"This was the voice of moderation until 13 Sept, 2025"
by liberal japonicus A bit of Japanese culture for y’all. As you approach the end of the year, when you realize that you will only meet them in January rather than in the days remaining in December, you say ‘Yoi otoshi wo [omukae* kudasai]’ which roughly translates as ‘have a good new year’. And when … Read more
by liberal japonicus As we head into the new year, my feed is filled with the coming omicron wave. Here in Japan, there is trepidation, but there is also a sense of wtf, brought on by things like this: https://fortune.com/2021/12/07/japan-world-oldest-country-covid-19-death-daily/ https://www.npr.org/2021/12/22/1067024865/japans-puzzling-covid-lull https://www.inquirer.com/health/coronavirus/japan-omicron-covid-19-cases-numbers-20211222.html All pretty baffling. While my Japanese is ok, engaging in the back and … Read more
by liberal japonicus Just a random topic that seems interesting https://interestingengineering.com/energy-storage-trains-work-power-gravity That or anything else.
by liberal japonicus This twitter thread, via Paul Campos at LGM is especially interesting to me because I have a student doing a graduation thesis comparing Spiderman and Spiderman: India and one of the things that has come up is caste. Unfortunately, there is no regular link and I am not sure how to embed … Read more
by liberal japonicus Alternative title; The War of Jenkin’s Ear revisited The ostensible casus belli began with the maiming of Jenkins following the boarding of his vessel by Spanish coast guards in 1731, eight years before the war began. Popular response to the incident was tepid until several years later, when opposition politicians and the … Read more
by liberal japonicus I’m sorry folks, this started off as a comment, but ended up too long. I’ve seen some stuff of Scott Atlas’ book https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55141055 Now, I did get him confused with some of the other idiots, like this loser https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/03/us/politics/ronny-jackson-white-house-doctor.html and who could forget this guy https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/14/harold-bornstein-trump-ex-doctor-dies-459293 which I would normally feel bad … Read more
by liberal japonicus All the angles are here https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/dec/02/facebook-owner-meta-takes-down-chinese-network-spreading-fake-covid-posts Discuss that or something else!
by wj This term’s abortion law case (Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization) looks to be a big deal. But what is likely to come of it? And what should we hope for? Just to be clear at the start, 1) I personally think abortion should be legal, 2) IANAL, but I find the Court’s … Read more