"[LDP-sponsored] ordinance that encourages residents to...laugh everyday...was approved by a majority vote on July 5 [by the #Yamagata] prefectural assembly"
"[The ordinance was based on] a study by Yamagata University’s Faculty of Medicine [that found frequent laughter reduced] risk of an early death" https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15336010 🔸Unfortunately political antics are rarely funny #Japan
"Incumbent Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike...secured a third consecutive four-year term, defeating Shinji Ishimaru, a 41-year-old social media-savvy former mayor [of Akitakata city in] Hiroshima Prefecture" https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20240707/p2g/00m/0na/039000c
Japan has this short clip show called Pythagora(s) Switch [ピタゴラスイッチ], with all kinds of Rube Goldberg machines. The jingle at the end, which just repeats the show title, is super cute. This episode is epic! #Japan 🇯🇵 https://youtu.be/KcI2b-hi8Mc
"SkyDrive sought to develop a flying taxi that can carry up to 3 people [at Osaka Expo2025] as one of the event's main attractions, but it decided...[to] only perform demo flights without passengers [citing] persistent challenges in addressing safety and other technological development issues" https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20240704/p2g/00m/0bu/040000c #NoMoreExpos#Osaka#Japan
"Social media content and AI training data are processed in outsource centres in the global south, where long hours, low pay and exposure to disturbing material are the norm"
"What most people don’t realise is that roughly 80% of the time spent on training AI consists of annotating datasets"
@CassandraVert@Npars01 Tack on the incentive of businesses to stratify full.time to top shelf because full time has to bear entire burden of exorbitant health insurance and whatever I thought the job market is, is a big sugar cube that is getting pissed on.
nfection status Released July 5, 2024. - As of period from June 24, 2024 - June 30, 2024 -
No. of patients per medical facility (nationwide) 5.79 Change from prev. week +1.18 [Source: Health-Labor-Welfare Ministry weekly report] https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/001271253.pdf 🔸Eighth week of increases. Saga at 11.26, Tokyo at 5.57, Chiba at 9.17, Akita at 2.02, Hokkaido at 4.87. Kagoshima at 15.42, #Okinawa at 29.91!! #Influenza monitoring paused by Health-Labor-Welfare Ministry until Sept. #CovidIsNotOver#Japan
🔸Meanwhile: "Narita Airport to open mega-terminal in early 2030s" "Tamura Akihiko, President & CEO of Narita International Airport [thinks] ”demand for air travel will grow worldwide...So [Narita Airport] needs to be able to accommodate that growth” " https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20240606_30/ 🔸Tourism as growth industry always seemed dodgy😬
Today we're waiting for an IKEA delivery that, according to their email, will be a 10x10x10 cm box weighing 14 kg.
So density-wise that has to contain berkelium, californium, protactinium, tantalum, uranium, gold, tungsten, plutonium, neptunium, rhenium, platinum, iridium, or osmium.
We're of course hoping for platinum, and really not for plutonium, because the critical mass is 11 kg...