Appearantly they still can't find a way to have large quantities of babies though. We don't really now exactly how the human lives in YKK anyway... maybe they have to take a perodic "shot" or some kind to survive?
If this is true, then the Tappon makes even more sense. In addition to lack of fertility, perhaps it's just plain poisonous for human beings to even live on the surface without a remedy of some kinds? Then heck yeah I would build a plane trying to get away from the surface, never to land!
This got me thinking again. How are kids born these days? I think the origins of human children may answer a lot of questions. How come Taka and Makki never talked about their parents (or they did but I missed it?) Could they be test-tube babies born out of the egg and sperm of the people most immunue to the "event"? I think it would make sense to increase fertility by matching the strongest sperm and eggs. The children born from this process are then raised more or less by the community, with them living with their "Ojisan" or "Auntie", who are probably their main adoptee/guardian. Even so, the success rate must be pretty low. There must be a group of scientists dedicating themselves in producing babies this way, but we still don't have enough of them to replace those dying of old age.
Alright that maybe stretching a bit so feel free to shot it down :)
- JC
Thursday, May 13, 2004
Howdy,
Minor quibble - it wasn't the emperor who forbade eating meat, it was the buddhist tradition. The emperor is the head of the shinto tradition.
Best,
Dave
- dDave
Thursday, May 13, 2004
I'm pretty much it was an mandate from one of the Emperors when Buddhism reached Japan. A lot of the Emperors were also Buddhist, since Shinto and Buddhism do not mutually exclude like western religions. The Emperor only ordered the nobles to not eat meat, but since the lower classes emulate the upper classes, it became a public tradition as well.
I just read about this, I'll try to find some info to back it up. The funniest thing is, that the order not to eat meat doesn't really confirm to Buddhist theories. The reason not to eat meat is to avoid killing, so to cease the accumulation of negative karma and perpetuation the cycle, but yet they didn't forbid the eating of seafood at all, so althought the intention was good, the practice has flaws. However, Japanese buddhism sects have always been kinda unique anyway.
Plus to some sects the eating of any anima flesh is not a problem anyway, but that's really for a Buddhism forum.
- JC
Thursday, May 13, 2004
Gosh people must be sick of me, but here's another thought triggered by mammalian extinction theory. Remember in a chapter Ayase were saying that rice were rare? That it's really hard to get good rice or something like that. Now why would that be? I mean vegitation grew just fine everywhere, in fact some so well they were super-sized and even intelligent (that's why I thought radiation was the reason for the extinction). So why would rice be rare and hard to get?
Well, here's some of my thinkings:
1. Rice is a labor intensive crop. There's not enough people living in farms to grow large quantities of rice since most people have moved to big cities.
2. Rice can be also be grown without many farm hands with the help of either cattle or machinery. Well, we know the cattles are probably all dead, and there's not enough qualified people to maintain complex machinery like tractors.
3. Rice may have been one of the plant lifes which has mutated. Maybe an average grain of rice is now 7 feet long, thus very hard to cook and place in a bowl. Maybe only a few place can normal looking rice be grown and eaten in the traditional way.
So I think even though there are still dedicated farmers who overcame those two problems and managed to grow rice, they are few and far between. They probably somehow either learned how to service their own tractors and secure a supply of gas, or used the good old fashion human plow. Either way there can't be too many rice farmers left and their production can't be very high; probably just enough to provide rice to their village or near by city. I guess that's why Ayase treats rice like it's some kind of valuable commodity.
I tried but I can't find that scene where Ayase talked about rice. Can some kind hearted YKK fan point it out?
- JC
Thursday, May 13, 2004
Howdy,
http://ykk.misago.org/Volume5/122
Best,
Dave
- dDave
Thursday, May 13, 2004
My thoughts are the rice is rare because most of the flat land formerly used to cultivate the rice is under sea water. The hill country is fine for growing other crops, but not rice.
- Loran
Thursday, May 13, 2004
That would be the case if most of Japan has sunk, but since most of Yokohama has survived, I'd say only the coastal flatlands has been submerged.
Plus, the Japanese has long mastered the techniques of rice farming on mountainous areas. There are rice patties all over Japan, not just on flat lands. Here's a photo of a hillside rice paddy in Japan:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/satoyama/images/hillside_icon.jpg
- JC
Thursday, May 13, 2004
Well, so much for that theory.
Since some rice gets produced, I think it is doubtful that the plant is somehow dying out or mutating. Also, there are many other grasses in evidence in the landscape, so we can dismiss a global grass-killing disease as imagined in "No Blade of Grass."
This is curious as rice and other noble grasses provide the best results per acre and per hour of work. Throughout the world, people raise other crops only if the conditions are not suitable for wheat, oats, barley, or rice. So have the climatic conditions changed in Japan to the point that rice is no longer practical? That hardly seems likely as the weather is hotter and rice grows well close to the equator.
The labor factor could be important. As you said, rice is labor intensive as are those hillside rice paddies. The importance of rice is that it produces the most carbohydrates per acre. In places such as Japan, where land was always limited, rice was the best way to maximise results from limited acreage. In Alpha's Japan, there is no lack of open land. Perhaps you are right that folks just don't need to work that hard to produce the carbohydrates they need.
While we are on the subject, what do you make of Ayase's gift to his friend: two small, and apparently rare, containers of soy sauce? Why would soy beans be rare? Curiously, Ayase is eating potatos and eggs. Hmmmm...
Potatos are common. Rice and soy beans are rare. I just don't get it.
- Loran
Thursday, May 13, 2004
It's the container which seems to be rare. Not the soy sauce.
Visit this link:
http://www.yoke.city.yokohama.jp/theyoke/no.86/c.html
- kGo
Thursday, May 13, 2004
Howdy,
The labor question points up another question about the robots. The robots seem to be a weird mix of property and family member. If there is a labor shortage, why aren't the robots out there planting the rice seedlings (which is back breaking labor)?
In the face of a possible labor shortage, why take in a robot that needs to be raised, and then let them live life as they wish? The Alpha series are more of a child/humanity replacement. Yet, Alpha calls Hatsuseno "Owner", not dad.
This for me, is the fundamental mystery of YKK.
Best,
Dave
- dDave
Thursday, May 13, 2004
Is Owner called Owner because he owns Alpha, or because he owns the cafe?
- Brad Edwards
Thursday, May 13, 2004
Howdy,
Usually the owner of a shop/bar is called "Master" in Japanese. While it's possible to call the owner "owner" as well, it's not the case this time. Alpha specifically says "My owner" in chapter 1. Neil translated it as just "owner", but in the Japanese original it's "watashi no owner" which clearly means "my owner".
http://ykk.misago.org/Volume1/16
Best,
Dave
- dDave
Thursday, May 13, 2004
Thanks for the clarification, that's been bugging me :)
- Brad
Friday, May 14, 2004
Wow, lots of great thoughts!
Interesting point: why are potatoes and eggs common, but not rice? Well, I'm no farming expert, but I thought I read that potatoes are one of the easier crop to raise. I believe with decent enough soil and sunlight, you can grow potatoe pretty much anywhere, kinda like corn. Being a root crop also helps, since you don't really need to care for it as much as other crops. I believe that in the time of famine in the past ages, root crops such as potatoes and yam are usually what saves the population from starving. As for eggs, well, we know that birds are surviving quite well, and raising an open ranch chicken doesn't have to be a lot of work if you don't want to.
And as for why don't people keep trying to make more rice, since rice is so fundamental to Japan. I mean, rice was the economy befor the Meiji era; your salary as a samurai was measured in units of rice. My theories is that, well, the world of man's a goner; most everyone accepeted that. The future is the robots, and they don't need much to survive. My guess is that a cube of sugar is all Alpha needs per day. Plus there are easier ways to get carbs, like potatoes. Thus, there's no need to grow rice for the future world. A few stubborn rice farmer probably still insist on growing it, but most other has moved on.
The world after man would be one that's sparcely populated with a small number of robots. I think what we're doing as the last master of the world is to prepare the world for the future masters: the robots.
Why aren't robots do "shit jobs" like plowing rice paddies? I think I can understand that. Robots are raised to be future master of the world, they are to take our legacy and civilization and continue it. If you manage to painstakingly create a few robots, what would you want them to do? Break their back slaving away in a rice paddy for a crop significant only to a dying race, or teach them how to maintain and fly a plane or create a painting? If people like Owner managed to easily create robots like the Clone Army in Star Wars, then we would probably ask them to do some shit jobs. But as far as we can tell, robots are still relatively rare.
Look at the robots in YKK: they all have a job or a role. Alpha's a cafe owner, Kokone's a courier, Nai flys a probably a mail plane, and Maruko's an artist. Each one of them is dedicated to their job; look how stubbornly Alpha stays with her little run-down cafe. Yes she maybe waiting for Owner to return, but she did take a year-long sabbatical too. Why are they doing these jobs? I believe is because that's what they are asked or "programmed" to do. They are to learn how to run this world by themselves, so that when we're dead, their world goes on. Rice farming's no longer critical in the robot's world, so none of them are rice farmers. But there are probably robots who are potatoe or chicken farmers thought.
As for Owner's role with Alpha, well, we know that Kokone calls robots "Children of Humanity". Seemed that it's a common knowledge to robots that they are our heir. Alpha and Owner may share a very special relationship, so the term maybe more than the liternal English meaning of the word Owner. It could just be a term of endearment and respect, rather than one of domination.
- JC
Friday, May 14, 2004
There might be another reason for them not planting rice.
Rice plantations are creating 12% of the global methane emissions nowadays. And methane is a greenhouse gas - it "heats" 22 times better than carbon dioxide. Some reports claim that methane is responsible for approx 15-20% of the greenhouse effect.
Since they got some obvious problems with global warming (increasing sea levels, no snow...), they might have stopped growing rice because of this...
While we're at it, the digestion process of animals creates 17% of the methane emissions. Did they kill all mammals to avoid global warming...?
- Beaker
Friday, May 28, 2004
That would be impossible, the killing of mammals, even if you do not completely wipe out the species would affect the food chain gravely. Possibly killing several other species and so on and so forth until it's the human's turn. Also methane among animals isn't a big deal because fungus and other microscopic species would recycle it.
- Roy Zhou
Friday, May 28, 2004
>While we're at it, the digestion process of animals creates 17% of the methane emissions.
In the typical Japanese fashion they started an R&D project to find ways of reducing methane emission from animals. I read this more than 5 years ago, not sure about results yet. Still this is better than just holding endless political meetings that ultimately will not change anything.
- C_P
Friday, May 28, 2004
As for rice, I agree with Loran's theory. Most of good rice paddies are under sea water.
- kGo
Friday, May 28, 2004
The idea of the humans killing off all the other mammals to reduce methane production and forstall global warming...
That's so insane that one can imagine an authoritarian government ramping that one up pretty quickly.
Of course, as global warming seems to be part of this story, where is the American storyline? Certainly, we would be the ones to tip the balance.
- steven
Tuesday, June 8, 2004
tsk tsk, arogant Americans. :) of course I live in the US so I can't really complain.
- Roy Zhou
Wednesday, June 9, 2004
You know, there's something I noticed about Alpha...
She's awful darn cute.
- martialstax
Friday, June 11, 2004
Heh.
Best,
Dave
- dDave
Friday, June 11, 2004
I think all of the girls in this manga are cute, than again that's just me. :)
- Roy Zhou
Friday, June 11, 2004
That's true. Alpha, Kokone and Maruko are all quite beautiful. Makki is turning out to be just as beautiful. Even Sensei was a beauty in her youth.
- martialstax
Friday, June 11, 2004
Kokone is the cutest.
- Loran
Friday, June 11, 2004
Maybe we should do a poll on this. As for me I think that Makki is the cutest and is going to turn out to be beautiful in future drawings when she grows up.
- Roy Zhou
Friday, June 11, 2004
A poll sounds entirely too mature. Can't we just fight about it as other comics fans do?
- Loran
Friday, June 11, 2004
Another vote for Kokone.. but don't you dare tell the other characters :)
- Brad
Sunday, June 13, 2004
Two points; 1. The girls are all cute, and 2. Why does everyone jump on the 'global warming' bandwagon? Fuji has obviously erupted sometime between now and then as evidensed by the change in the profile and most people remember it by the name 'sleeping fuji' maybe the islands are sinking. Climate change could be a result of the larger island of Japan becoming several smaller islands. Supposing the entire pacific rim let go over a short period . . . The changes would be catastophic! And Global warming needs play no part at all. I'm more facinated by the diversity of bio-engineered stuff (or is it mutations?) that dot the landscape.
- Pleidius
Saturday, October 23, 2004
Want to notice about lack of cattle in YKK.
- Who's milk Alpha is trying to get accustomed ro? Pigeon's? =)
So, there ARE some mammals in YKK. We just havens seen them yet. Maybe Ashinano-san just not very good in drawing them...
- Drake
Sunday, October 24, 2004
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