Category: general

Robots!

Also in operation at the Baltimore Center is the “MIT-Manus” robot, which has been proven in clinical trials to help stroke patients regain movement of their arms.

During therapy, a stroke sufferer sits at a table with the patient’s lower arm in a brace attached to the arm of the robot.

A video screen prompts the patient to perform an arm exercise such as connecting a series of dots or drawing hands on a clock. If movement does not occur, the robot moves the person’s arm.

If the patient initiates movement, the robot provides adjustable levels of guidance and assistance to facilitate the person’s arm movement.

In the first clinical trial of the robot, researchers found that stroke patients who used the machine four to five hours a week improved faster than those who did not receive robot-assisted therapy.

The research, carried out during the past decade, concluded that manual manipulation of a stroke victim’s disabled limb aids recovery of use of that limb.

“There had been a great deal of intuitive belief that this works, but our research provided conclusive objective evidence,” MIT professor Neville Hogan said.

How awesome is that?

In just a week, it’s climbed from 46% to 51%. Of course, a lot has happened in that week.

People seem to like Koizumi’s maverick actions. His postal reforms may actually stand a chance.

It’s been 60 years, and Japan keeps apologizing. That’s not enough for most of Asia, it seems.

Today’s Japan is not Hirohito’s Japan, just as today’s Germany is not Hitler’s Germany. But the victims of Japan’s World War II atrocities have long memories.

I think, too, that there is an aspect of jealousy at work–jealousy of Japan’s highly favorable relationship with the U.S., of its economic successes in the past six decades. Maybe it doesn’t seem to Japan’s World War II victims that the country has suffered enough, due to how well the country is doing now.

With the anti-Japan propaganda that saturates the lives of people in many parts of Asia, I’m not sure if even the passing on of the people directly involved in the war will have any effect on tensions among the countries. I only hope we’re not seeing the beginnings of a new Israel and Palestine.

Apparently the protesters outside President Bush’s Texas ranch are inconveniencing the president’s neighbors. One neighbor in particular decided to stage his own little demonstration.

Anti-war protesters outside President Bush’s ranch here were startled Sunday by gunshots fired by a Texas rancher frustrated by the group’s presence.

“Well, I’m getting ready for dove season,” Larry Mattlage, 62, told reporters of the shots fired around 10 a.m. (noon EDT).

Funnier still, this guy used to be sympathetic to the protesters’ cause.

Communist officials in Kolkata, India, are banning rickshaws.

“Westerners try to associate beggars and these rickshaws with Kolkata’s tradition, but this is not our tradition,” Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee told reporters, adding that the ban would come into effect within five months.

Chinese traders introduced the hand-pulled rickshaw to Kolkata in the early 20th century and sinewy, barefoot men pulling the vehicles are still a common sight in the city.

They are in especially great demand during the monsoon when flooded streets make it hard for commuters to use taxis or cars.

China banned hand-pulled rickshaws after the communists took power in 1949 and Kolkata is one of the only places left in the world where such rickshaws are used as everyday transport.

The only place I have ever seen rickshaws is Japan: in Takayama, Nara, and Kyoto. The rickshaws were tourist attractions, and there were both bicycle rickshaws and hand-pulled rickshaws. I have a nice picture of a young man pulling two girls in a rickshaw (and totally flirting with them) in Kyoto from our honeymoon, but I haven’t uploaded those pictures yet.

In any case, none of those were anyone’s primary mode of transportation. They were similar to the horse-drawn carriages you’ll find in American cities, like Louisville, Kentucky.

I think rickshaws are a unique part of Asian heritage. As I haven’t seen them the way they are apparently used in Kolkata, I can’t say whether or not the hand-pulled, public transportation variety is truly inhumane. I am glad, however, that rickshaws won’t completely disappear from that city, but that officials plan to replace them with motorized and bicycle versions.

In recent weeks JAL has come under more and more fire over safety issues. Here are a few of the problems that have appeared in the news:

On June 15, two front tires fell off a JAL plane as it landed in Haneda.

On July 23, a JAL Airbus A300 took off from Haneda with a known malfunction in one of its two air pressure regulators, only to make an emergency landing at Tokushima when the failing device caused oxygen masks to deploy in the cabin.

On July 24, fire and smoke were indicated by instruments on a JAL Boeing 747 on its way to Narita. The plane landed in Manila, but no traces of fire or smoke were found.

On August 11, a fiberglass panel fell from a JAL Boeing 777 that had just landed in Narita from Singapore.

On August 12, in the most damning incident of all, a JALways plane suffered engine trouble shortly after taking off from Fukuoka on its way to Honolulu. After one of its three engines burst into flames, the plane turned around and returned to Fukuoka. It has since been discovered that approximately 600 fragments of the plane were strewn across residential Fukuoka.

Japan Airlines Domestic Co convened an emergency news conference at Fukuoka Airport and apologized for the incident.

“We are very sorry as we have to report this incident to you just after we have vowed to ensure safe flights” on the 20th anniversary of the 1985 accident, said Haruyuki Egawa, head of the airline’s Fukuoka Airport branch.

20 years ago, a JAL Boeing 747 crashed into Mount Osutakayama in Gunma Prefecture and killed 520 people. One op/ed piece published today revisits the crash and stresses, “Let there never be another major air disaster“. This past Thursday, a group of bereaved family members called into question the official explanation for the cause of the crash, and demanded the release of survivor accounts. According to this group, the official explanation, that a poorly repaired bulkhead caused a change in air pressure that ripped off the airplane’s tail, is not supported by witness accounts.

Off-duty JAL assistant purser Yumi Ochiai, who was 26 at the time and onboard as a passenger, was interviewed. The records show she was asked which direction the air flowed when the cabin air pressure decreased.

“There was no air flow,” she answered on Aug. 27, 1985.

However, the transport ministry’s panel had concluded that pressurized air from the cabin had flowed into the rear part of the fuselage through an opening in the pressure bulkhead partitioning caused by metal fatigue.

Whatever the truth is in this case, it is apparent that distrust for Japan Airlines is growing. Miya Tanaka writes in even more detail for Japan Today about JAL’s continued problems this year alone, and further evidence of passenger distrust.

None of the problems and serious incidents has resulted in severe injuries to passengers, but JAL said they have started to affect its business, with cabin attendants also feeling a sense of distrust spreading among passengers.

Setsuko Onishi, 52, a JAL cabin attendant for 31 years, said there was a case in which a passenger warned a crew member that her voice was too quiet during safety checking procedures in the cabin.

Tanaka cites deregulation and overseas outsourcing as major issues in JAL safety.

To JAL’s credit, there have not been any fatal accidents since the disaster in 1985. And the company is definitely being careful: it cancelled flights in July to repair small cracks found in components of two Bombardier CRJ200 aircraft which serve regional routes. However, given the numerous negative opinion pieces appearing lately, this record alone does not seem to be fostering passenger trust.

It’s likely that the recent problems, especially the smaller incidents, are inflated in the minds of the public due to the anniversary of the accident. This is not entirely fair to JAL; however, it cannot be denied that there are issues that need to be addressed within the company.

[Cross-posted to Japundit]

…that yell was everything I’d hoped it’d be.

While conducting his investigation in the city, Conrad raises his arm, points, and says:

“Was anything over there.”

No, that’s not a typo. It wasn’t a question!

XD

…a Maoh’s gotta have a horse named Ow.

Yeeeeeeeeeeah.

(They’ve never called him a “Maoh” until this comment, so how is the audience supposed to understand that joke, anyway?)

So, I’m watching the dub.

Yes, I am a masochist.

In episode 7, the dub has Gunter say, “I saw that incredible inscription on the back of Morgif’s sword guard.” So it makes me wonder if they didn’t just mess up when typing the sub…

The “we gave that thing to the kid” line was pretty much the same, though. ;P

Of all the voice actors, I’d say Josak and Wolfram’s are closest to the source. Yuuri’s voice actor is actually fairly decent with his intonation…but he’s not Yuuri. The things he says and the way he says them actually make him seem like a different person to me. That kinda sucks.

Conrad is still horribly, horribly monotone. It’s funny, really. I’m looking forward to the Stoffel arc, especially episode 10 where he has to scream, “YUURI!” It’ll be hilarious to see the crazed look on his face paired with a decidedly monotone half-yell…

(By the way, it seems to me that a major problem with English dubs is that the actors don’t speak out, especially when they’re trying to sound “cool”. It’s like they kind of hush themselves up, murmuring rather than speaking normally. I think if they’d just let themselves talk it would work out a little better.

(Maybe.)

Shaker Village, one of Ben and Manda’s favorite places (they go there so often that they pretty much know all the animals), is being spotlighted in the next issue of Martha Stewart Living.

Amy Conway, executive editor of Martha Stewart Living, said Stewart visited Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill “a while back,” saying the domestic diva “was entranced by the architecture” and “found the place to be so beautiful.”

It wasn’t long before the idea for an article was born.

“We found it to be a great opportunity to tell our readers about Shaker style” and to “explain a very important part of our culture,” Conway said.

“It’s in such a beautiful setting … our only challenge was to find out how to edit it down” to fit the space.

Shaker Village is nice. I’ve taken some pictures there myself.

A very nice car in our apartment parking lot has the following written on its windows.

If it was a hate crime, you’d think they would have done something worse to the car. Then again, they might have been afraid of getting arrested.

Either way, whether it’s a practical joke or not, it’s uncool, and kind of icky to have happen near where I live.

Yahoo! News has a story about NK News, a “searchable database of North Korean propaganda”. From NK News’ homepage:

This site contains nearly every article published on the KCNA’s website, in English and Spanish, since Dec 2, 1996–over 50 MB of hard-core Stalinist propaganda! And each article written in that unique and indelible style of the KCNA.

Check out the Fun Searches and the Insult Generator. A few examples of the latter:

You half-baked renegade!

You imperialist aggressor!

You anti-socialist lackey, you would be well advised to behave with discretion!

You arrogant traitor, we will transform your country into a sea of fire!

You bloodthirsty political dwarf!

According to the Reuters article on Yahoo!, the site is the brainchild of Geoff Davis, a California graphic artist.

“Their propaganda is often unintentionally hilarious and I couldn’t find an existing searchable database of the KCNA on the Web. Thus, NK News was born,” Davis told Reuters.

[Cross-posted to Japundit]

Read this post.

I want that.

It’s going to happen, some way or another.

I’ve been thinking about my previous post, and other silly things, today. For example, while watching Return of the Jedi, I remembered the following story.

When I was a junior in high school, I had French III with Ben Costley, who was one year younger than me and the brother of one of my elementary school friends (Willie Costley, who was on Jeopardy! once), and Duncan Fraser (do I really need to explain who that is?). It was the only class I ever had with Duncan at school, primarily because he was a year older than me. For the most part, he and I didn’t speak in class, though not for lack of my trying.

In any event, Ben became the one I usually talked to, and he and I wound up working on a video presentation for class together. I forget what we were supposed to be doing, but our premise was that we happened to be on the Death Star just when Luke was having his face-off with Vader and the emperor. We shot our video, and then I told him I would splice in scenes from RotJ to spice it up.

Well, that totally backfired. I should have known better than to just stick in all the lightsaber scenes end to end, and then not watch the tape to make sure it wasn’t boring as all hell. When we watched the thing in class, I wanted to die, it was so boring. At the very end of the video, when Ben and I reappeared to briefly say “Let’s get out of here!” in French, the class tangibly woke up from a full stupor. It was just sad.

And that’s not even the most embarrassing part!

When we got our grades back, Duncan, in a rare move, asked me how Ben and I’d done. I went through the scoresheet with him. “We lost points for length,” I noted. “I guess it was too short.”

Too…short?! Was I on crack?!

Of course, what I had meant to say was that I felt that our part of the video, the stuff with us speaking French, was too short. But that’s not how it came out at all. Our conversation pretty much ended at that point, and I was left to feel like a complete moron.

So yeah, I thought about that today, and then I thought about something else, something that happened in 2001 when I was in Yatsushiro. I was reading my old journal from the trip and I noticed that I hadn’t written much of anything after June 20. When I read that day’s entry I realized why. Click here to read it for yourself–I’ve typed it up and backdated it.

Apparently I was so humiliated by this perceived mistake that I didn’t have any further desire to write. I just wanted to disappear and not worry about the classes or anything ever again.

So there’s that, and the Duncan French class thing, and the Gerberding thing. And you know? In the grand scheme, who’s the one who remembers? Me. Does anyone else remember? Maybe, maybe not, but it’s been years and no one cares anymore. What is happening is I am letting even the tiniest little errors trip me up for life. I’m afraid to try things, as I’ve mentioned before, because of this tendency I have to obsess over every little thing I do wrong.

I’m writing about it now because I’m hoping that will be cathartic, that it will lead me to some sort of resolution or solution or something. I need to stop nitpicking myself, I need to let myself be free to make mistakes, and I need to go back and learn from them instead of wasting all my energy berating myself.

I need to let these embarrassing memories go, or at least learn to laugh at them.

Today I tried something new, something I have never done before. I offered my writing to a website. I haven’t heard a thing about it from them yet. I don’t know if they are interested in the article I wrote or in me as a writer at all. I’m nervous as all hell. But I tried.

And I will not let myself look back on this, or the article I wrote, as a mistake.