LICK ME!
Topic: Me
Now available in the U.S.A.----stamps with your own photo on it.
http://photo.stamps.com/
My X-mas cards are now ready....

Japan's suicide rate is the highest among advanced nations

Japan's suicide rate climbs to 10th highest in world
(Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, Sept. 9, 2004)
...the World Health Organization (WHO) has shown. Excluding the former Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc, Japan's rate of suicides per 100,000 people is the highest among advanced nations.
...Lithuania as having the highest number of suicides -- 44.7 per 100,000, based on 2002 figures, followed by the Russian Federation with a rate of 38.7 in 2002.
Japan had a suicide rate of 24.1 per 100,000 people (35.2 men and 13.4 women), raking 10th highest in the world. Figures for other countries included 10.4 in the United States for the year 2000 and 7.5 for the United Kingdom in 1999.
Commenting on Japan's suicide rate, the WHO's Mental Health division cited harsh economic conditions as a probable factor.
"Sufficient analysis has not been carried out, but work stress resulting from the recession seems to be a major reason for the increase," a division official said. "Just as Japan has a culture of 'hara-kiri,' there are probably also cultural grounds in which suicide it tolerated."

'Camp Sloth' for Japanese 20-nothing slackers
Young, disinclined to work? 'Camp' awaits
The Japan Times / Friday, September 10, 2004
They will stay for three months, keeping to a strict daily regimen, eating together and learning about self-discipline, work ethics and job-hunting.
Welcome to boot camp for the young and out-of-work.
It's the latest idea from the Health, Welfare and Labor Ministry to keep the nation's jobless twentysomethings busy and off the state dole. Under a proposed plan, the government would spend up to 20 billion yen next year on sending the first 2,000 candidates for training at some 40 designated camps.
____________
モ?ベッタ... "

Posted by trek/taro at 12:57 PM KDT
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'Camp Sloth' for Japanese 20-nothing slackers
Young, disinclined to work? 'Camp' awaits
The Japan Times / Friday, September 10, 2004
They will stay for three months, keeping to a strict daily regimen, eating together and learning about self-discipline, work ethics and job-hunting.
Welcome to boot camp for the young and out-of-work.
It's the latest idea from the Health, Welfare and Labor Ministry to keep the nation's jobless twentysomethings busy and off the state dole. Under a proposed plan, the government would spend up to 20 billion yen next year on sending the first 2,000 candidates for training at some 40 designated camps.____________
モ?ベッタ... "

Posted by trek/taro at 12:55 PM KDT
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NPR and Dr Andrei Codrescu should know better
Civilization is a Warm, Furry Pet
National Public Radio [USA] / All Things Considered audio
Sept. 9, 2004
Commentator Andrei Codrescu's girlfriend wants to play with small animals to relieve stress. They find a place to do so. He encourages more such places, as a way to keep us civilized. Andrei Codrescu CLAIMS that he has invented a entirely "new" business, RENT-a-PET(tm), and offers franchises.
See the old FG Forum thread: Rent-a-dog Odaiba
Also see NekkoTama, "cathouse" that's been in business for more the five years and the Dog's Town [sic] looking for franchisees.

Posted by trek/taro at 10:29 AM KDT
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Japanese A-bomb making devices found in Libya
Via Charko's weblog
Restricted Japanese devices found in Libya nuclear facility
The Japan Times (September 9, 2004) :
The government is investigating the discovery of restricted Japanese precision instruments in a nuclear facility in Libya... The International Atomic Energy Agency found the instruments, which can be exported only under strict control, during inspections between December and March ...
The instruments are typically used to precisely measure the size and three-dimensional shape of machinery parts. It is made by a manufacturer based in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture...
_________________
モ?ベッタ... just part of the FG Forum

Posted by trek/taro at 2:02 PM KDT
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The only true Americans are Australian-Japanese!
Did first Americans come from ... Australia?
MSNBC -- 9:59 p.m. ET Sept. 6, 2004
EXETER, England -

....The claim will be extremely unwelcome to today?s native Americans, who came overland from Siberia and say they were there first.

But Silvia Gonzalez from John Moores University in Liverpool said that skeletal evidence pointed strongly to this unpalatable truth and hinted that recovered DNA would corroborate it.

?This is very contentious,? Gonzalez, a Mexican, said with a smile at the annual meeting of the British association for the Advancement of Science. ?They (native Americans) cannot claim to have been the first people there.?... there was very strong evidence that the first migration came fromAustralia via Japan and Polynesia and down the Pacific Coast of America. ...

Finding your inner turtlehead
thethisisabadidea blog

Find your inner turtle head

"
....learning about turtle heads and the difference between the Cantonese package stalk and false package stalk."

Zippy the Pinhead "does" Taiwan after Japan

The world according to Zippy
The Taipei Times / Monday, Sep 06, 2004, Page 16
.... Griffith has placed Zippy and Griffy in a few strips that took place in Japan, with lots of funny English terms and phrases that the Japanese use on T-shirts, product names and store signs. When asked if Zippy might visit Taiwan again for future strips, Griffith said, "It's true, the Japanese interest in the English language is very Zippyesque. Strangely poetic."
"Zippy did go to Taiwan recently -- it was in the strip from Feb. 18, 2004, titled "Ollie Ollie Oxen Free," and the animal statues in the four panels were inspired by photographs from Taiwan that an expat there named Aaron Spinak sent to me. "The photos were from a lawn sculpture store in Pingtung. "
--See Zippy other visits to Japan at the following:
zippythepinhead.com A roadside tour
zippythepinhead.com Nov-03
zippythepinhead.com 12-Feb-94
zippythepinhead.com 14-Oct-03

Sony executive loses slavery suit
Maid who won suit against Sony executive decries slavery
Associated Press --- 3:33 pm PDT Friday, September 3, 2004
LOS ANGELES - A Filipino woman who won $825,000 in a lawsuit claiming a Hollywood executive and his wife enslaved her said the case should be a warning to others.

Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine sumo sullied strange student alien!
Tokyo's ultra-right Yasukuni Shrine sumo seems to have been defiled by a strange foreign student!Getty Images, TOKYO - SEPTEMBER 4: Japanese student sumo wrestlers fight during Japan's university sumo cup at Yasukuni Shrine...

"SHIP HAPPENS!" Sleeping skipper slams ship into Japanese homes

Ship happens! Man hurt as freighter slams into homes
Mainichi Shimbun, Japan - Sept 4
OSAKIKAMIJIMA, Hiroshima -- An old man suffered minor injuries in a freak accident here early Saturday after a cargo ship captain fell asleep and his craft slammed into three coastal homes, destroying them ...


See news video here!

"the beauty of controlled chaos in these wads"

Japan's Toru Nakanishi--
"Ration for the Generation"
(Did you think a pill would replace a meal?)
5.3 billion servings per year in Japan,
3.3 billion servings per year in US,
54 billion servings per year worldwide.

... abstract images of ramen noodles, exploring ideas relating to Japanese pop culture, ethnicity, immigration, and "the cult of the noodle" ....
...the instant ramen noodle has an important place in Japanese pop iconography, and its significance is growing in the U.S. as well. Esthetically, I see the beauty of controlled chaos in these wads of noodles.
---The 2004 DeCordova Annual Exhibition / Jue 12 - September 5, 2004---

Health Support Restroom(tm) the "Raw footage" from Japan!
Topic: Japanese Tech
Via Reuters TV, Aug 30 (requiring Windows Media Player or Real Player)
Japan's Hottest Inventions--"Future Creation Fair"
The future was on display on Friday (August 27) in Tokyo as hundreds of the latest high-tech inventions exhibted ..... celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Japan Institute of Invention and Innovation, many were inspired. ...

No, no not a tiger too Tomoko!
TOKYO, JAPAN - AUGUST 29: Director Jean-Jacques Annaud (R) and Tomoko Matsushima (L) hold a baby tiger at the Japan Premiere for "Two Brothers"





THE-REST-OF-THE-STORY:
Tomoko Matsushima was bitten on the head by a lion during promotion photo session in the 1970s and has been a not-all-there space cadet ever since. Just look at her face and imagine that she once had a lion's canines locked on both sides of her temples! She has been singing clearly demented Mugi-cha ad on TV and radio for 20-30 years.
In 1986 she was doing a TV documentary program with the wild animal expert, George Adamson in a remote Kenyan region. In the camp during filming, a "tame" lion grabbed her head cracking it, smashing her 4th cervical vertebra and raked her back leaving her deeply scared. She recovered but is not "right." Bless her, she now does charity work for the handicapped and gets a lot of dubbing/ voice talent work using the eerie voice they she has.

Do you recognize this Japanese guy?
Korean letters on the effigy reads: 'Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi.'
Sun Aug 29, 9:24 AM ET / AP
South Korean protesters burn an effigy of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi as others shout slogans during an anti-Japan rally in front of Japanese Embassy in Seoul.... Japanese history textbook under attack by critics for omitting Japanese wartime atrocities ...

THE WORLD'S DORKIEST TUNE: 'Radio Taiso' exercise music of Japan

THE WORLD'S DORKIEST MUSIC
Radio Taiso
- the morning exercise music of Japan -
I've enjoyed this music twice a day at work for a couple a decades so I think you think all you need to "enjoy" it too.
Full explanation via Joi.Ito.com
Listen and download the MP3! http://joi.ito.com/music/RadioTaisoDaiIchi.mp3

OMG, naked pixels in Playboy!



Video game gals take it off for Playboy
--Silicon will meet silicone in October issue of men's magazine---
Money.CNN.com / August 25, 2004: 7:09 PM EDT - - NEW YORK (CNN/Money)-- She's a statuesque redhead with green eyes who stands 5'7". Her measurements are 36-22-36 and she's posing topless for the October issue of Playboy magazine.
Oh, just one thing... she's a video game character. ....Joining her in the CGI photospread (which will accompany an article about the changing face of gaming) will be a handful of gaming characters....
_________________
モ?ベッタ...

Posted by trek/taro at 7:42 PM KDT
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Japan develops vaccine for a disease it doesn't have
Japan develops vaccine for West Nile virus
Mainichi Shimbun, Japan - June 27
A preventive vaccine against the West Nile virus has been successfully produced by a group of Japanese researchers based at Nagasaki University... researchers at the university created the vaccine by applying the same techniques used to produce the vaccine for Japanese encephalitis, whose harmful pathogens are similar to those of the West Nile virus.
About 80 percent of the amino acids in these pathogens are the same. The vaccine for Japanese encephalitis was developed in Japan in 1954. ...
モ?ベッタ...

Posted by trek/taro at 4:35 PM KDT
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Mo' betta than soccer moms.............SUMO MOMS!