Just added some commentary to my PhotoBlog for South Korea. It’s just an intro piece but with all the stuf happening between Japan and the two Koreas it may be interesting in the future. Then again it’s from me so you can take that last comment with a grain of salt 8^).
The Japanese abductees are still in Japan and it looks doubtful that they will return to NK which puts the children into question. There is a new article describing that the aductees are a big discussion point in the Kuala Lumpur talks between the two countries. This is a hot point with many Japanese citizens and the politicians are not letting it go.
I just read a great article over at Wired about a possible positive side effect of Viagra. Viagra is an anti-impotence drug with very few reported side-effects. People are getting the hint and stopping with those ridiculous Chinese medicines to get a boner that wreck havoc with the number of endangered species (if the treatments work why are those animals endangered?). I hope it also does something about those dopes that insist on killing sharks for their fins to make an obnoxious tasting soup.
I just read something on Bloomberg I thought was interesting. The after effects of the bombing are starting to have a measurable effect. People have cancelled their Bali holidays and are flocking to other SE Asia holiday spots. It’s good to see that people are getting over the fear of terrorists but the people of Bali need those tourism dollars more than ever.
I get much of my news from the web. I?m one of those sad sacks that spend many hours a week on the Internet. The first step in getting help for an addiction is to admit to having a problem. I can?t admit it, I won?t admit it, and I don?t have a problem. I use ?other? operating systems and my stress levels are pretty low and for me it?s fun to geek. This isn?t a recent change; I?m only mentioning it because of reading news from the web and noticing more references to other OS?s in that news. People are getting very dissatisfied with M$ Windows. My dissatisfacton started long ago. The change in me started in university, I took one class that introduced Unix and Linux in particular and I?ve been hooked since. That was 7 years ago.
It satisfied the craving in me to know what was going on behind the scenes and make the modifications that fit the way I work instead of what the way some engineer thought I wanted to work. This admission is starting to sound like I’m coming out of the closet. I?m not, just declaring my geekiness to the world. My web server is a Linux box that runs all the services I need right now. With the Linux box it can take a little time and effort to get some things working and in my old age I got lazy and bought a Mac. Why? The BSD core satisfies my Unix geekiness. The OS X GUI is great to look at. It is slower than an Intel processor but hell I don’t type that fast. It?s easy enough that my girlfriend can figure out most things herself. Things work without a lot of fiddling but if you want to fiddle to get it just right you can. So in true geek fashion I have a Linux box as my central server and a Mac box with OS X for my girlfriend and I to work with. I?m in geek heaven.
There has been an interesting bit of news in the Japanese media lately. You can’t turn on the TV without getting an update it seems. Last month there was an admission by the North Korean government that they had abducted 13 Japanese people by force 24 years ago. Of those 13 only 5 remain alive today. They were abducted to provide intelligence and to help NK agents learn the Japanese language so that they could infiltrate Japan. The NK government of course claims that those agents were working independently and have since been punished, yeah right. I don’t buy into Bush’s Axis Of Eviltm thing that pollutes a brain of someone wearing his aluminum hat to tight (damn aliens are always trying to read your mind). But the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-il, has issues with aluminum hats himself. I don’t think he is crazy but honesty is not his forte, he did tell Tokyo that he doesn’t have a nuclear program but proof was brought forward he admitted the program existed. ’Oh, that nuclear program.’ Ok, he’s turned a new leaf and wants to play nice in the sandbox, especially for a new non-aggressions treaty with Japan.
All the living abductees are currently in Japan visiting family and friends they haven’t seen in 24 years. Looks like a real circus when they go out in public but there all very good-natured and very surprised at their reception. The abductees have grown children they did not bring with them and do not know they are really Japanese (Lucy, you have some splaining to do). One of the children, 15-year-old Kim Hye-gyong, does know she is half Japanese. Her mother, Megumi Yokota, was abducted when she was 13 years old. In 1993 Megumi killed herself, so say NK. It is confirmed that Kim Hye-gyong is the daughter of Megumi but the governments are trying to figure out what to do. Japan is willing to welcome all with open arms and give all the children citizenship. Japan has even gone as far as promising permanent residency in Japan to the American defector that is the husband of one of the abductees. He won’t come to Japan until he has assurance that he won’t deported to the states once he comes over.
I’ve read conflicting reports that NK says it’s Ok for anyone who wants to go back to Japan should go, then another report that not so positive. In either case no one ever says no. So I hope to see the abductees giving a choice, something that’s not afforded to anyone else in NK.
The Russian military/police agency with swift brutal force freed most of the captives of the hostage situation in a Moscow theater, they freed the ones they didn’t kill. Should anyone bow to pressures of terrorists to save some lives, not IMHO but 117 innocents killed maybe a high price to pay to stamp out terrorists. There is and will be lots of hindsight call by the media for either argument. They should have done this or that to save lives or the other side is if they didn’t do anything more lives would have been lost. I think the government and Putin in particular wanted to show the Chechnyans how far they would go to destroy them, to save face after failing for so long. But 117 dead … My hindsight call is that something else should have been tried, not negotiations, not with terrorists but some kind of military action designed to spare more lives. They pumped in poison gas to incapacitate the terrorists but it had the same effect of the hostages. Maybe the lost lives would have been more if they hadn’t done it this way and this is so much Monday morning quarter backing. I do believe the Russian troops did what they could to end the situation as best they could but the leadership wanted an easy way out of this. To those how lost something due to the fight against terrorists you have my sympathies.
Arthur Clarke is a science fiction writer of long standing. He has been published for over 50 years with his most famous work as the basis for 2001: A Space Odyssey. A great scientific mind that thought of a ring a stationary satellites to orbit the earth, this belt was named the Clarke Belt and is the basis for our modern telecommunication system. He had many predictions that our part of our world or on the horizon of mainstream use. This entry isn´t about Clarke but to mention a prediction of his that I feel is on the verge of becoming true. I called my mom today, Clarke didn’t predict that but he did predict that long distance telephone would be free.
I called my mom from Tokyo to Florida, spoke for 40 minutes and it cost me .029 cents per minute. Wow, it´s cheaper to call Floride (or anywhere in the states) than it is to call my friends in Tokyo. This was done by a Internet protocol called VoIP (voice over IP), a telephone call using the internet. The sound quality was good, I need a better headset but it was a clear telephone call. I know this is old hat for many people but since my home has two computers running the Linux and OS X operating system there´s not much available. I found Mac2Phone and was pleasantly surprised at talking to family. The timezones are still a hurdle but I can deal with that. Now I hope they don’t get the idea I´ll make this a weekly habit.
According to this article in Japan Today.
“The proportion of smokers among Japan’s adult population declined for the seventh straight year to an all-time low of 30.9% in May, down 1.8 percentage points from the previous year, according to a Japan Tobacco Inc survey released Thursday.”
Is that a good percentage? I live in Tokyo and I can’t seem to get away from smokers.
It is better now I admit. When I first arrived in Japan people were allowed to smoke in banks, mall, hospitals, anywhere. Now certain ku’s (subsection of a Japanese city) are even passing laws to prohibit smoking in public streets, not for health reason mind you but because of burnt clothes. Yes, it is getting better but I still can´t enjoy a meal without the next table blowing smoke at me. Restaurants with non-smoking sections a table away from the smoking section, what´s the point? I’m on this anti-smoking kick today because a year ago I quit smoking. I had been smoking for 20 years (with one 2 year break) and quit because I wasn’t feeling good. I had quit before after I got news of my MS and it scared the smoke out of me, I got over the fear and went back to smoking. I stated to feel physically ill so I quit again and I hope to never go back. With all the second-hand smoke here in Tokyo I wonder if I ever did quit or just quit buying cigarettes. To any visitor or resident of Tokyo I found a web resource that points out the non-smoking restaurants in Tokyo, a good link with some really tasty food on the list.
Sorry for this tirade but I just back from a Pakistani restaurant and had to sit in the corner to get as far away from smokers as I could. I guess the next step is to get farther away by getting out of this city.
I finally got around to adding a blog about America and my trip there last year. Check it out and make sure I didn’t slander you or if I did make sure it was interesting 8^)
