Notices by Minoru Saba (minorusaba@toad.social), page 14

Crown Emerald Copper, Desert Queen Dioptase!

https://www.mineralcup.org/2025/vote/r4m02

Please vote for the pyroelectric, HOT desert mama! It's so amazing it can look like moss but is electric if you heat it up 😲

So, did someone call #electric #Mosstodon? The most arid deserts in the world have none, but grow moss-like dioptase to make up for it. The world's amazing, so spread the love & vote!
Forbidden #broccoli or green #cauliflower?

Dioptase was first mistaken to be emerald and gets its colour and toxicity from copper. Hence, Emerald Copper and Desert Emerald nicknames! Although it's toxic - no licking! 😅 - the vivid green tones make it great for healing & the heart. 💚💎🧡

Here's some different mossy shapes to spot in different photos, if you want to look toward the ground instead of what you see in clouds! Thanks for voting!

#MinCup25 #Dioptase with emerandine 🥦 #Moss #Angel #Horse #Fish #Desert #DesertEmerald #Tugtupite #Mineral #Emerandine #Malachite #Copper #Toxic #Emerald #Gemstones #Jewellery #Healing #Spirituality

"...Nippon TV, TV Tokyo, Fuji TV, Asahi, and TBS, are considering switching to streaming [after deciding] to withdraw from 4K broadcasting in 2027"
"[They had] incurred substantial cumulative losses on the BS4K platform"
https://www.advanced-television.com/2025/09/11/major-japanese-broadcasters-quit-satellite/
🔸Wondering if BS4K will go the way of MUSE hi-vision as it gets sidelined by streaming?
#Japan #BS4K

" “I never said, ‘I want to be alone,’” [Greta Garbo] explained, according to a 1955 piece in LIFE magazine. “I only said, ‘I want to be let alone! There is all the difference.” "
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/profound-loneliness-greta-garbo-180967417/

🔸As with #Japan's #sakoku, commonly held perceptions may stray from reality after being distorted by biases, conscious or otherwise, of layers of narratives.

"The truth about my great-aunt Greta Garbo — and why she stopped making films"
https://embankmentfilms.com/articles/the-truth-about-my-great-aunt-greta-garbo-and-why-she-stopped-making-films-1747242787
#GretaGarbo #censorship

#FotoVorschlag

Darf es etwas mehr sein >> Would you like some more

Coincidence Engine One: Universal People’s Republic Time (2008)
[The User], Bell Gallery, Sep 2014
Brown University, Providence RI USA

#photography #art #sound #clocks
http://www.undefine.ca/en/projects/coincidence-engines/coincidence-engine-one-universal-people%E2%80%99s-republic-time/

"...deterrence is a psychological concept in which A persuades B, through implicit or explicit threats..., not to act against A’s interests"
"The extension of US deterrence is the foundation of Japan’s security strategy..."
https://academic.oup.com/ssjj/article/27/1/57/7611626
🔸i.e. Japan's defence relies on US forces being a credible deterrence to possible adversaries and that hinges on US leadership and organisations being competent.

"Census takers carry an ID and a designated tote bag when visiting homes..."
🔸Seems weak as a method of authentication as anyone could run off a fake ID badge and tote bag.
Census form packet containing a return enveloped was dropped in the post when we were out a few days ago.
Checked return address to make sure it wasn't a scam.
Filled census form and posted envelope obviating need to meet census taker, genuine or otherwise.
https://mastodon.social/@thejapantimes/115280809888790421
#Japan #census

"After being briefed... about the Chinese military's occupation of the Paracels [in 1974], Kissinger asked, ”Can we steer them to the Senkaku Islands?” "
"...he said, ”It would teach religion to the Japanese” "
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20250927/p2g/00m/0in/016000c
🔸Perhaps being too charitable, but hopefully Japan's leaders have known "what is what" and have all the whiles been "wearing a cat"(猫を被っていた: dissembling) to avoid rocking the boat.

NHK's "Children's News" this morning explained how the veto power of the 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council had caused separate resolutions calling for Russia to stop its attack on Ukraine and for a ceasefire in Gaza to be blocked.
NHK's UN reporter said it was difficult to remove the veto power as it depended on an unanimous vote of all member nations.
Programme missed chance to set
"How to persuade UNSC Permanent Members to give up their veto powers" as homework.
#UN #Japan

https://toad.social/@wdlindsy/115272204860494234
https://www.americanfreakshow.news/p/war-and-rumors-of-war
#history #war #Japan #USA
ht/ @wdlindsy

Nice Fan Film of a scene from Hitch Hikers. Would love to see a full official series like this but I think the TV rights are tied with Disney/Hulu.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-431pDOiYRQ&pp=ugUHEgVlbi1HQg%3D%3D

#DoctorWho #DouglasAdams #HitchHikersGuide #H2G2

Infection status
Released Sep 26, 2025.
- As of period from Sep 15 - Sep 21, 2025 -

No. of patients per medical facility (nationwide) 6.93
Change from prev. week -1.5
[Source: Health-Labor-Welfare Ministry weekly report]
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/001568518.pdf
🔸Week 14 of 13th wave
Saga at 8.29, Tokyo at 4.06, Akita at 6.0, Hokkaido at 3.96, Okinawa at 4.73, #Miyazaki at 13.71

#Influenza (nationwide) at 0.8
Change from prev. week +0.08
Okinawa at 7.04
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/001568565.pdf
#CovidIsNotOver #Japan

Why Trump Changed His Mind on Ukraine
- And why he still might change it again
By Tom Nichols

"David Sanger of The New York Times is probably correct in his evaluation that Trump, rather than increasing pressure on Russia, is “washing his hands of the conflict.” "
https://www.threads.com/@radiofreetom/post/DO9hKtZkT7I
🔸Media in Japan tend to act as stenographers, rarely adding context & analysis to utterances from USA😡

TV news in Japan translated "paper tiger" as "張子の虎(hariko no tora: papier-mâché tiger).
Quick search result:
" ‘Paper tiger’ is one of several phrases we first heard in Mao’s Little Red Book...used against their opponents, particularly the US govt"
But "Mao didn’t coin the phrase; it had been an idiom in the Chinese language for some time"
https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/277650.html

OTOH Russian claims to being a bear (медведь) brought to mind their former President. So, "paper bear"?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitry_Medvedev

I keep walking
the spider lilies
keep blooming
歩き続ける 彼岸花 咲き続ける
-Taneda Santōka (種田山頭火 1882-1940).

Beautiful but deadly, higanbana are for enjoyment in the wild, not for flower displays.
To bring one into the house is said to tempt a fire!🔥

#Japan #Kyoto #higanbana

@KrajciTom @sundogplanets
It was during the summer, when there is no complete astronomical night in our latitudes. So even at midnight, the starlinks were illuminated across the pole. That was three years ago. I don't want to speculate on what I would have photographed this year during the same period.

It is composed of images that I excluded from processing when photographing this object:
https://astrofotky.cz/gallery.php?show=Howking/1654289023.jpg

Fred Brown, sand artist re-created Banksy’s censored art on the beach in Scarborough, UK 🇬🇧
Simply amazing!

#Banksy #SandArt #UnitedKingdom #Resist #England #MastoArt #NoCensorship

OpenAI and Nvidia’s $100B AI plan will require power equal to 10 nuclear reactors
"This is a giant project," Nvidia CEO said of new 10-gigawatt AI infrastructure deal.
https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/09/openai-and-nvidias-100b-ai-plan-will-require-power-equal-to-10-nuclear-reactors/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

@oldclumsy_nowmad @appassionato
It's baffling, but beliefs in "miracle cures" seem to be an in-built human feature.

@oldclumsy_nowmad @appassionato

Have given them a wide berth, as well as the highly acidic and the sulphurous ones, but "Some Japanese Put Faith in Radon" onsens.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-nov-21-adfg-radon21-story.html

Also learnt today that Jaffa Cakes initially "used a recipe of apricot, sugar and tangerine oil" and didn't contain Jaffa oranges.

https://inews.co.uk/light-relief/offbeat/great-british-bake-off-jaffa-cakes-called-jaffa-cakes-interesting-facts-19249