"The govt intends to demonstrate the soil, which retains low-level radioactivity, is suitable for public works projects and other purposes across Japan" "Previous attempts in Tokyo and other areas to use the soil have been halted due to local opposition" https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20250527/p2g/00m/0na/060000c 🔸PR event for the next Gojira movie and/or next batch of nuclear power plants? #Fukushima#NuclearWaste#Tokyo
Vocalist: Peggy Lee Conductor: Randy Newman Producer, Composer Lyricist: Mike Stoller Composer Lyricist, Producer: Jerry Leiber https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMsXjKBZM74 🔸Recall listening to this on a late night BBC radio jazz programme as an undergrad so many years ago.
Replaced the thoroughly worn-out strap on a digital wristwatch with a new resin strap, but inadvertently attached the piece with the buckle below the watch display (i.e. 6 o'clock position on an analogue watch). Only realised when attaching watch to wrist and finding it difficult to buckle up🙁 Prior to that, had fitted the buckle piece inside out. So many ways to get it wrong!😢 #repair#replace
"The Federalist Papers describe the courts as the weakest link in the separation of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial branches of govt." "The authority of the courts comes into effect only when society accepts the rulings issued by the courts as just. We will need to see... how well, if at all, the courts are able to maintain the rule of law and to uphold the [US] Constitution." Assoc. Prof Ayako Hiramatsu, Center for Pacific and American Studies https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/focus/en/features/z0405_00030.html
Stumbled upon the Yamayasu Turnpike Store in Odawara, Kanagawa Pref., whilst en route to the Suzuhiro Kamaboko Village. Unusual architecture certainly did a good eye-catching job! Stocked up on dried aji (アジ= Japanese horse mackerel) caught locally and American-sourced dried hokke (ホッケ=Okhostk Atka mackerel) from the freezer cabinets. #DriedFish#Odawara
Infection status Released May 23, 2025. - As of period from May 12 - May 18, 2025 -
No. of patients per medical facility (nationwide) 0.96 Change from prev. week +0.02 [Source: Health-Labor-Welfare Ministry weekly report] https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/001488315.pdf 🔸Small increase Saga at 1.21, Tokyo at 0.68, Akita at 0.96, Hokkaido at 1.17, Okinawa at 1.98
"...to prevent heatstroke, basic water charges for all households in Tokyo will be free for four months starting in June or July, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said May 20"
"#Tokyo metropolitan assembly members of the Liberal Democratic Party, Tomin First no Kai (Tokyoites First) and Komeito requested the policy to Koike on May 19"
"...there is compelling evidence that the #sakoku phenomenon has been exaggerated historically [and can be] ascribed to a form of Eurocentrism... in which... non-Western societies are viewed primarily from a Western perspective" "Focusing on the religious dimension... implies that Europeans were the most important aspect of #Japan’s external world at this time [but] relations with neighbouring Korea and China were of far more concern to the Tokugawa shogunate" https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14767724.2024.2361028#d1e197 #history
Have seen an increase of posts by relatively new accounts of the [Country or City name]@[server name] variety with a flag or city logo as profile picture and non-existent profile details. The posts are mainly news items associated with the country/city in the account name without comment. Not sure if they're simply trying to establish an automated Fediverse presence, but in preparation for...what? So, have been muting, but it's beginning to look like "whac-a-mole" time. #bots#WhacAMole
You can always overwhelm the system with more missiles, decoys, and countermeasures.
Shooting down regular missiles is hard enough as it is. Patriot had a 5% success rate and Israeli propaganda aside, analysis suggests its Iron Dome is little better even over a tiny area.
Shooting down ICBMs and hypersonic missiles is orders of magnitude more difficult and requires global coverage.
🔸Not sure that recycling former ministers will be any better than performatively recycling waste plastic (which largely ends up "thermally recycled". Oh, hang on...burning potential rival PM candidates?🤔)
@David Was there in 2023 en route to Takamatsu after visiting Naoshima. It also appeared in the 2024 film "Eiga Karakai Jōzu no Takagi-san" (映画 からかい上手の高木さん), but it was a night scene and cut to show not much more than the railings😢 (The English title of the film includes an awkward translation of "からかい上手")
I don't think most people fully understand just how much ice was sitting atop the continents during the last glacial maximum. A good chunk of Eurasia and North America are still rebounding from the removed load.
Went down a rabbit hole re whether "aubergine" was related to "auberge". Remembered school French teacher saying it was slang for "traffic warden" due to their purple uniforms, but found actual origins far more fascinating: "All the aubergine-type names have the same origin, in the Dravidian languages..." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eggplant