JAPANESE WEIRDNESS CONTINUED: Via Ed Mazza comes this LA Times story about Japanese people being scared of soccer hooligans. They got some interesting counter-measures:

Drawing on a special national anti-hooligan budget of $35.6 million, thousands of Japanese police have fanned out to warn businesses of the danger of hooligans, pronounced "fuurigans" in Japanese, in the process terrifying many shopkeepers by showing them footage of foreign soccer fans attacking police, burning shops and brawling.

One of the ingenious weapons in Japan's arsenal is something reminiscent of the Middle Ages--a sort of pole-mounted wire noose to encircle foreign ankles.

"The best way to defeat taller opponents would be to trip them up and then subdue them on the ground," police informed Japanese reporters.

Another technology is more evocative of the Roman Colosseum: nets. Police have unveiled special guns that cast large webs over intended targets. A test in December successfully entangled actors posing as the foreign menace at a distance of 16 feet.

When me and my brother used to watch G.I.Joe we always made fun of "the net;" somebody always had a net and if Snake Eyes or Mutt or anybody got caught in it they were done, instant Cobra hostages --the net could not be escaped from. Somebody in the Japanese Anti-Hooligan Office was watching too, apparently.