liberal japonicus

This piece about Christopher Knight, the North Pond Hermit, fascinating.  Following his arrest, the court of public opinion was deeply divided. The man who wanted to live his life as invisibly as possible had become one of the most famous people in Maine. You could not walk into a bar in the Augusta area without … Read more

by liberal japonicus I try to avoid naming particular commenters in the post, but in this case, I'll happily make an exception. McT wrote I'm ready to have that conversation with BobbyP. Why don't the bosses around here let him guest-post?  Guest posts, sure, and I'd up the ante, it would be nice to have … Read more

 by liberal japonicus  Just got back from Osaka and the poorly taken photograph below is from the Ebisu bridge in Dotonbori in a neighborhood called Shinsaibashi. It's a very interesting place for a number of reasons, including the Hanshin Tigers 'curse of the colonel', but what interested me is that I hadn't been to Osaka in a … Read more

by liberal japonicus Am in Hue, working with teachers to help prepare for the CEFR requirements that are coming down the pike for them. One of the participants came from Macau to Danang, because a regular service has opened up between the two, attempting to both give rich Macanese a place to spend their money and … Read more

by liberal japonicus This seems like good fodder for your weekend open thread (Don't worry, the picture heading the article isn't actually related to the content) and I love the phrase 'Peak Burger'.  Japanese will often ask what food I miss the most, which is always a tough question to answer, but the food I've … Read more

by liberal japonicus Take a look at these three pictures and tell me what you see What you are seeing is my youngest daughter's kokugo jiten, or Japanese dictionary.  No, she doesn't have a condition that has her obsessively using post-its. This is the latest thing. Elementary school students are encouraged to, when they use … Read more

by liberal japonicus Which is basically, 'long time, no see' in Japanese. Though the formality marker at the end is probably too much. I hope this article, pulled from the LGM thread, is of interest. I loved it and don't skip over the footnotes at the end.  What is everyone else reading?

by liberal japonicus As a former son of the Magnolia state, the fight between Cochran and McDaniel has been filling up my facebook news feed. If you've not heard, Democratic African-American voters basically pulled Thad's bacon out of the fire. The evidence is in the maps and numbers. Turnout was up statewide compared with the … Read more

by liberal japonicus This story is kind of big here. Senior Japanese politicians have urged the Tokyo city government to "clean up its act" after an assemblywoman was subjected to sexist abuse during a debate on support for childrearing. The incident drew criticism from across the political spectrum after unidentified male assembly members, all thought … Read more

by liberal japonicus Hate to pull you all away from something as world shattering as the IRS and their backup policies, but as I wrote last year, I went to Bishkek to do some teacher training and I'm headed back this year. Amazing country, and this article explains some of the fascinating undercurrents involved. One … Read more

by liberal japonicus A little late with this, but interesting (at least to me). Two of Cameron's ministers, Teresa May and Michael Gove, are involved in a nice catfight. Both being Tories, I don't really have a dog in this fight, but the use of government infrastructure for evaluating education (Ofsted) illustrates how these evaluations … Read more

by liberal japonicus Yuri Kochiyama, Japanese-American activist, passed away on Sunday, and it provides an interesting moment of synchronicity in our discussions about reparations. She was with Malcolm X when he was assassinated and was one of the main movers for the reparations for those who were involved in the Japanese-American internment. Her memoir Passing it On, … Read more

by liberal japonicus There will be a longer post about what I've been doing here in Yangon, and I'm a bit hesitant to put up an open post after we've had three excellent posts, but I'm getting ready to leave and I am marveling at the fact that Burma is looking, at least from a … Read more

by liberal japonicus How can you resist an article about Japanese toilets entitled “Backwash“? I know I can’t. I’m doing some work with a Yangon NPO for the next week so I’m not sure if next week’s open thread is possible.

by liberal japonicus Headed off for a weekend of fun and excitement. Here in Japan, it is the holiday called Golden Week. So consider this an opportunity to talk about strange holidays that you know and love.

by liberal japonicus Clearly, we’ve been dishing out too much truth so ‘the man’ tried to shut us down. Or alternatively, Typepad was struck by a DDOS attack. You decide. If you find us, or another one of your services, down and you want to check, try http://downrightnow.com/. Other than that, anything else you’d like … Read more

by liberal japonicus Whether it is nature or nurture or both, I am achronic. Don't know if that is a word, but within me, there seems no clock or calendar organizing my time, which is why I enjoy the doctor's posts about solstices, and holidays. As my wife and daughters will tell you, my memory … Read more

by liberal japonicus Not quite an open thread, but definitely open thready (something coming up on Saturday, I promise). This NYT piece on the back stage events about Obama and gay marriage is fascinating. It is amazing to me the number of Republican stalwarts (Melhman, Olsen) that appear in this narrative. I suppose that if … Read more

by liberal japonicus Outsourcing at its best. wj suggests On the general topic, we might profitably have a discussion of whether or not it is even possible for someone to take a wrong position and later change it. Is it possible to have that change accepted as a good-faith change? Especially if one is a … Read more

by liberal japonicus A little early for yet another open thread? Not after you check this one out! Smith is a graduate student at Cornell University, who studies the behaviour and evolution of honeybees. In this line of work, stings are a common and inevitable hazard. “If you’re wearing shorts and doing bee work, a … Read more

by liberal japonicus I'm back from an interesting trip to Siem Reap and Yangon. Thought not a huge force in Siem Reap, Yangon was overflowing with Chinese: workers, businessmen, tourists. In fact, as we were leaving Aung San Suu Kyi's house, a busload of Chinese tourists pulled up.  At least for me, it's hard not … Read more

by liberal japonicus A podcast from the Freakonomics folks here asks why Japanese almost always buy a house, tear it down and build another one.  It turns out that half of all homes in Japan are demolished within 38 years — compared to 100 years in the U.S.  There is virtually no market for pre-owned homes … Read more

by liberal japonicus The open thread is still merrily rolling along, but I thought I'd toss another log on the fire. This article, about the lack of a J-shaped recovery in Japan hits me where I live, and I wonder what folks who actually understand economics think about it.  The article mentions in passing something … Read more

by liberal japonicus I provide this link with the proviso that if you don't think this is interesting, you obviously are not treating the question of power generation seriously. Have at it.

by liberal japonicus This article, by Jonathan Berger, the "Denning Family Provostial Professor in Music at Stanford University, where he teaches composition, music theory and cognition" (some of his research is here), about how music is able to alter our preceptions of time, was interesting, especially since it has excerpts from Schubert's String Quintet in C … Read more

by liberal japonicus This Rolling Stone cover story about Pope Francis is well worth reading. Some grafs I found interesting: A reporter asks Francis, who is standing at the head of the aisle, about the existence of a "gay lobby" within the Vatican. Francis begins by making a joke, saying he hasn't yet run into … Read more

by liberal japonicus I have to admit, I only looked at this news item because I thought it said 'Lone Ranger debacle could be avoided with a gadget' and thought 'how could you have saved that film with a gadget?' (Though I saw it on the airplane coming back from the states and it was … Read more

by liberal japonicus This story is a depressing one, but I thought this was the most plaintive note. In a written appeal to his superiors, Powers asked that he be allowed to keep his job so he could focus on his work duties. "I am at a point in my career where I have reached … Read more

by liberal japonicus I found this article incredibly interesting, but had to laugh when I read this In an unusual collaboration, this year the team brought along an ancient DNA expert to sample for ancient pathogens. As always, topics other than dissing elderly experts on DNA are always welcome.  

by liberal japonicus This BBC story, about contaminated donkey meat in China, ends with this quote: The chief executive of Wal-Mart's Chinese operations, Greg Foran, said: "It is a deep lesson (for us) that we need to continue to increase investment in supplier management." Ya think?

by liberal japonicus Perhaps you've already seen this, but adult diapers are about to outsell baby diapers here in Japan. Of course, since it is the inscrutable Orient, no one is sure if it is going to be 2020 or if it was in 2011.  I find this even more remarkable, given that there is … Read more

by liberal japonicus Tell everyone whether you've been naughty or nice and what you expect in your stocking. I'll be experiencing the wonder that is a Japanese university Christmas, which means a committee meeting on Dec 25th. Ho ho ho.

by liberal japonicus Just got back to Japan, and cracked open google news to find this. Kim executes his 'despicable scum' uncle Talk about Korea or anything else you'd like to.