Notices by Minoru Saba (minorusaba@toad.social), page 22

If you wish you had a succinct, mainstream explanation of the horrors of Trump's Project 2025 you could send to your friends and relatives, People magazine has provided one. Please spread this link. No matter how bad you think it is, it's worse. https://people.com/what-is-project-2025-inside-far-right-plan-trump-presidency-8622964

Probably just the sign of the times, but have been wondering about the origins of the phrase "going to hell in a handbasket" which media & assorted leaders seem to be gleefully wishing upon us.
Gary Martin's "going to hell in a hovercraft" sounds more ostentatious & practical as a mode of transport.
https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/hell-in-a-handbasket.html

Feeling the last 2 lines of Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" as a much needed kick in the shins:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46569/do-not-go-gentle-into-that-good-night

@catrionagold Japanese eel is mostly farmed, but mainly depends on catching at sea natural eel larvae whose numbers have been declining drastically, thus grilled eel has become too expensive for casual dining.

So people came up with passable substitutes such as eggplant and Nissin's plant-based "nazo unagi".
cf. Vegan Unagi Don (Eggplant ‘Unagi’ ): https://www.okonomikitchen.com/vegan-unagi-don/

Full-cycle aquaculture has been achieved, but costs are still too high.
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15047625

Sad horse with a broken leg arrived, got skinned and taken to the garage. No, not to make salami, to fix it, of course!

Had to peel off the second layer of styrofoam padding before welding the broken leg and brace back on.

Then levelled the four legs. I got it pretty straight to begin with by welding while sitting on it🏇🎇😆

Over to @vaviurka for putting the meat and skin back on its bones.

#Restoration #DIY #Plush #Repair #Horse #Neigh #HorsePlay #Welding #Plushies #SecondHand

🔸Meanwhile:
"Japanese govt on Dec. 19 [2023] unveiled the overall cost of hosting the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka, putting infrastructure development at some ¥9.7 trillion (approx. $67.5 billion)"
🔸That's about ¥78,295 ($489) per person living in #Japan
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20231220/p2a/00m/0na/002000c

🔸It's puzzling why people keep voting in the guys who keep dipping into taxpayers' wallets to push White Elephant projects. Old habits are hard to kick?
#Japan #WhiteElephant

"[Japan's] Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry has proposed [transporting] goods on median strips or through underground tunnels along expressways"
"According to a survey of construction companies...a system linking Tokyo and Osaka would cost up to ¥3.7 trillion"
https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/business/economy/20240623-193996/

🔸Why reinvent the wheel when you get to spend trillions reinventing railroads😬
#Japan #WhiteElephant #infrastructure

"Last summer, Nisshin released 1,000 sets of nazo unagi online which sold out in a minute. This year, the company will sell a limited quantity at some stores in the Kanto region from July 20"
https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/business/companies/20240709-197520/

🔸Post by @catrionagold on faux salmon brought to mind recent TV news re plant-based "nazo unagi" (mystery eel).
Have been told grilled egg-plant with kabayaki sauce gets close to the real mccoy, but may need a lot of imagination🙂
https://mastodon.social/@catrionagold/111743248524549016
#NazoUnagi #eel #Japan

"The new head of the Office for Students will have to oversee rescue plans to avoid a “domino effect” with a number of [UK] #universities going under"
"...universities are making job and budget cuts in response to a drop-off in overseas students and a decade-long freeze in the...fees paid by #UK students"
https://www.theguardian.com/education/article/2024/jul/13/uk-universities-need-rescue-package-to-stop-domino-effect-of-going-under

🔸Likewise in #Japan
"A national education strategy geared [towards revitalization] is essential"
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/editorials/2024/06/28/japanese-universities-tuition-reform/
#education

"Kokoro no kagi" (Cheering band version)
Composed by Kouhei Munemoto
Lyrics by TOMOMI

🔸Sounds perfect for cheering on high school baseball teams at the Summer Kōshien Baseball Tournament.

https://youtu.be/ssnpRG4biqc?list=OLAK5uy_n6HWDTPx_v-zmJPNackpEbD-fce_SDpW0

cf. Performance of Narashino High School Brass Band supporting the Chiba Lotte Marines in 2023
https://youtu.be/ZjTkyIK6GNo?t=31

"Scams underline risks of banking on mobile, with not all lenders prepared to refund victims"
https://www.theguardian.com/money/article/2024/jul/13/mobile-banking-fraudsters-accounts-scams-refund-victims
🔸Once in a while a letter arrives from a newly arrived accounts manager introducing herself and without fail trying to persuade me to experience the "convenience" of mobile and/or online banking. Inevitably the letter gets filed under a pile of various bumph never to see light of day again as I have no confidence in banking over the internet being secure.

🔸Wondering if local authorities in #Japan foolhardy enough to bring this up at their next match-making event will rightly get mauled🤔
https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/07/these-african-lions-swam-a-record-breaking-1-5-km-to-find-a-mate/

🔸Japanese media have been fretting for ages about "soushoku danshi" (herbivore men) without considering what hippos can do. Didn't know they had created other categories such as Rolled Cabbage Men, but they apparently missed Flower Pot Men (and Little Weed).
https://japantoday.com/category/features/lifestyle/from-carnivores-to-herbivores-how-men-are-defined-in-japan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flower_Pot_Men

"[Two] cupboards, known within the [Australian Museum in Sydney] as the “extinction cabinets”, contain specimens of 24 of the 39 mammal species that have been wiped out since Europeans invaded Australia"

"...manager of the mammalogy collection, Dr Sandy Ingleby,...took on the task of assembling them not long after she joined the museum in 1996"
https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/jul/13/australian-museum-extinction-cabinets-endangered-species
#extinction #Australia

Infection status
Released July 12, 2024.
- As of period from July 1, 2024 - July 7, 2024 -

No. of patients per medical facility (nationwide) 8.07
Change from prev. week +2.28
[Source: Health-Labor-Welfare Ministry weekly report]
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/001274316.pdf
🔸Ninth week of increases. Saga at 16.31, Tokyo at 7.14, Chiba at 10.91, Akita at 2.13, Hokkaido at 4.98. Kagoshima at 23.13, #Okinawa at 29.92!!
#Influenza monitoring paused by Health-Labor-Welfare Ministry until Sept.
#CovidIsNotOver #Japan

People are still making the mistake of thinking the right wing are super organized super villains. They're not, they're a coalition of evil and what Trump wants isn't what the evangelicals want, even though they both work together. Trump knows he both desperately needs the evangelical vote and that the evangelicals wanted a Pence not a Trump. The corporations don't care who wins, as long as they get more deregulation, which is why they don't want Biden but figure they can work with Trump. The elites don't care about democracy and they run both parties, and they're currently going after Biden to replace him with someone more compliant (they'll take Trump but he's erratic, if easy to manipulate via his greed and need). It's not Russians destroying American democracy, it's the oligarchs and their corporate interests who are creating this FUD. Once again America, the call is coming from inside the house.

🔸Also doesn't help to clear murky waters when:
"Prosecutors decided Monday not to indict Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and seven other senior Liberal Democratic Party members over a political funds scandal that has dogged Japan's ruling party"
without explaining why🙄
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20240709/p2g/00m/0na/003000c
#Japan #politics

🔸Didn't help matters that the PM had to sack his right-hand man:
"PM Fumio Kishida has decided to replace Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, effectively sacking him over allegations that he received off-the-books kickbacks taken from political party fundraising revenue"(9 Dec 2023)
https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/politics/politics-government/20231209-154565/
#Japan #politics

"Generations ago, we...referred to newspapers that emphasized scandal and celebrity intrigue as “yellow journalism” "
"It took 2 world wars to push public demand for real news and serious reporting"
"After Ronald Reagan ended enforcement of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987...all 3 major TV networks had moved their news divisions...under the arm of their entertainment divisions [becoming] significant profit centers"
https://newrepublic.com/article/183583/real-mainstream-media-bias-favors-donald-trump
🔸Rabble-rousing as a business model😬
#MediaBias

"Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has no plans to have a dog or cat for a pet at the prime minister's official residence, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said" (23 Dec 2021)
https://sp.m.jiji.com/english/show/16967

🔸Probably not the only reason that "only 10.4 percent of the Japanese public want Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to...continue serving as premier"🤔
https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2024/06/f91271322455-urgent-104-of-respondents-want-pm-kishida-to-continue-to-serve-kyodo-poll.html
#Japan #politics #pets

BBC live-streaming Larry the cat sleeping at 10 Downing Street.

I think British people are at their best when things are a bit boring. I hope we live in more boring times now.

#UKElections #LarryTheCat

Winds will diminish gradually in the next 24 hours as Hurricane Beryl travels over land.

The potential for heavy rainfall, flash floods and power outages extends into Arkansas and Missouri.

https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/index.shtml
#Beryl
28/n