| News? Opinion? Lies? |
[Nov. 18th, 2009|01:20 pm] |
Some more political grumbling just to make myself feel better.
Here's an article from Fox News:
Japanese Mortified By Obama's Bow -- embarrassing an ally
Here's a quote:
ABC's Jake Tapper reports that at least one Japanese newspaper is not printing the picture of the president's mortifying bow because the Japanese are embarrassed by his behavior. A scholar of traditional Japan tells Mr. Tapper, "The bow… did not just display weakness in Red State terms, but evoked weakness in Japanese terms… The last thing the Japanese want or need is a weak-looking American president."
Fox News often claims that news and opinion are separate. I couldn't find a link to this in either news or opinion, but the url has it under "story".
The problem is with this article is that it's simply not true.
First, if you look at Tapper's article the scholar is unnamed, and described first as an "old friend." Also the expert doesn't know what he's talking about. Obama's bow was probably not perfect but not bad either. It was clear that he took the effort to practice it a bit.
Second, the newspaper which refused to carry a picture of the event because it was so embarrassing, is unnamed, and I can't find any evidence of this through usual online search. I also didn't find a single blog in Japanese which found the bow embarrassing or offensive. Trapper's article does mention Kyodo news, but their site isn't searchable, and they defer any queries to another news search engine. Their English version does indeed include a picture along with an article titled "Obama meets with Japanese emperor, empress over lunch" (I couldn't read the article without joining the website.)
Third, this story is making news in Japan only because American conservatives are trying to make an issue of it. Headlines read along the lines of "Obama's bow has repurcussions in American media" and "Bow called inappropriate by America's right wing." Several pages of Google News in Japanese revealed nothing but articles of this type.
So Fox New's "story" isn't news (as news it would have to be titled "Whitehouse Correspondent's Anonymous Old Friend Doesn't Like Obama's Bow.")
It's also mostly not "opinion." Only at the end does the writer offer his opinion: "Now he's embarrassed the U.S. and one of our allies all at the same time."
So what is it then? All that's left is "lies." Is this ok? Is it ok for a major media company to intentionally publish lies? |
|
|
| Orin and music |
[Feb. 1st, 2009|11:22 pm] |
Orin loves music. When he was about eight months old Noriko and I took him with us to the outskirts of an outdoor music festival along the beach. It was far enough away to not be very loud, but near enough to still feel the bass. I was worried that Orin might be afraid, but no. He laughed and squirmed in delight.
Lately he dances a lot.
Here's him dancing to "Paranoid" playing from the tiny little speaker on my cell phone.
|
|
|
| re-inventing one. |
[Feb. 1st, 2009|11:13 pm] |
Taking a walk, and probably seeing a real estate poster with land advertised in so-many square meters made my thoughts wander around in math.
"Hmm. Small numbers squared get smaller. Big numbers squared get bigger. Wait! That means somewhere between the big numbers and the small numbers there's something that doesn't get bigger OR smaller! Wow, you can square it over and over and it never changes. I wonder what it is!"
"Oh, oh yeah." |
|
|
| wonder if I got a changeling |
[Oct. 20th, 2008|10:55 am] |
Babies: part cute adorable little bundles of joy, part demon.
Actually he didn't sound nearly that scary, the little cell-phone mic just got distorted. |
|
|
| grading student essays |
[Oct. 10th, 2008|09:11 am] |
One of the pleasures of my job is reading students' short compositions.
In any school, most of the students write by template. But there's always a few gems in the bunch. And I laugh at some of the mistakes but without spite, I think.
This was a simple "Which do you like better -- cats or dogs, and why?" Also you were supposed to write down a partner's opinion and respond to it.
A few quotes:
-----
Morishiga likes dogs because dogs are pretty and clever. I accept that dogs are clever, but cats are prettier than dogs. He said that cats are dotty.
----
I like dogs better than cats. Because I hate cats. I think cats are dim. So cats aren't useful for people. Cats can only consume food.
-----
I like dogs better. In fact my favorite animals are foxes. Their ears are so cute. I hope to sleep with a lot of foxes.
---
I was bitten by a big dog near my house when I was seven years old. So I think dogs are terrible! Ms Higaki said she can communicate with dogs. But I couldn't when I was seven years old. Dogs are terrible!
---
He likes dogs better because dogs are smarter than cats and dogs can understand a human being's gestures. But I don't think every dog is so smart, because most dogs can do nothing without our discipline.
---
I like cats because cats live freely. So I don't have to take a walk with them. I also think I want to live like cats.
--
Mr. Sasaki says that he likes dogs because they can communicate with him. But dogs bark so loudly and I don't want them to understand me.
--
I like dogs because I think I am enjoyed every day by dogs. |
|
|
| pointless grumbling |
[Jun. 12th, 2008|04:01 pm] |
A few Marines are punished for tossing a puppy over a cliff.
the story according to CNN
compared to this:
A US military jury has acquitted a marine of charges that he helped cover up the killing of 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians in Haditha in 2005.
according to BBC
Iraqi civilians just need to learn how to be cuter. |
|
|
| Back to regularly scheduled programming |
[Dec. 7th, 2007|09:29 pm] |
Here is a gift bag, that I bought the other day. I was half asleep and buying a rice-ball from a convenience store on the way to work. As I was leaving, I thought to myself "Did I just see what I think I saw?"
What was that word written on it?
Yes, it's true. Somebody, in a moment of spite or silliness or ignorance chose the word "sewer" to decorate a gift bag. And nobody in the company, from the design department to the production department to the management, to the staff at the convenience store, thought "hmm, I wonder what that word means." When I bought the bag, I told the girl at the counter what it meant, and she seemed amused. |
|
|
| (no subject) |
[Dec. 2nd, 2007|02:25 am] |
This is Orin. Unfortunately he still needs a Japanese name, so this might end up changing to fit with another name. We gave up on finding just one name that sounded good in both English and Japanese, and had pleasing kanji to go with it.
On Wednesday Noriko went to the doctor as usual, and they said "this baby is big -- over 9 pounds. We think it would be best to induce labor. If it gets any bigger it might be really hard to birth." I guess the way they do it, is to put a small ball in the woman's cervix, and that ball gradually expands. This happened Wednesday around 5pm.
I met Noriko at the hospital and she said "go on home, the doctor says that if this works, I should go into labor sometime tomorrow."
So before I left I said "If you go into labor, I'll never forgive you if you don't call me. I don't care if it's 2 or 3am."
Sure enough the phone rang around 2:30 am. Noriko had a strained voice, and said 'can you come? Probably it'll be a while though.'"
I got up, took a shower, grabbed a few things like a notebook and pen. I thought I'd write a log every ten minutes of what was happening. Then I hopped on my bike and went. Usually it takes me 15 minutes to ride my bike to the area where the clinic is, but it only took me ten minutes this time. From Noriko's call to arriving at the hospital was only about forty-five minutes. The doctor waved me into the birthing room, and said "You can see the head." "What?!" I thought. "Already?" Sure enough, down inside there was a black mass visible. After a few more pushes, the head looked like a head, and then shortly after shoulders, and then it slid right out. Sure enough it was a boy. He stretched his arms and legs out cautiously, as if he were waking up from a nap, and when he cried it didn't seem like grief, but more surprise, and the desire to try his lungs out for the first time. After briefly resting on Noriko's chest, he was wisked away to another room to be cleaned. He was crying the whole time, thinking "where am I? Where's my mommy?!" We were only allowed to see him briefly an hour later. The nurse said that he still can't maintain body temperature. Part of me wanted to grumble "goddammit if humans can give birth in caves, we should be fine in this warm hospital." But I didn't really feel like fighting the nurse over it.
From the time the water broke until birth, only three hours had passed. This was after hearing stories of labor lasting up to two days. The official time of birth is Thursday, November 29, 3:37 AM. 9 1/2 pounds.
Over the last couple days I've been spending most of my time at the hospital. Luckily I got Thursday and Friday off from work. Noriko's been recovering quickly. We've both been taking care of the baby. He does one of four things: cry, poop, nurse, or sleep. I know how I'll be spending my winter vacation. |
|
|
| Nose Music! |
[Aug. 5th, 2007|06:23 pm] |
I made the most amazing discovery today!
If you take earbud-style headphones, stick them in your nose, and plug your ears, you can hear music!
Try it. I guarantee you'll be amazed. |
|
|
| am I going crazy? |
[Jul. 12th, 2007|09:04 pm] |
According to the news, Al Qaeda is as strong as it was in 2001.
so, delta t = 6 years, or roughly 2130 days. roughly three million minutes.
Let q = the strength of Al Qaeda. delta q = 0. This despite hundreds of billions of dollars spent, thousands of American lives, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and Afghanistani lives, six years of American-run concentration camps, and the most arrogant administration ever to dirty the halls of the White House.
But not one single editorial or news story is saying "maybe our approach is all wrong."
I'm half serious -- would someone be willing to give me a seed of optimism? |
|
|
| corn |
[Jul. 7th, 2007|12:59 am] |
the top ear of corn was mine. The bottom one was Noriko's. Which of us likes corn better?
She eats it precicely, one row at a time. I've tried to do this myself but it doesn't look any different. She tells me "You don't eat it respectfully enough."
 |
|
|
| anecdotes from grade school |
[Jul. 4th, 2007|04:22 pm] |
From November 2006 to March 2007 I taught English at elementary schools. Recently Japan has decided that children should study English in grade school, but has left it up to each city to decide from which grade. The city I worked in, Chiba, decided to give one 45-minute lesson per week to fifth- and sixth-grade students.
What this meant for me, was that I had a weekly circuit of roughly five different schools. So for example, I went to the same school every Monday, and to a different school every Tuesday, and so on. I was only required to be at the school during the time I was teaching. So if my school had only two classes, I was done and free to go home after two hours. Occasionally I had two schools in the same day – morning classes in one school, then a quick trip by train to my afternoon school. I also often had un-scheduled days, where I might be sent as a substitute teacher to a school I’d never seen before. Or if there was nothing for me, it was a day off. Over the six months I probably had seven schools that I visited regularly, and maybe six other schools that I visited sporadically as a substitute.
For grade school students, English lessons are built around activities and games. The hope of Japan’s government is that if students’ first encounters with English are fun, they might not stress out so much in junior high and high school. For the teacher it means this: you can’t hide behind a book or a desk. You can’t threaten the students with tests. Your only weapon is your imagination and a sense of what kids find fun. You have the following guidelines: 1) The students must have fun. 2) Do not be ripped apart by a mob of blood-thirsty kids. 3) If they learn some English too, that would be nice. Their regular teacher is there to help but for the most part you’re on your own. Of course the company does have a set of pre-made lesson plans which are often useful. But they are also often not useful. In those cases it’s up to you to salvage the lesson, or scrap it and think of something on your own. If your carefully-prepared game or activity is failing before your eyes, it's up to you to fix it on the fly
Really it was great fun. Every day on the train to my school I felt like a soldier on a boat heading to the beaches of Normandy. But most days went well and I went home with a happy glow.
( here are a few anecdotes from this ) |
|
|
| 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 |
[May. 3rd, 2007|12:51 am] |
Apparently some of the larger blogging and news websites have been suppressing this information because it helps unlock all HD-DVD/Blu-Ray disks so far. Not that blog websites care if you hack a dvd. but apparently they fear a lawsuit.
Digg.com tried to suppress any stories containing these numbers, but their own user base revolted. Caught between an angry mob of their own user base and the slobbering jaws of the Motion Picture Association of America's lawyers, they decided to brave the lawyers.
This news story can explain it better than I can.
I wonder if livejournal will notice this, or if they do, if anything will happen.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
Probably the battle's already over and this test is pointless. But I'm curious. |
|
|
| Kurt Vonnegut |
[Apr. 12th, 2007|04:08 pm] |
He died today. I hope he enjoyed his 84 years on Earth.
when I was in my teens, his novels were my introduction to black humor, science fiction and WWII history. In a few graceful gestures he could go from bitterly sad to wickedly funny. I imagine he could be called more of a spewing writer than a thinking writer, but I enjoyed his spewings.
I don't know if he did this his whole life, but he used to add a big sloppy asterisk to the end of his signature. When someone asked him what it was, he replied that it was a drawing of his asshole. |
|
|
| thirteen years behind the times but still fun |
[Mar. 30th, 2007|11:53 pm] |
I've been playing with php and mysql lately, and thought I'd try this little experiment.
I'm using a database to count the number of times a button is clicked. Also, each time you click the button a random photo comes up. If you'd be willing to help me test it, go to the link below and click the button as many times as you want.
Also, the server is currently a laptop sitting on my floor so please excuse the suspicious url.
please look |
|
|
| Expiration dates |
[Mar. 23rd, 2007|06:26 pm] |
It's good to know that I can enjoy this popcorn for the next 700 years.
 |
|
|
| flash sketchpad |
[Feb. 15th, 2007|03:22 pm] |
For a long time I thought it would be a cool flash project to make an online "sketch pad." Just a very simple drawing program. Anyone could doodle a picture and save it with a brief comment if they wanted.
It turns out someone else has done it beautifully.
http://butchu.chu.jp/
then click on the "Bbs" button.
There are about 1100 or so sketches so far. I added one -- #1046. |
|
|
| more about rock music |
[Jan. 25th, 2007|11:36 pm] |
Lately I've been astounded by how good modern rock bands are. This really hit home when I downloaded and listened to some recently made (as in the last ten years) covers of old Black Sabbath songs. Back when I was fourteen or so I was a budding metal head, and listened to anything by Ozzy with wide-eyed amazement. That taste has faded way back but never disappeared completely.
So one cover is by Primus, of the song "NIB." Ozzy actually does the vocals. The other is "Paranoid," done by the band Megadeth. I don't remember what I was looking for, but I stumbled on these covers, and listened to them out of curiosity.
They were delightful -- tight, energetic, fun. Feeling nostalgic I looked for the old originals, which I hadn't heard for a long time. To my amazement, having just listened to cover versions of the same songs, the original Black Sabbath versions sounded empty and flat. I felt like I was listening to a cover band's practice session. I listened again to the cover versions again, and a (probably obvious) realization hit me. Primus and Megadeth are far better musicians than Black Sabbath were. In both cases the drummer, guitarist, bassist are doing their own wild things, filling every available space with variation and ornamentation. but at the same time they're playing perfectly together. And on top of that, they sound like they're having more fun. The Black Sabbath versions, by comparison are boringly repetitive, sloppy, and feel kind of tired.
Both Primus' and Megadeth's members are probably early-mid 40's, and grew up listening to 70's rock. Here's a quick quote I found online by Megadeth's guitarist:
"When I was in my formative years as a guitarist, musician and all around rock dude, Black Sabbath was the gauge by which me and my friends measured the 'heaviness' of any music that came out. of course, there could be none heavier than Black Sabbath."
I don't think in either case the bands were trying to show off their skills. And both of these covers are very true to the original feel -- they don't try to reinterpret the song. Instead they seem to want to express the enthusiasm and glee that the original songs gave them. But the funny thing is, they express it better than the original song did, and far better than the original musicians could have. Even an Ozzy in his fifties sounds better than an Ozzy in his twenties.
Between Black Sabbath's version of NIB and Primus's version, 30 years passed -- 1970 to 2000. What was considered a "good rock band" in 1970 and a "good rock band" in 2000 has changed that much. |
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
| |
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
beetimevine's journal