Notices by Minoru Saba (minorusaba@toad.social), page 11

"Sumo: Ukrainian star Aonishiki earns fastest promotion to 3rd-highest rank"
"Aonishiki, who moved to #Japan three years ago to escape the war in Ukraine, broke the mark set by Hawaiian-born former ozeki Konishiki of 14 meets before promotion to sekiwake"
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20251027/p2g/00m/0sp/043000c
#sumo #Aonishiki #Ukraine

"[Akita Pref. Governor Kenta Suzuki]... to request assistance from the Self-Defense Forces following a series of bear attacks that have caused human casualties"
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20251027/p2g/00m/0na/045000c
🔸Wife wondered if SDF was being asked to use bazookas, but seems Gov. Suzuki just wants logistical support probably as local police and staff are being overwhelmed. (Also, bazookas would be rather messy; and more so if they missed)
#Akita #Japan #BearAttacks

"Fin octobre, début novembre"
Isabelle Boulay
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhPncxbP8t4

"At the end of the Clone Wars, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine transformed the Galactic Republic into the Galactic Empire, beginning an autocratic era. [The] Emperor maintained the Galactic Senate as an illusion of constitutional legitimacy..."
"With the Death Star now operational, [the Emperor dissolved the Imperial Senate and] fear would serve as the primary tool of control..."
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Imperial_Senate
🔸Fiction reflects reality and vice versa.

"Japan successfully launches new cargo spacecraft to deliver supplies to International Space Station"
https://apnews.com/article/japan-space-rocket-h3-iss-6b4384acb177c6b8f9c41fa7005b6691
#JAXA #HTVX1 #Tanegashima #Japan

@fgbjr Seems rice is becoming a luxury item again...
"...during the Edo Period (1603–1868), the number of farmers around the country fell to 80 or so percent. The overwhelming majority of those farmers didn’t live off rice. Their diets usually consisted of porridge made from millet, barley, wheat or a mix of all three."
https://www.tokyoweekender.com/art_and_culture/history/in-old-japan-rice-luxury/
Also heard sweet potatoes replaced scarce rice in WW2...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_in_the_Occupation_of_Japan
Now, Turkish pasta seems to be on the rise.
https://magazinebbm.com/blog/turkish-pasta-leads-in-exports-to-japan-3224

"AI isn't just consuming the GPU market. It's eating storage, too — and the shockwaves are likely to hit both HDD and SSD markets"
https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/storage/expect-hdd-ssd-shortages-as-ai-rewrites-the-rules-of-storage-hierarchy-multiple-companies-announce-price-hikes-too
🔸Was looking at prices of HDDs for backing up the PC and was startled by a massive leap attributed to "AI" demand outpacing supply. Yet another reason for hoping the "AI" bubble will burst sooner than later and take the hype-machine with it.

Had the influenza shot for the 2025-2026 season, on Monday.

According to Tokyo Met. Govt's website, this season's vaccine has been selected for:
A/Victoria/4897/2022（IVR-238）（H1N1）pdm09
A/Perth/722/2024（IVR-262）（H3N2）
B/Austria/1359417/2021（BVR-26） (B Victoria
lineage)
https://idsc.tmiph.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/diseases/flu/flu/vaccine2025/
#influenza #vaccine #Tokyo

COVID shot scheduled for tomorrow. Will be pot luck for vaccine brand, but probably for LP.8.1 strain.

Infection status
Released Oct 24, 2025.
- As of period from Oct 13 - Oct 19, 2025 -

No. of patients per medical facility (nationwide) 2.57
Change from prev. week -1.15
[Source: Health-Labor-Welfare Ministry weekly report]
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/001584867.pdf
🔸Week 18 of 13th wave
Saga at 2.67, Tokyo at 1.47, Akita at 3.88, Hokkaido at 3.23, Okinawa at 1.6,

#Influenza (nationwide) at 3.26
Change from prev. week +0.9
#Okinawa at 15.04
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/001584978.pdf
🔸Flu overtakes Covid no.
#CovidIsNotOver #Japan

Have been wondering why people have been willfully emulating sheep voting for wolves.
"There is a surprisingly common affective disorder known as the “high places phenomenon”, which is the irrational impulse to jump when on top of a tall building or precipice or suchlike, despite having absolutely no urge to die"
"It is sometimes known as the “call of the void” "(Marina Hyde, The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/21/britain-nigel-farage-reform-council-voters
#CallOfTheVoid

Having a black cat means sometimes I talk to a sweater on my bed.

"One common idea is that storytelling is a form of cognitive play that hones our minds, allowing us to simulate the world around us and imagine different strategies, particularly in social situations"
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180503-our-fiction-addiction-why-humans-need-stories
#stories #ProblemSolving

@takosix @FlockOfCats I watched (the original) Snow White when I was 5 or so. Nightmare stuff. I think I let my kids get to 8+

" Damage to remote Alaska villages hammered by flooding last weekend is so extreme that many of the more than 2,000 people displaced won’t be able to return to their homes for at least 18 months, Gov. Mike Dunleavy said in a request to the White House for a major disaster declaration."

https://apnews.com/article/alaska-typhoon-flooding-7e6e6b72c5587c3a00b82982ffab56bd

FEMA update on Alaska coastal flooding, so they are aware of it; notably missing is any mobilization of FEMA resources, or any approvals for FEMA assistance.

#AKwx #Alaska #disasters #TyphoonHalong #FEMA

Don't need/trust AI in searches so have been turning off AI features in DDG settings, but they kept turning themselves back on. Not sure, but could be an after-effect of a Firefox or DDG automatic update. Annoying.

Today, found DDG had announced a specialised URL (https://noai.duckduckgo.com/) that "automatically enables the image filter, disables AI-assisted summaries, and hides Duck.ai chat icons"
https://techbriefly.com/2025/07/21/duckduckgo-says-no-to-ai-images-if-you-want/

Better than using garlic to keep creeping AI intrusion at bay?🎃

Computer Space (1971)

👾 Behold the alien-like Computer Space, the first commercially produced arcade game! 🌌 Released in 1971, this machine paved the way for the gaming industry we know today. Its futuristic design still looks out of this world! 🚀 Who’s ready for a space battle?

#ComputerSpace #ArcadeOrigins #Retrogaming #GamingPioneer #Computerspielemuseum #Berlin #SciFiGaming #ClassicGames #Spacewar

"1981 Defence White Paper... was a major... defence policy [review] brought about by the Conservative govt under PM Margaret Thatcher [aiming] to reduce expenditure during the early 1980s recession. It was ultimately [seen to have been] one of the contributing factors that led to the outbreak of the Falklands War [by downgrading UK interest in peripheral regions]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981_Defence_White_Paper
🔸Beats me why LDP's Sanae Takaichi see Margaret Thatcher as a role model.

Infection status
Released Oct 17, 2025.
- As of period from Oct 6 - Oct 12, 2025 -

No. of patients per medical facility (nationwide) 3.72
Change from prev. week -1.1
[Source: Health-Labor-Welfare Ministry weekly report]
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/001580214.pdf
🔸Week 17 of 13th wave
Saga at 3.46, Tokyo at 2.37, Akita at 4.12, Hokkaido at 3.24, Okinawa at 2.67, #Miyazaki at 5.32

#Influenza (nationwide) at 2.36
Change from prev. week +0.8
#Okinawa at 14.38
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/001580118.pdf
#CovidIsNotOver #Japan

For some reason whilst watching news clips re political manoeuvring to decide Japan's next PM, I remembered watching on a black-and-white CRT TV an intriguing, guitar-playing character (who turned out to be a vampire) in one episode of Gegege no Kitarō (ゲゲゲの鬼太郎). Pattern recognition, perhaps?
https://gegegenokitaro.fandom.com/wiki/Vampire_Elite