Charles Jenkins' butt-ugly daughters to boy hunt at Camp Zama Japan
Soga, daughters head to Camp Zama
japantoday > national
Thursday, October 28, 2004 at 12:07 JST
NIIGATA -- Hitomi Soga, a former abductee to North Korea, departed Thursday from Niigata Prefecture with her two daughters for a U.S. Army camp in Kanagawa Prefecture where her American husband's court-martial is scheduled next Wednesday....

BURRIED ALIVE! Japanese kid lives 4 days under quake rubble
Child survives under quake rubble for 4 days
(Compiled from Mainichi and wire reports, Japan, Oct. 27, 2004)
An infant boy was rescued on Wednesday from a car that had been buried under large rocks for four days after being hit by a landslide triggered by Saturday's huge earthquakes, the Tokyo Fire Department said.
A helicopter arrived on the scene in the Myokenmachi district of Naganoka, Niigata Prefecture, to airlift the boy while rescue workers continue trying to free his mother and sister, who are alive. ...more....

Ronelda Mcdonald is a hot tomato!

Mo' betta than "Donald's Biscuits"* is McGRANDStyle with Ronelda Mcdonald and her metrosexual friend Gaynelda.

See:
Metrosexual Ronald Mcdonald .wmv video
Transexual Donnel Mcdonald .wmv video

*Ronald Mcdonald is called "Donald" in Japan to avoid futher embarassment I guess.

Japanese box living

Life in a box.

Via the the Gadget Watch newsletter, 10/25/04Gadget Watch No. 166
Yamaha MyRoom
Category: Room within a room
Equipped; Ready for Ethernet, TV cable, and two phone lines
Price: Natural: 438,900 yen, Standard: 522,900 yen, Deluxe: 627,900
Release date in Japan: November 1st, 2004
Yamaha MyRoom website (in Japanese)

Team Samurai is "provocative"

Japan, Allies on 'Team Samurai' Anti-WMD Sea Drill

Reuters via Yahoo! News / Oct 26
Ships from Japan, the United States, Australia and France on Tuesday began Asia's first naval exercise to clamp down on weapons of mass destruction, a drill that communist North Korea has called hostile and provocative.....
...The drill, dubbed "Team Samurai," is the 12th in the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative but the first to be held in the backyard of North Korea, a clear focus of the exercise....
..."The only people who have anything to worry about from PSI [anti-proliferation initiative] are proliferators," Bolton, U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control, told reporters as the Izu, a Japanese Coast Guard patrol vessel, set off under cloudy skies.

Japan

Too cheap to die? Tokyo Soylent Green Service has a deal for you

Dying for a cheap funeral?

Tokyo Soylent Green Service has a deal for you with online shopping for best price.

Psychedelic car paint job for only 20,000 yen in Nagoya Japan
Bungling bank robber busted after putting paint-stained car in for repairs

(Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, Oct. 22, 2004)

NAGOYA -- A bank robber has been arrested after a car repair shop became suspicious over paint marks covering his vehicle...

...Miyamoto grabbed a pile of 10,000-yen bills from a clerk and fled.

Branch manager Takayuki Inagaki gave chase and hurled a paint-stained [sic] rubber ball at the robber...
...Shortly after, Miyamoto visited a car repair shop in Komaki, about 10 kilometers from the bank branch, and left after ordering the paint be removed. An employee of the shop became suspicious about the paint-stained car and alerted police...

... only bills on the top and bottom of the pile were real 10,000-yen bills.

Killer 'Shooms strike Japan
Japan inspects mushroom after four people die of sudden fever Agence France-Presse / Tokyo, October 22
Japanese health officials said Friday they were investigating a possible danger from mushrooms after at least four people believed to have eaten a local variety died of a sudden fever.
Three of the victims died in Niigata Prefecture, some 200 kilometers (125 miles) northeast of Tokyo, where they were among 11 people in their 50s to 80s who fell ill, officials said.
All 11 people, who already suffered from poor kidneys, came down with acute fever and convulsions this month about two weeks after eating wild white mushrooms known as sugihiratake...

Hmm, concrete's not so bad after all.
Topic: Concrete Japan

"Sometimes when I go home, and I'm standing in the three-chins-or-less line at Walmart, I think, hmm, concrete's not so bad after all."

--dingosatemybaby

MAGGOTS! feast on Japanese patients
Maggots allowed to feast on diabetics
Surgeon prevents amputations by applying old therapy to festering sores
OKAYAMA (Kyodo) Oct. 22, 2004 - - A Japanese heart surgeon is successfully treating diabetics via a method once used by Australian aborigines and Native Americans -- maggot therapy....

See also: Larval therapy "cost effective" for treating venous wounds

Is China Inc gonna make all the same bonehead mistakes as Japan Inc?
China Inc. Quickly Raising Global Profile?
SHANGHAI, China, Oct 21, 2004 (AP Online via COMTEX) --
....China Inc. is fast raising its international profile with a corporate buying spree, spending billions on companies and resources to feed its growing industrial juggernaut. ....
....China's largest drug manufacturer, Sanjiu Enterprise Group, bought a majority stake in Japanese pharmaceutical maker Toa Seiyaku Inc. It was eyeing the drug unit of cosmetics giant Kanebo before its expansion ....
....The close ties between government and business - much closer, even, than in Japan - might be a liability but they also give Chinese companies leverage, consultant Broadfoot said. The Chinese, said, "have the ability to argue with foreign companies that 'if you want access to our market, you have to sell us a stake in your company."'

"Paper-form factors" VS "dead trees"
BuzzWack.com gave this newly-minted definition for
paper-form factors: Geek-speak for printed matter, particularly distasteful, old-fashioned things, such as newspapers and books.

It was real fun to see that entry for the BUZZWORD of the DAY "paper-form factors". However, proper geek speak is "DEAD TREES" to make disparaging remarks about printed material.

Here are the results of googlefights between "paper-form factors" (13 examples) and "dead trees" (127,000 examples) in the computer field:
paper-form factors" vs "dead trees"
paper-form factors" + computers vs "dead trees" + computers

TRUST THE CORPUS.

Shipwrecked in Japan
Deadly typhoon strikes Japan
Thu 21 October, 2004 07:16
...A total of 167 people, including 102 trainees aged around 20, were being slowly taken to shore from their ship, the 2,556-ton Kaio Maru, which ran aground on a breakwater in the middle of the storm. Three suffered injuries such as broken wrists.
The ship was waiting out the typhoon at Toyama, 158 miles west of Tokyo, when 89 mile an hour winds and high seas swept it onto the breakwater, said an official at the National Institute for Sea Training, its operator.
A Coast Guard official said: "Waves were crashing onto the deck,
making it impossible for the crew and trainees to get out themselves."

White House calls their bitch, Pat Robertson, a liar
Robertson Says Bush Predicted No Iraq Toll

NYTimes.com > Washington > Campaign 2004
October 21, 2004 by DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
The evangelical broadcaster Pat Robertson has set off a partisan fight by telling a television interviewer that President Bush serenely assured him just before the invasion of Iraq, "Oh, no, we're not going to have any casualties."
Mr. Robertson, offering that account in an interview televised Tuesday night on CNN, said Mr. Bush made the comment when they met in Nashville in early 2003. At that meeting, he said, he warned the president to prepare the public for casualties.


Mr. Robertson, a former marine who ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1988, said that he had had "deep misgivings" about the war. But, he said, closely paraphrasing Mark Twain, the president looked "like a contented Christian with four aces.''
"I mean, he was just sitting there like 'I am on top of the world,' " Mr. Robertson said.
"The Lord told me it was going to be a), a disaster, and b), messy," he continued, adding that he wished Mr. Bush would acknowledge his mistake.
As the White House disputed Mr. Robertson's recollection, Democrats pounced yesterday on the chance to make Mr. Bush contradict a prominent supporter....more...

Godzilla stomps Hollywood's Walk of Fame
Godzilla to receive star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
JapanToday.com Oct 21
Godzilla, Japan's longtime favorite monster, will be honored at Hollywood's Walk of Fame on Nov 29. Toho Co presented a Godzilla mascot with a certificate for the Hollywood honor, at the company's Tokyo head office on Wednesday.

Godzilla's star on the Walk of Fame will be the first for a Japanese character....

Posted by trek/taro at 11:46 AM KDT
Post Comment | View Comments (2) | Permalink | Share This Post

'Wearable computers' in Tokyo: I want my brainstem implant!
Topic: Japanese Tech
New Wearable Computers
Reuters Television: Business Oct. 20 - The latest in digital consumer technology went on show in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Many of the gadgets on display looked like they belonged in a science fiction thriller.What caught the eye were the range of 'wearable computers'.
Such as the "Synchro Reality" technology developed by camera-maker Olympus. The device enables the wearer of its headpiece to receive real-time information which can be interpreted into pictures....

Typhoon Lizard kills at least 30 in Japan!
Japan typhoon toll rises to 30
Wednesday, October 20, 2004 Posted: 2359 GMT
TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) -- Rescuers across Japan are searching for 40 people missing after a powerful typhoon raked the country with heavy rains and high winds, killing at least 30 in floods and landslides.
Typhoon Tokage {Lizard}, described as the deadliest storm to hit Japan in a decade, headed out to sea after sideswiping Tokyo ...

Gaijin thieves dump 5 million yen on side of road....No way Jose
Thieves dump bags containing 50 million yen on side of road
(Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, Oct. 19, 2004)
UTSUNOMIYA -- Thieves who stole a whopping 524 million yen from a transport company here on Sunday have abandoned several bags on the side of the road that contained about 50 million yen, police said.


Foreigners blamed for massive heist
(Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, Oct. 18, 2004)
UTSUNOMIYA -- A group of four or five men believed to be foreigners have made off with 524 million yen in cash following a daring raid on a transport company ...

Just say NO to NHK fees
Topic: adviceS

Pay NHK?
Gee, just say NO.

NHK has no method of enforcement for payment of fees (unlike the UK's BBC). Just say "no thank you" everytime they come to the door. Even though I don't have to pay because I'm "special," I enjoy saying NO with a big smile.