Notices by Minoru Saba (minorusaba@toad.social), page 7

"Japan will prepare for ”any development” over the situation surrounding Taiwan, PM Shigeru Ishiba said Monday, as China conducted large-scale military drills around the island"
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20241014/p2g/00m/0in/033000c
🔸"Japan will prepare" is sufficiently vague that it could be no more than a fig leaf.
Wondering if it includes scenarios for having to deal simultaneously with a megaquake & USA preoccupied with events domestic & elsewhere?🤔
#Japan #Taiwan

@fgbjr @thejapantimes
From the article:
"Some foreign militaries, including the U.S. Navy, have already introduced the Starlink service and faced problems, such as confidential ship location information being posted on social media..."😬

It's like Japan's govt lives in a bubble as Pentagon banned Fitbits and their ilk in 2018.
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2018/08/06/devices-and-apps-that-rely-on-geolocation-restricted-for-deployed-troops/

Went to see the "Modernism in Print 1918 - 1939" exhibition of prints mainly from the interwar years from France, Germany, Japan, USA & Russia at the Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts, #Tokyo.
Additional prints from the war years provided a grim contrast.
The exhibition noted the extinguishing of creativity with the rise of totalitarianism in Germany, Italy & Russia.
(Hinted it happened in #Japan as well re the works of Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita)
Much to think about.
https://www.tokyoartbeat.com/en/events/-/Modernism-in-Print-1918-1939-Exhilaration-and-Confusion-in-the-Interwar-Period/721-CCF-8-A/2024-09-14

Also learnt that JAL invested $10M with "option to purchase up to 20 Boom aircraft" in 2017.
Revised specs of the Boom Overture aircraft state operation by 2030, Mach 1.7 max speed, and range of 7,870 km which is enough for Tokyo-Honolulu, but not for Tokyo-LA
https://press.jal.co.jp/en/release/201712/004519.html

Memories of JAL's options on Concorde in the mid-60's & cancellation due to noise & business realities don't seem to have been passed on within the company...so history repeating itself😓

"Boom Supersonic Completes XB-1 5th Flight With Speeds Of Mach 0.69"
"XB-1 is intended to be a proof of concept" for the Boom Overture airliner scheduled for 2030
https://simpleflying.com/boom-supersonic-xb-1-5th-test-flight/

But MIT "concluded new supersonics would burn 3.2 to 10 times more fuel per passenger-mile" and "would still produce sonic booms"
https://www.expressnews.com/business/article/nasa-supersonic-air-travel-19771187.php

And...JAL invested $10M with "option to purchase up to 20 Boom aircraft" with only enough range for Tokyo-Honolulu or Seattle.🤡
https://press.jal.co.jp/en/release/201712/004519.html

"Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese organization of survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for its activism against nuclear weapons"
🔸Norwegian Nobel Committee made the award to highlight the increasing threat of nuclear weapons being used (i.e. sabre-rattling by Russia & DPRK; veiled threats in the Middle East & China; murmurs in S.Korea & Japan; not to forget India & Pakistan)
https://apnews.com/article/nobel-peace-prize-40c351ed629bd515675a8283c811bc38
#geopolitics

"Han Kang has won this year's Nobel Prize in Literature...becoming the first South Korean writer to receive the honor and the first Asian woman to do so"
"...best known for her 2007 novel "The Vegetarian" [which] portrays the violent consequences that ensue when the female protagonist decides not to eat meat, with her behavior rejected by her husband and authoritarian father"
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20241010/p2g/00m/0et/060000c
#Korea #NobelPrize #literature

Infection status
Released Oct 11, 2024.
- As of period from Sept 30 - Oct 6, 2024 -

No. of patients per medical facility (nationwide) 3.07
Change from prev. week -0.51
[Source: Health-Labor-Welfare Ministry weekly report]
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/001315301.pdf
🔸Downward trend of 11th wave continues.
Saga at 1.51, Tokyo at 2.45, Akita at 3.96, Hokkaido at 4.22, Okinawa at 1.3, Ibaraki at 5.47.
#Influenza (nationwide) at 0.77. Okinawa still the outlier at 18.3!!
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/001315430.pdf
#CovidIsNotOver #Japan

C. Saint-Saëns = L. Garban
Le Carnival des Animaux
The Carnival of the Animals

Pianoduo DUOR (ex Deu'or) Yoshie Shiramizu & Takashi Fujii　

Live recording in July, 2014 in Tsuda Hall, Tokyo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l6r1tYA_0U
#SaintSaens #piano #ピアノデュオドゥオール

Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale 2024 runs until Sunday, 10 Nov. (Closed on Tuesdays & Wednesdays)
Exhibits are spread all over the Echigo-Tsumari region of Niigata Pref. which poses a "travelling sales rep problem"...and the website is like a sadistic treasure hunt map, but so many gems to discover.
https://www.echigo-tsumari.jp/en/news/20240718/
#EchigoTsumari #ArtFestival #Niigata #Japan

Glancing at the post by The Japan Times, first saw the article title in the link box and thought it was a "man bites dog" story as I seem to remember that the original aloha shirts were made from old kimonos.
Disappointed that it was just a typo.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2024/08/12/companies/sendai-kimono-aloha-shirts/
#AlohaShirt #Kimono #Sendai #Japan

6/ The thing I really wanted was an arch back 12-string because they can make a lot of noise, and they look cool. They are the devil to tune though.
No actual luthiering was committed in building this, that takes actual skill in tuning the top thickness & struts, which is a gift, or acquired through lots of mentoring and experience. #Guitar #Music #homemade #Diy

@FlockOfCats Not sure what 冬ギフト (Winter Gift) edibles the conbini thought needed rediscovering, but it's the season for factory freezing their mass-produced New Year's おせち (osechi) and Japan's abominable take on Xmas cakes.

Knew they froze osechi, but Xmas cakes didn't ring a bell until Takashimaya's offering "accidentally" hit the headlines last year😱
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-28/japan-takashimaya-christmas-cake/103269792

Memories of the Nobel Physics Prize 2000, half of which was awarded to Jack Kilby for his part in inventing integrated circuits.
Remember excuses being made that there was no Nobel prize for engineering, but didn't feel right.
Perhaps it was a wake-up call not to put prizes of any sort on a pedestal and to continually question media hype.🤔
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2000/summary/
#GoldenCalf

@ShadSterling @carlysagan ML and AI are all algorithms and patterns and ways of playing with data. If they absolutely, positively had to have an AI award for these two this year (because, whatever their excuse is, "relevance" maybe?), shouldn't this have been a mathematics award?

(Edit: Just remembered that there is no mathematics Nobel, just like there is no engineering Nobel. Perhaps the Nobel committee should stop trying to award prizes in banned fields?)

Greg Howe - Plays Allan Holdsworth. Iridium Jazz Club, New York 2024

#music #guitar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htal3Mz4Ncg

@AnOldGuy
Seems to be a smartphone stand/cradle which is included in JAL's amenity kits.
https://www.jal.co.jp/jp/en/inter/service/business/amenity/

"Another unique offering here, there is a foldable and adjustable smartphone stand plus an phone charging cord...Although apparently these cables are going away."
https://www.travelcodex.com/jal-heralbony-business-class-amenity-kit-review/

"...if Trump wins in November and...dies or becomes incapacitated and can no longer serve...according to Section 1 of the 25th Amendment, in that event, the vice president would become the president automatically"
https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/vance-25-amendment-trump-presidency-rcna174325
🔸Rhetorically wondering if Japan's leaders have made contingency plans. Seems boiled frogs are still on the menu😬
#uspol #Japan

"Osama Muhammad Abu Mustafa was convinced he would become an international soccer superstar...“like Ronaldo.” He was 13"
" “I had the ball — and then a missile fell,” he told NBC News"
"...one of his cousins, his aunt and her husband had been killed.
He had also lost his left leg"
"Osama struggles to find the will to leave his hospital bed [and] stays indoors watching a constant stream of “Captain Majid [Tsubasa(1)]” "
#WarOnChildren #Gaza
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/gaza-children-israel-offensive-lifetime-trauma-october-7-rcna166764

Ref.1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Tsubasa

Sunset on Category 1 Hurricane #Milton in the Gulf of Mexico. Likely to intensify into a category 4 major hurricane.

#HurricaneMilton #weather #WX