Category: general

Yeah, so I guess some guy in North Augusta has a baboon on display? And PETA isn’t too happy about it.

They’re far politer than they’re depicted in pop culture, though! I mean, they literally say

Bonner has applied to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for a license to exhibit Bobo. Please write polite letters to the USDA and ask the agency to deny Bonner a license.

Assuming that the information in PETA’s press release is true*, then that baboon really shouldn’t be at a pet store.

To be honest, I don’t like most of the pet stores I’ve seen, with these little two foot, brightly lit windows where animals lie around depressed all day. The worst one by far is the one in Augusta Mall. Those cages are tiny. I can’t stand to even go in there.

Update 6/18 10:00pm: I have some new information in the comments that should be of interest to everyone. Assuming this information is correct, PETA really dropped the ball (again).

Update 6/24 10:38am: PETA has written another article, which makes Bonner out to be unreasonable and greedy. Bleh :>

There are many excuses not to write. Try using writing as an excuse not to do other things.

Iiiiiinteresting.

I’m still working my way through all the entries (there are like a zillion of them). I haven’t come across Jeff’s yet, but I wanted to point out a couple that I thought were cool and possible contenders for the prize:

First, a picture that kind of steps on what Jeff was planning to do with one of his pictures. Jeff’s, to my understanding, is a maiko with a cell phone, so maybe the white face makeup will push him over the edge.

Second, though, is this fantastic drag queen. I have to say, that is definitely an example of “unseen Japan”. :> (Nice penis!)

I’ve been enjoying Friends season 6 (thanks Mom!) and I just watched the one where Ross tries to convince Phoebe and Rachel, who have just taken a self-defense course, that he’s got “unagi”, which he claims means “total awareness”.

Ross is such a doofus :D

Mmm, unagi…

‘Lois & Clark’ actor Lane Smith dies at 69

This is just sick.

An Indian rape victim is being forced by village elders to “marry” her rapist — her father-in-law, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Community leaders in Charthawal village, backed by local Muslim clerics, believe that by being raped, 28-year-old Imrana’s 10-year marriage has been nullified under Islamic law, The Asian Age newspaper said.

Holding a special council on Sunday, village leaders ordered the mother of five to leave her husband, Noor Mohammed, and live with her parental family for seven months and 10 days and make herself “pure” again, The Age said. It did not say how she becomes pure.

After that, she must “marry” her father-in-law and live with him, along with his legal wife.

“She… will then be like a mother to Noor Mohammed,” the paper quoted local cleric Shamim Ahmad saying.

Sick, sick, sick! I am so glad I live in America!

[Edit 2:28pm: Fortunately, it doesn’t look like that council’s decision is going to stick. Thanks for the link, David!]

Trademarks in Japan are similar to Internet domain names.

Priority is granted to the person or company that applies for the trademark first, and there is nothing to stop someone not related to a name from seeking to profit from it, be it through marketing or by selling the trademark to its “rightful” owner.

Since registration only costs 66,000 yen and gives the holder exclusive rights to the name for 10 years and the option to renew, it can be quite a bargain for people looking to make a quick turnover.

Simon links to a discussion of the rivalry between Tokyo and Osaka, which led me to a string of interesting articles about manzai comedy. I’ve seen manzai in anime–notably Prince of Tennis, and perhaps Yakitate!! Japan (I’m thinking some of the things Kawachi says might fall under the tsukkomi or boke categories, but I’d have to go review the episodes to check). This is, of course, germaine to my previous post!

Finally, Mainichi’s Unseen Japan photo contest has closed, and you can view all 865 entries here. Some of these photos are really neat! Jeff from Sushicam entered; I’ll edit this post when I’ve found his photos. Good luck to him!

Ampontan at Japundit has written a fascinating piece about the many dialects in Japan. I honestly didn’t realize there was that much variance.

One of the first things my new boss told me after I came to Japan to work as an English teacher in the early 80s was that “all Japanese are bilingual”. By that, he meant that every Japanese was fluent both in hyojungo, the standard language used for television, radio, books, and magazines, and in the local dialect that people use to varying degrees to conduct the business of everyday life in their communities. I soon found out that he wasn’t exaggerating; despite taking three years of Japanese language courses at university before coming to Japan, in the first months after my arrival in Kyushu I often had no idea what people were saying in the local dialect.

I wasn’t alone. While Japanese know and understand the most common traits of the many dialects in the country, they can get sucked into the verbal quicksand just as quickly when people get down and dirty with the hardcore version of their local language. In fact, the leaders in Kagoshima at the southern end of Kyushu encouraged the use of their arcane dialect during the feudal period as an instant detector of spies from the Shogun or Imperial court, who didn’t have a prayer of keeping up linguistically.

When I was staying with the Matsumotos in Yatsushiro, my host sister Yoko confessed with embarrassment that her friends say she’s fluent in Kumamoto-ben, the local dialect. I guess my Japanese really wasn’t all that great at the time (2001), because I couldn’t tell the difference between how she spoke and how people spoke on TV, where the Tokyo dialect is overwhelmingly used.

Now, of course, I can hear Kawachi’s dialect in Yakitate!! Japan (he speaks the Kansai dialect [I think], and has, for example, a completely different word for “I”). So I am learning, a little.

Red tape ties up billions [of yen] due from U.S.

“As long as we are dependent on special equipment made by the United States, we simply have to accept it,” said a senior Defense Agency official. “The problem is especially vexing since some things can’t be resolved only by efforts in Japan.”

A big reason for the delays is that the program is part of the huge U.S. defense procurement system. Delays arise due to wars or policy changes that decide which buyers get delivery priority.

Delays also arise if the equipment includes numerous parts, which are each subject to proper paperwork. Missing documents, of course, further stall the final accounting process.

I guess I just can’t avoid this kind of crap :> It’s everywhere!

I thought I was done spotlighting good writing for the day, but then I came across “Equality“, Ruth Phillips’ exploration of the orchestra section dynamic. I hesitate to call it a “description”, because it’s far more than that. It’s vibrant imagery that is one with the emotion it expresses. It’s a true vignette.

Having given up on their number one, people are inviting you, the number two, in to the music as their life-line to the bass. For the sake of the music you have no choice but to respond. The conductor notices you are breathing in with him, your bow arm moving on his exhgalation; a violist enjoys your shared sensuous glance as you rise together in thirds; the principal violin is clearly relieved to have her knotty line buoyed up by your bounce…..

Then, following a subtle gesture from the conductor, the violins take an unexpected turn, paint a daring new path through the melody. Your body simply follws, teasing the line into new harmonic colour. The middle voices take up the thread with a rhythmic joke and the music comes alive, riding on the moment.

Suddenly you panic. You have, of course, gone too far. You forgot that your job is to stick by the concrete mixer at your side, slather vibrato inappropriately all over the harmonies and bump the resolutions from which everyone else is delicately tapering away….Above all your job is to be less alive than he so he feels in control. Your job, in fact, is to die inside. You are not allowed out to play with the other children and, though he is following no-one but his own demons, your job is to follow him.

David Willis’ response to Eric Burns’ “The David Willis Sequential Art Derivation Principle” (Willis, Willis, Willis, Willis. Willis. Willis?) is nothing less than spectacular.

Seriously, I can’t stand how everyone in webcomics is ripping me off. Sluggy? I came up with that in sixth grade after making a poop that looked like a rabbit. Penny-Arcade? Just like Shortpacked!, but it’s about video games. Real smooth, Tycho. I remember when I told Bobby Crosby that his Halloween pumpkin looked like a little orange dog. Scott McCloud came up with the idea for micropayments based on a “Stupidest ideas ever” rant I posted on Usenet in 1994. To top it off, I’ve been ghost-writing Websnark for years. Why do you think It’s Walky! made it into the “Had me and lost me” category? Oh, yeah, I was really sad about that. Really sad about my comic being permanently linked on the front page!. You have no idea how much traffic that drove to me.

:D

In other news, today’s Help Desk points out something really, really funny. I have watched the Mac-Intel drama unfold across various news sites, and I have to say that I think Derik Delong’s responses have been the most internally consistent.

I like to highlight writing I enjoy, and I’ve been thinking that I should make a regular “column” for that. Or something. (When I switch to WordPress, I’ll at least have a category for it.)

Today I’d like to mention the following, from Goei’s most recent piece:

of course andres and i went on a $40 shopping spree, buying soda, sour fruit gushers, animal crackers, a cd for kristy, a father’s day card, a pack of bubble yum, and a pack of intriguing ‘energy gum’. it turns out that 2 pieces have the amount of caffeine in a cup of coffee. when combined with the rest of the listed items, it forms a sort of teenage ambrosia.

I like how the rather mundane list is sublimated by two very evocative concluding words. Nice.

EFF: Legal Guide for Bloggers

Whether you’re a newly minted blogger or a relative old-timer, you’ve been seeing more and more stories pop up every day about bloggers getting in trouble for what they post.

Like all journalists and publishers, bloggers sometimes publish information that other people don’t want published. You might, for example, publish something that someone considers defamatory, republish an AP news story that’s under copyright, or write a lengthy piece detailing the alleged crimes of a candidate for public office.

The difference between you and the reporter at your local newspaper is that in many cases, you may not have the benefit of training or resources to help you determine whether what you’re doing is legal. And on top of that, sometimes knowing the law doesn’t help – in many cases it was written for traditional journalists, and the courts haven’t yet decided how it applies to bloggers.

But here’s the important part: None of this should stop you from blogging. Freedom of speech is the foundation of a functioning democracy, and Internet bullies shouldn’t use the law to stifle legitimate free expression. That’s why EFF created this guide, compiling a number of FAQs designed to help you understand your rights and, if necessary, defend your freedom.

Futurama Taglines

Nick Hornby takes on challenging subject matter in new book

“A Long Way Down” (Riverhead) puts misery front and center. It starts with an unusual premise for a comic novel: four people meet atop a tall London apartment building on New Year’s Eve, all there to kill themselves.

Instead they distract one another and set up an impromptu support network to keep each other from committing suicide.

(I’m an Amazon associate now. Check it :>)

Apple’s Jobs Tells Graduates About Dropout (via Drudge)

Apple Computer Inc.’s CEO Steve Jobs told Stanford University graduates Sunday that dropping out of college was one of the best decisions he ever made because it forced him to be innovative – even when it came to finding enough money for dinner.

Metaphor (an awesome ad for Viagra in the Middle East, via Global Voices Online)

Spielberg: No movie yet for Japan PM despite looks

“Your prime minister has movie star good looks,” Spielberg told reporters after meeting Koizumi for a chat about cinema.

But asked whether Koizumi might star in a future Spielberg movie, he replied: “You know, I would hate to take him away from you and bring him to Hollywood.

“Doesn’t he do better work here in Japan?”

Koizumi, one of Japan’s most media savvy leaders, has a penchant for photo ops with celebrities. In March, he turned a chat with actor Richard Gere into an impromptu dance session, and he once crooned an Elvis Presley tune with Cruise.

And remember, Koizumi was going to be a rock-n-roll singer. (I was searching for where I linked an article about that, but I can’t find the reference ;P I did, however, come across a CNN piece about how much he loves Elvis.)

Yeesh, 13 road construction projects in Augusta this summer, including on Bobby Jones. Looking forward to dealing with that, with no air conditioning in my car…oh yes. :P

Japanese Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (whew) Minister Nariaki Nakayama made a faux pas concerning comfort women, and then passed it off as an issue of semantics. Read about it here and here.

Company drops commercial featuring chimpanzee mimicking black actors

Err.

In response to cries of racism, cosmetics maker Mandom Corp. has pulled TV and magazine advertisements featuring a chimpanzee in dreadlocks and Rastafarian clothing pretending to be a black person.

In the commercial, several black actors use a cleaning product to wipe the sweat from their faces. The chimpanzee, dressed in a costume of gold, red and green, imitates their movements.

“We thought it would be a good scene to have a chimpanzee in a party,” a company spokesman said. “We never intended it to be prejudiced, but we concluded that the ad would be taboo based on an international point of view.”

Yeah, good job, guys…

Drop in female hormones attributed to hair loss in women

Badly worded headline! They meant to say “Hair loss in women attributed to drop in female hormones”, or “Drop in female hormones can cause hair loss in women”. The only reason I clicked on the link was to see if they really made that mistake!

The mechanisms that cause thinning of hair are different for men and women, with a reduction in women’s hormones during menopause a major cause of female hair loss, cosmetics and toiletries manufacturer Lion Corp. has found.

A team of researchers from the company confirmed in tests that female hormones were able to increase levels of a hair growth substance produced in hair papilla cells.

You see?!?!?

So Brooke forwarded me this personality test thing. It asks four questions, and you’re supposed to write down your answers and then scroll down for the evaluation. (You’re also supposed to make a wish before starting the test, but the wish will only come true if you forward the email to a zillion people.) Here are the questions:

(1) Put the following 5 animals in the order of your preference:

Cow, Tiger, Sheep, Horse, Pig

(2) Write one word that describes each one of the following:

Dog, Cat, Rat, Coffee, Sea

(3) Think of someone, who also knows you and is important to you, which you can relate them to the following colors. Do not repeat your answer twice. Name just one person for each color:

Yellow, Orange, Red, White, Green.

(4) Finally, write down your favorite number, and your favorite day of the week.

Here are my answers, the evaluations, and my own commentary on the evaluations:

1) My priorities in life are, in descending order: family (horse), pride (tiger), career (cow), love (sheep), money (pig)

I actually almost put sheep before cow, but horse and tiger and pig are pretty much definitely where they were going to be. Iiiiinteresting.

2) Your description of dog implies your own personality: cute
Your description of cat implies the personality of your partner: fiesty
Your description of rat implies the personality of your enemies: sneaky
Your description of coffee is how you interpret sex: bitter
Your description of the sea implies your own life: beautiful

Okay, the coffee one is totally not fair, because I hate coffee. Maybe if they had asked about chocolate…

3) Yellow: Someone you will never forget: Brooke
Orange: Someone you consider your true friend: Cheryl (my mother-in-law)
Red: Someone that you really love: Sean
White: Your twin soul: Connor (really?)
Green: Someone that you will remember for the rest of your life: Mari

I was a little surprised by Cheryl being my true friend…not because she’s not a good friend to me, but because I would have expected that Brooke or Mari or AJ or Sam would be there. To be honest, when I saw “orange” I picked Cheryl because of her taste in clothes…so I don’t know how accurate that is.

As for the others, yellow had to be Brooke, and red had to be Sean. For white I sort of sat there for a minute and Connor’s name fluttered into my head. And green I had to contemplate, and eventually chose Mari because I associate green with growth, and she is so productive and energetic and always learning.

4) You have to send this message to as many persons as your favorite number and your wish will come true on the day that you recorded: 3, Saturday

I’m just going to pretend I sent it by posting it on my blog. I doubt that my wish, for “a fun, high-paying job”, will come true on Saturday in any case. Because after saying that I only had to send it to 3 people, the email went on with:

This is true, even if you are not superstitious.
Please do this. It is fascinating. SEND THIS E- MAIL MANTRA TO AT LEAST FIVE PERSONS AND YOUR LIFE WILL IMPROVE.
0-4 persons: Your life will improve slightly
5-9 persons: Your life will improve to your liking
9-14 persons: You will have at least 5 surprises in the next three weeks
15 or more persons: Your life will improve drastically and all that you wish will come true

Suuuuuure. I don’t know who first came up with the idea that email forwards are magic, but bleh :>

I’m watching a new (to me) anime called Kaikan Phrase. It’s about rock bands, and the angsty teenagers who populate them. I’m having soooo much fun MTS3King it :D

For example, when Santa (yes, his name’s Santa) and Yuki ask the surly loner piano player to be the vocalist in their new band, they give him a minidisc and ask him to listen to it. He goes home and tosses his jacket on the floor, and when he hears the disc clack inside, he gets this horrible look on his face. Then he throws the disc into the garbage and leaves the room.

“I hate bands!” I cried, raising a shaking fist.

Later, the guy Santa-tachi are courting to be the bass player is with his current band, about to sign a record deal. “They only want us for our looks!” he complains in the elevator to the other band mambers.

“Yeah, but that’s a part of us,” one of the other guys says. “We’re not just sound.”

The bassist then gazes up, a mournful, wistful look on his bishounen face.

“But I’m a musician!” I intoned, and dissolved into giggles.