We note the tenuous connection to Japan in this one, but are picking it up out of sheer fascination. A study has shown that rats can be trained to distinguish between Japanese and Dutch using the respective languages' rhythms. As Cory @ BoingBoing comments, "If this is perfected and the black plague comes back, warring linguistic groups could use this to deploy targeted biowar vectors. I'm sure there are other applications as well, of course. But: Dutch-seeking plague-rats -- w00t!"
[Read: Yahoo! News]
I've been building up a stock of news and clippings and goodness knows what over the last month without having time to pull anything into publishable shape. Next week sees the assault on the archives. In particular I've been logging things suggestive to me of a "housecleaning" going on in Japanese political and public life, with more public servants and politicians being brought to book for indiscretions and corruption. It is my hope now that were another Recruit scandal to occur it would be exposed and dealt with in far less time than the original (thirteen or fourteen years in court until the conviction this week of Ezoe, Recruit's founder).
More to come.
Only surprise here is that it took NK so long to react. The Secreteriat of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland is not amused at having James Bond tearing the place up in Die Another Day, and thinks the United States is "the headquarters that spreads abnormality, degeneration, violence and ... corrupt sex culture". I suppose the fact that Bond is British doesn't matter as the UK is a lackey outpost of the US empire of evil.
Incidentally, is it acceptable to have a country referring to itself as the "Fatherland" these days (was it ever)?
The Toyota Camry topped the list of most stolen cars in the US in 2001, and number 2 and 3 are Japanese-made as well. In the Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA area car thieves are particularly Nipponophilic: 9 of the top 10 slots are occupied by Honda, Toyota, and Nissan, with a solitary Oldsmobile model the only thing preventing a clean sweep.
A 700-year wall fresco that contains an image very much like Mickey Mouse has been discovered in Austria. Disney is reportedly terrified by the local tourist board's assertion that it could overturn the worldwide copyright on the rodent. Sounds likely.
Some boundless optimist has decided to make a live-action version of Pac-Man. Good luck. Here is one artist's impression of what the hero could turn out like. I have a feeling the actuality will probably be far more banal, assuming this exercise in bargain bin landfill ever makes it to the screen.
