Notices by Minoru Saba (minorusaba@toad.social), page 6

Infection status
Released Oct 25, 2024.
- As of period from Oct 14 - Oct 20, 2024 -

No. of patients per medical facility (nationwide) 1.86
Change from prev. week -0.52
[Source: Health-Labor-Welfare Ministry weekly report]
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/001320484.pdf
🔸Downward trend of 11th wave continues.
Saga at 0.9, Tokyo at 1.3, Akita at 2.56, Hokkaido at 3.78, Okinawa at 1.0, Iwate at 4.05.
#Influenza (nationwide) at 0.73. #Okinawa still the outlier at 11.18!!
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/001320491.pdf
#CovidIsNotOver #Japan

" “The voters – through regular elections, not a few billionaires – are the ones with the power to ensure our democratic process remains strong and in place,” said Barbara Lee, a longtime ranking member of the US House, representing Oakland and neighbouring communities."
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/24/sheng-thao-oakland-mayor-recall
🔸Much to unpack, but obscene wealth accumulation should be treated like a coronary heart disease blighting the economic & political health of nations
#Oakland #UnhealthyWealth

Yelling at my cookie, “Keep it together!” as I dunk it in my tea.

#Tea #Cookies #KeepItTogether #DontFallApart

Got my flu shot. This year's vaccine was selected for 4 strains:
Type A strain/Victoria/4897/2022 (IVR-238)(H1N1)
Type A/California/122/2022 (SAN-022) (H3N2)
Type B strain/Phuket/3073/2013 (Yamagata lineage)
Type B strain/Austria/1359417/2021 (BVR-26) (Victoria lineage)

Clinic had spare COVID19 vaccines from cancelled appointments.
So flu shot in right arm, COVID19 shot in left arm.
Nurse was superb. Didn't feel a thing, but as expected right arm aching 4 hours later🙁

2) The American people chose Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020. No. A frighteningly large number of US citizens don’t even vote. Most US voters chose Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020. Who gets the most votes won’t determine who wins in 2024. It should, but it won’t.

2 out of 9

#Election2024 #KamalaHarris #DonaldTrump #Kamala #Harris #Trump

"[Police believe a string of crude home robberies has] been directed by the same leader, who hired the perpetrators over social media to become a so-called ”anonymous and fluid” crime group"
"...culprits entered the home by smashing side-door windows" which had wire-reinforced glass that prevents pieces "from scattering in a fire or earthquake [but] is quiet when broken...so it's not helpful for crime prevention"
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20241005/p2a/00m/0na/015000c
#Japan #RemoteControlCrime

"Trees in the Tokyo's leafy Jingu Gaien area may begin to be cut down by the end of the month [Oct 2024], [Mitsui Fudosan Co., the] company behind the controversial redevelopment project said Monday, after the metropolitan government accepted a revised plan"
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20241021/p2g/00m/0na/048000c
🔸Over a year since #ICOMOS Heritage Alert. Developer & Tokyo govt probably thought gnat-like attention of public & media would be elsewhere🤔
https://toad.social/@minorusaba/111154036465930582
https://toad.social/@minorusaba/111069360124747184
#JinguGaien #Jingu #Tokyo

"Northern pika, 'the ice age survivor,' prepare for winter in Hokkaido town"
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20241019/p2a/00m/0sc/008000c
#pika #Hokkaido #Japan

"A lack of #water is a hidden and growing driver of #hunger that affects one in every 11 people, the WRI said. Rice, wheat and corn — which make up more than half of the world’s food calories — are particularly vulnerable, with a third of those crops grown using highly stressed or variable water supplies.

Water scarcity could cause high-income countries’ #GDP to shrink by 8% by mid-century and a drop of up to 15% in poorer countries, it said."

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-10-18/global-food-roundup-water-stress-threatens-quarter-of-crops
#ClimateInflation

" “Japanese Americans are not and should not be compared to insurrectionists who committed major crimes and in which people were hurt and killed,” said Sharon Yamato, the daughter of former Japanese Americans who were incarcerated"
https://apnews.com/article/jan-6-trump-japanese-capitol-riot-85573774c03b46f36aadd35d5f0b77ca
🔸Don't think TFG's people care a fig about the incarceration of Japanese Americans during WW2, so was it a clumsy effort to curry favour with Japan's PM who mulled a visit to whoever becomes US president-elect?🤔
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2024/10/13/japan/politics/ishiba-visit-us-president-elect/
#Japan

So by US govt statute "The Tuesday next after the 1st Monday in November, in every even numbered year, is established as the day for the election..."
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/2/7
which this time falls on 5 Nov, thus ominously triggering the words of the rhyme: 'Remember, Remember, the 5th of November/Gunpowder, Treason and Plot' associated with Guy Fawkes Night and the plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605.
https://www.historytoday.com/archive/history-matters/remember-remember-fifth-november
Hope the telly doesn't burst into flames😬

Horowitz plays Chopin: Fantasie-Impromptu Op. 66

The Last Recording
October 20, 24, 27, 31 & November 1, 1989

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iW1o2huhSM
🔸Went to Vladimir Horowitz's concert in London in the early 1980's. Was amazed how sprightly the octogenarian was as he bounced on to the stage and I remember him light-heartedly shooing us away as the audience kept applauding after the encores.
Don't recall him playing this at the concert, but came across this performance on a search for the Fantasie-Impromptu

@fgbjr So far caught 4 or 5 newbies indoors this year with a jam jar and a sheet of cardboard kept in a corner of the kitchen for this purpose and released them out the front door where the porch light attracts midges.
Seems their lifespans are about 5 to 10 years; there's at least one big guy that's a few years old that lurks around the front door on warm evenings🙂

Infection status
Released Oct 18, 2024.
- As of period from Oct 7 - Oct 13, 2024 -

No. of patients per medical facility (nationwide) 2.38
Change from prev. week -0.69
[Source: Health-Labor-Welfare Ministry weekly report]
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/001317739.pdf
🔸Downward trend of 11th wave continues.
Saga at 1.23, Tokyo at 1.8, Akita at 3.2, Hokkaido at 3.96, Okinawa at 1.29, Ibaraki at 3.94.
#Influenza (nationwide) at 0.89. #Okinawa still the outlier at 19.13!!
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/001317728.pdf
#CovidIsNotOver #Japan

The Chief of NBC Marketing for "The Apprentice" apologizes to America:
I want to apologize to America. I helped create a monster.

For nearly 25 years, I led marketing at NBC and NBCUniversal. I led the team that marketed “The Apprentice,” the reality show that made Donald Trump a household name outside of New York City, where he was better known for overextending his empire and appearing in celebrity gossip columns.

To sell the show, we created the narrative that Trump was a super-successful businessman who lived like royalty. That was the conceit of the show. At the very least, it was a substantial exaggeration; at worst, it created a false narrative by making him seem more successful than he was.

In fact, Trump declared business bankruptcy four times before the show went into production, and at least twice more during his 14 seasons hosting. The imposing board room where he famously fired contestants was a set, because his real boardroom was too old and shabby for TV.
#VoteBlue
https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2024-10-16/we-created-a-tv-illusion-for-the-apprentice-but-the-real-trump-threatens-america

Mainichi Shimbun's English site (17 Oct 2024) carries the following 2 articles:
1. Japan ruling party not assured of majority in upcoming election (Kyodo)
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20241017/p2g/00m/0na/007000c

2.Japan ruling party may secure majority in upcoming election: Mainichi survey
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20241017/p2a/00m/0na/005000c

i.e. the polls are rather like the story of the blind men and an elephant:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_men_and_an_elephant
#Japan #polls #elephant

"...5 public transportation companies [in Kumamoto Pref.] will, from Nov. 16, stop accepting payments using 10 types of IC cards including JR West's Icoca and JR East's Suica"
"The 5 companies are facing challenges due to a drop in ridership [and high] costs of renewing the administrative contract"
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20241015/p2a/00m/0bu/011000c
🔸Feels like Japan's infrastructure is fraying at the edges. Similar vibes re dwindling postal service😟
#Japan #infrastructure

@mweagle

Private Equity sucks the life out of every company it touches. Fucking parasites.

@DrEvanGowan @FlockOfCats After nightfall some years ago in Suwa, where the locals live (and sometimes die) for the sextennial onbashira matsuri, we thought someone was practicing the kiyari chant before realizing it was a yaki imo truck a couple of streets away.

Just got back from my dentist. Her boss has introduced #AI into the clinic. It claims to automatically detect many conditions and right away it found 4 issues affecting my teeth.

The only downside was that its findings were 100% wrong, which my dentist of many years' experience spotted immediately.