The Snow Country has been rather snowy

I think I mentioned that there have been record snowfalls in Japan over the past month or so. There have only been about three flakes here on the south coast but it has been crazy further north, with about 100 people dead and the army mobilised.

This slideshow gives a feel for it. I was a bit worried about my friends in Takayama, having seen that old haunt featured several times on the television, and phoned H. to check everything was OK. They are used to lots of snow there but she said this year had been "disastrous". Everybody is in good health though and her property hasn't been damaged. (The weight of the snow has caved in some people‘s roofs.) H. is making the best of it. She had just got back from snowboarding when I called.

Two fun new search engines

Tap out a song rhythm and find it. Variable reliability. Worked with the Wedding March though.

Draw a picture and find similar images. Pretty good. Make sure you use the colours as well as sketching the form.

Things you can do in seven minutes fifty seconds

Theories about fundamental differences between Japan and England are mostly a load of cobblers. However, there is one difference between these two island nations I will accept:

It takes a hell of a lot longer to boil an electric kettle in Japan.

I just timed it. It took seven minutes and fifty seconds to boil one litre!

Things that can be done in seven minutes and fifty seconds

1. Travel more than 8700 miles through space just sitting here on the earth.
2. Run 3000 metres and have time for a TV interview ... if you are good.
3. Box for two professional rounds, with time for a bit of a rub down.
4. Cook a crab.
5. Travel the width of the United States in the Space Shuttle.
6. Fall asleep and snore a bit ... if you are average.
7. Do the washing up.

Actually, I've never tried that last one. Reckon it could be done though! So now you know, I am mostly sitting here on the other side of the world waiting for the kettle to boil.

Rat Boy

Nezumi Kozo, or Rat Boy, is a Japanese folk hero similar to Robin Hood. He seems to have been a real historical figure (in that sense a bit more like Dick Turpin, perhaps), a thief who lived in Tokyo at the start of the 19th century and became known for stealing from the rich samurai lords and giving to the poor.

He has had a strange afterlife. Because the Rat Boy was so good at getting into places, a superstition has built up that a piece of his grave is an excellent lucky charm for anyone wishing to gain entrance to anything, especially students taking entrance examinations. Which is the point of this post really. This popular belief might have been expected to cause a major headache for the keepers of Nezumi Kozo's grave, similar to the constantly disappearing Abbey Road and Penny Lane signs. So, what did the grave site people do? Ban people from entering? Put up dire warnings everywhere? CCTV? An armed guard maybe? Or has his grave been reduced to a few shavings of dust by now?

None of these. With admirable common sense they simply outfitted the grave with an extra stone for those desperate schoolkids to chip away at. I suppose guarding the grave of a famous thief inspired creative thinking.

[Via Mari]

Thud!

It is rare to find a fantasy writer who is not a racist. I don't know how much that has got to do with why I find Terry Pratchett's novels so fun and relaxing. I have just read his latest novel, "Thud". It was like a hot cup of tea and a chocolate digestive.



Strange to say it but Pratchett, an author who fills his novels with trolls, golems and harrowingly bad puns, is also probably one of the most political novelists writing in Britain today.

If you want to read a novel about the dangers of religious fundamentalism and racism you could do worse than to reach for "Thud". The one before that was about the Post Office, privatisation and public service. If you are a journalist, a good way into Pratchett is "The Truth". If not, try "Small Gods". All these books are in the "Discworld" series but they don't have to be read in any order. In fact, the very early ones are not as good in my view.

I feel I ought to stop blogging politics at people but ...

... this.

This morning's cartoon

It took me ten seconds. Woooah!

Woooah!

Woooah!

[A funny and rather icky music video made completely within the online game of the moment, World of Warcraft. Well, I found it funny.]

Brown Shirts versus Black Shirts

The voting is over and Mailwatch.co.uk will shortly be announcing its prestigious Front Page of the Year award. Rather shockingly, it seems those discredited Brown Shirts at the Daily Express are set to snatch the prize from under the noses of the Daily Mail Black Shirts. What could possibly beat this?



Everywhere you look, it is just perfectly formed.

_________________

Update: It won. Here is today‘s contribution from the Express. Now that is what I call news.

How to write about Africa

The rules. And a few more tips.

"An AK-47, prominent ribs, naked breasts: use these."

[Via Matt. As he says, "Don't even get me started about books about Japan."
Geisha, salarymen with prominent homogeneity, soiled undy machines: use these.]

Slug and salt

At last, some good sense. David Letterman proves that a bit of common sense is all that is needed to destroy a political platform built on burning straw men and fighting paper tigers： the humiliation of Bill O'Reilly.

Most non Americans will have no idea who these people are (Letterman is a hugely popular chatshow host and Bill O'Reilly is a very prominent right wing TV man) but I found it interesting just because when Letterman applies a bit of common sense salt to O'Reilly's "PC gone mad" diatribe it just shrivels.

[Via TV squad]

Raq, the new Nam

Condi Rice's note to Bush on Iraq power transfer, with Bush comment.

One way to deal with political spin is just to write down everything that has been said about a subject side by side with everything else and see what kind of a pretty picture it makes for the reader. "What I heard about Iraq in 2005" does that.

A few quotes with links below. Hover your cursor over to find out who said what:

"National resistance is a legitimate right of all nations"

"The Americans brought electricity to my ass before they brought it to my house"

"This thing, the wheels are coming off it"

"[The neo-cons] believe in the export of democracy, by violence if that is required. How do the neo-cons bring democracy to Iraq? You invade, you threaten, and pressure, you evangelise... [America is now] suffering from the consequences of this brand of revolutionary utopianism"

"If something comes along that is truly serious, something like a nuclear weapon going off in a major American city, or something like a major pandemic, you are going to see the ineptitude of this government in a way that will take you back to the Declaration of Independence"

New Year Quiz

I believe it is customary at this time of year to do a New Year Quiz.

So, here goes with the Buyo exam. Some of the answers were given in the blog during the year, some were not. I think the usual procedure with this type of thing is to test the reader's general knowledge. This is one is more of a test of your intimacy with the strange syncopated rhythms in my head .