tonari no shibafu

Time to get up

Time to get up

James Fallows on David Brooks in China

The last line of the post:

Take a little time and look around, David. The parts that don't fit what you theorized before arriving are actually the most stimulating.

On my radar thanks to Gen.

Journalism

Sarah Smile

Watch it.

via Todd

Monte Montgomery

The Ballad of the Sad Young Men

We had this friend, Basil, who used to often say about one Benny Mardones song always included on his mood music tapes: 'I defy any woman not be touched by this song.' We always stipulated, though hearing it again through that link really calls my judgement into question...

Anyway, for me the song that has remained at the pinnacle of my poignancy hierarchy has been The Ballad of the Sad Young Men. The lyrics pierce through me every time.

Here's one of the Shirley Bassey versions.

A group I had never heard of called Then There Were Two's version.

And for me the quintessential version off Roberta Flack's first album.

DeMolay, Basil, Lexington, MA, 昔話

Schneier on how to protect your laptop data when entering the US

A must read for those of us that travel with laptops and don't think that our data should be copied.

Security

Soy reduces sperm count

A study by the Harvard School of Public Health shows a correlation between consuming soy products and reduced sperm count.

Pissah.

AFP link to the AP article

Health, Nutrition

Ha!

For quite some time I've been getting up at the same time everyday. Truth be told sometimes I sleep about an hour later on some weekend days, but usually after a night out. I've found that it's just much easier to get up for work if my body is working on a consistent schedule. Most days I wake up before my alarm and I much prefer to come out of slumber naturally rather than being jarred into consciousness by electronic beeping. Some have called me crazy, but it turns out that there's some science to back me up.

via Lifehacker

On my way home from the gym

They were setting up for the second day of a festival near boro-ichi. I guess classic cars are some part of the celebration.

Setagaya, Tokyo

IKanji

The Unofficial Apple Weblog announces next week's release of IKanji.

iKanji is a tool for anyone learning Japanese, and combines meaning, reading and writing training and tests. Over 2,000 Kanji characters and 20,000 example words are included. This is an app for advanced learners who already have a grasp of the hiragana and katakana characters (which are covered in Rory's existing iKana app).

The meanings test drills you on kanji meanings, randomly selecting kanji similar to the one in question to make the questions a little trickier.

The readings test displays 8 possible kanji readings (the reading type displayed is selectable) and you must identify all the readings for the kanji that are displayed.

The writing test shows you up to four variations on the stroke drawing for a given kanji and asks you choose the correct one.

I haven't tried this yet, but it seems like a useful and versatile study aid.

East Asian History resource

Gregory Smits has a very useful and informative site at UPenn. He has created online textbooks for use in his classes.

Worth a look, especially for new profs that have to teach survey history or other courses that dip into realms beyond their past and current research.

via Mutantfrog Travelogue

Academics, Japanese History, History

Watchmen

Watchmen Trailer.

Drool.