Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou

What's the most beautiful thing you've read? This might just be it for me. Every graceful pencil line, every fluid brushstroke, every charming story, every manmade structure overrun by nature, Alpha, giant persimmons, Kahlua with milk, water spirits, kind strangers, the passage of time...

I really don't think it's the kind of thing that you can explain or summarize; it's really gotta be read and experienced. It's just very peaceful, tranquil, and relaxing. It might be responsible for things like my current view on nature and the role of man. Unfortunately, it hasn't made its way (officially) over to the States just yet...

Chinese singers, Japanese singers, English

I listen to a good bit of Chinese and Japanese pop. One thing I've noticed is that both are, on occasion, wont to sing in English. As far as I've noticed, Chinese singers are much better at singing in English than Japanese singers. If I were a singer, I would think that singing poorly in a foreign language would be embarassing.

Chinese singers, the ones I've heard, aren't the best English singers, but they're actually very passable. Sometimes it's Chinglish (a mixture of Chinese and English), and sometimes it's a complete song in English. Far from having accent problems, I think they just wouldn't be my first choice for singing an English song.

Japanese singers, on the other hand, sing an English word poorly and with pride. These songs are mostly Japlish. Actually, they'd mostly be Japanese with a word of English tossed in here and there. One hilarious offender is a song from an anime called Hokuto no Ken, You wa Shock.

Come to think of it, I seem to recall reading something about how European singers are taught to sing with an American accent. From the few Korean songs I've listened to, their English seems fine. I even recall reading how some Koreans undergo surgery for their tongue to overcome physical limitations in their pronunciation. The one Vietnamese singer I listen to also has great English pronunciation. Spanish singers sing English songs all the time, and songs like "She Bangs" aside, they sound fine.

So what's up with the Japanese?

Public and Private Freedom of Speech

Having just had a discussion about the one DJ that was fired for opining that all Muslims are terrorists, the issue of freedom of speech came up. Regardless of the stupidity of such a blanket statement, did the guy have a right to say it?

Well he said it, and it's quite clearly too late to take it back, but that little exercise came at the cost of his job.

Lest we forget, the First Amendment reads:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

So quite clearly the concept of freedom of speech and the actually lawful basis for it are two distinct concepts. One covers what the government (congress) can't do, and one... is an ideal, subject to the whims of the proprietor/administrator of the venue for exercise thereof.

For instance, if the comments sections had a comment I didn't like (e.g., spam), aren't I free to remove it?

But while we're on it, I'm glad that DJ got canned. What an asinine, small-minded thing to say.

How do you fight ignorance?

I said previously, "to oppose absurdity, one must use moderation", but it's so frustrating to see intelligent design gain any kind of hold or traction. Truly, intelligent design is a banner for the willfully ignorant. So how do you fight it? I don't know if stickers and stencils are the best way, but it certainly is fun.

The real answer is, you fight ignorance with education. Unfortunately, that's precisely the ground that intelligent design proponents are trying to take, further crippling children, the next generation of innovators, with this blithering stupidity. But kids grow up fast these days. Maybe poor public schooling is a mixed blessing.

A Legal, Non-restrictive File-sharing Scheme... From Sony!

Hard to believe, but apparently true. I don't think this is the best solution because it would limit a consumer to one label and to one ISP, but it definitely sounds like a step in the right direction. And, of course, you don't have to join that ISP if you don't want that deal. But if you do... what a deal it is.

Interesting idea... but I'm not sure what it's going to accomplish. As a surveying tool, it may be useful, but I can't help but think that they're doing it mostly to get their foot in the door to something more restrictive. And what happens when a user leaves the ISP?

Wanna make a quick buck?

Boingboing (and friends) is offering a $1 million dollar prize for proving Jesus is not the son of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Right, Wrong, Legal, Illegal

I would have hoped that everyone would've known the difference between illegal and wrong by the time they exited their teens, but, from a lunchtime conversation today, that's apparently not the case.

So breaking the speed limit is illegal, wrong, or both? The answer is "it depends". It depends on driver skill, the car and its condition, road conditions, and other cars. While a speed limit may be set for an average driver, or perhaps a lowest common denominator, or even for speed traps, do you (the hypothetical you of course) really think that it's a number that's one size fits all?

Of course not... So what makes you think every law on the book fits every person in every situation at every time?

And what happens when (when, probably not if) the government oversteps its bounds? I would've thought everybody has seen enough dystopias to know better. Maybe it's just hard to apply/think about moraltiy at both the high level and the personal level.

Ten songs I like at the moment...

I've been tagged, so it's as good an opportunity as any to share some of my favorite music!

Lessee... There're my alltime favorites, but since this is an at the moment type of thing... In no particular order:

1. The one that's in my blog's subtitle right now, Bent - Private Road. Slow and a little lonesome. I love the instrumentation and the singer's got such a deep and feminine voice.

2. A Girl Called Eddy's got a couple I like, those being Golden and Somebody Hurt You. She's got another great voice I love. And her lyrics are kind of sad, pathetic, and open, which I love.

3. Sleeper - Nice Guy Eddie. I think this band's split up by now, maybe. Nice guitars, lyrics about golddigging, but with a nice but sad ending.

4. Belly - Untitled and Unsung. "I know your heart, it's just like mine". Well, I think that's what she's singing. Anyway, looking at my playlist, I think I really like Belly.

5. Andain - Beautiful Things. I'm a sucker for melodic techno sung by a sexy voice.

6. Weekend Players - Pursuit of Happiness. "Keep it strong, and it won't be long until there's better times..."

7. Goldfrapp - Strict Machine. That song from the Gameboy Metroid commercial. Good bassline, very melodic. Is it about a vibrator? Is it about a good German screwing? Who knows?

8. Yuamu - Pink. I've been listening to this one for a while, but it's still a regular on my rotation. Japanese, rockin'...

9. Zero 7 - Destiny. "When I'm weak, I draw strength from you, and when I'm down, you know how, to change my mood..." Love me some Zero 7...

10. The Sundays - Summertime. An oldie but a goodie. A nice voice, a melodic song, and lyrics about finding love in the personals.

Well, lately I've been mostly listening to songs in English, so it's kinda sad the only non-English language song that made it onto the list is one that I've been listening to for a long time now. Oh well... maybe I'll make a top 25 all time list or something...

...argh, gotta stop changing this list.

Kung Fu Hustle 2!!!

Before Shaolin Soccer, I was never a big fan of Stephen Chow. After, I couldn't deny that he was a funny, funny man, and if given a decent budget he could really do something. Kung Fu Hustle confirmed that, and now there's going to be another one.

In the first, I only liked Chow's character so-so; it was really the Fated Lovers and the other masters in hiding that did it for me. When the masters fend off the gangsters in the first big fight scene, I must've been smiling the whole way through. When the Fated Lovers finally get together to confront The Beast... man, perfect. And of course there was plenty of funny slapstick comedy to go around.

But moreso than any other contemporary kung fu movie, Stephen Chow's, I think, actually deal with the topic of martial arts in contemporary society. In Soccer, he asks the question "What good are martial arts now?", and he answers it by showing, however fantastically, that martial arts skills are still relevant. Perhaps he's saying that kung fu is at least as relevant as any sport. It remembers the grandeur and the splendor and places it in a modern-day context. In that sense, it's not unlike Fables, where the old legends live again.

Hustle's world is like a period removed; contemporary but timeless. The value of kung fu is never questioned because the strong rule and the weak are bullied. Guns are used, but not as a first choice. Of course kung fu is valuable. The question then becomes a matter of philosophy and spirituality. Which kung fu also fills :)

Pearls Before Swine

Recently, of the people I've asked, no one knew what this phrase meant. I am by no stretch of the imagination a Christian scholar, so I'd assumed that if I knew it, everyone must know about it.

Some other definitions:
http://www.bartleby.com/59/3/donotcastyou.html
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/280300.html

I agree with the Bartleby definition the most, but I'd define it as giving something of worth to someone (or thing) who can't appreciate it.

Well, there ya go. I hope you feel enlightened. If not, well... y'know :)

Follow-up to WWII, the Japanese, the Chinese...

Following up this post, here's the apology.

There's a great thread on Fark talking about this.

Some interesting comments:
2005-08-15 06:42:05 AM thisispete

Resentment of Japan is fairly common in East Asia. It seems like it is a manifestation of nationalism in certain countries. Look at China, it seems like such resentment is actively egged on by the government. Granted the Rape of Nanking among others was a horrible warcrime, but the resentment seems to be among people who weren't even born then.

Still, I suppose such crimes are still within living memory.

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2005-08-15 06:45:54 AM Skr

Don't they apologize every few years? Are any of the people alive and in power today even at fault for those past deeds?

My family came over to American long after slavery was abolished, but like Japanese apologizing, I don't see one goddamned reason people should apologize for the sins of the father. That mode of thought just breeds a whole basket of hate and keeps alive things that should just fall to the past.

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2005-08-15 07:05:29 AM little_wing [TotalFark]

Skr: Don't they apologize every few years? Are any of the people alive and in power today even at fault for those past deeds?

I think the issue is that the Japanese were never forthcoming in their apologies IIRC. Many people down here in Australia are still very resentful towards the Japanese. A few weeks ago I was watching a WWII doco, and as an aside at the end of his interview, this old aussie digger grinned and muttered:

"You know what? I'm glad we stuck it to the little yellow bastards."

I think people of my grandparent's generation are still very angry about our men dying in POW camps, and the bombing of our cities, and submarines in Sydney Harbour etc. I can only imagine Asian countries would harbour even more resentment, with all the atrocities committed at Nanjing etc.


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2005-08-15 07:11:25 AM ShannonKW

The Japanese will apologize for anything. It doesn't mean the same thing to them as it does to us, but I'm sure the Koreans and other Asian WWII victims are well aware of that.

Korea and other East Asian countries get off on watching Japanese politicos humble themselves because their pride is hurt. When everybody else in the region laid down for the Europeans, the Japanese alone faced them down. Even grand and ancient China might still be under the Western heel if the Japanese hadn't given Gweilo the bum's rush.

The Koreans are in the same boat, and they have especially touchy pride, so I think it's this that is bothering them and not any memory of Japanese atrocities.


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2005-08-15 07:28:31 AM GungFu

Not it just a case of saying sorry, it's also acknowleding what they did, which they have not done with any conviction, if at all.


There are 1000's of 'comfort women' from China, Philipines, Burma, Thailand, Korea, who have not received proper compensation nor acknowledgment from the Japanese.


And to address the dicks who think Japan has nothing to be accountable for..'cos, like it was a war, and a few years ago, or something..'

Yeah, tell that to the moaning Jews, jeez, it was just a fun camp gone wrong.

Dicks.


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2005-08-15 07:42:04 AM stpickrell [TotalFark]

Starting with the Meiji Restoration, Japan sought to imitate the West as best she could.

Her government turned from the absolute rule of the bakufu (shogunate) into one resembling the German Kaiserate (Constitutional monarchy, but where the monarch had more say in what to do.)

Japan came into the Great Game too late to get her own colonies in Africa. Therefore, she sought to attack places in Asia. There was the Russo-Japanese War, where Japan sought to get her share of the Chinese float. Not sure what is terrible about fighting another European power to do the same thing that said European powers are already doing.

If you remember, in 1910, she annexed Korea, the historic target of attacks in eras past (there was one invasion in the 7th century, and another in the 17th century, once Tokugawa unified the country.) Japan joined World War I on the Allies' side hoping to acquire some German colonies in the Pacific, and did the job.

The Europeans got past their 'conquer the brown people' phase around World War I. The Japanese did not, so when Japan started invading China (Japan's 'brown people' are just about anyone who's not Japanese) in earnest in the 1930s, her actions were condemned. I am not an expert on what European powers did in the 19th century to Africa, and China was more urbanized than Africa, so the Rape of Nanking was simply not as possible in Africa.

I'm not going to be so Japanophilic as to deny that; the forces of the Empire of Japan killed at leat 100.000 civilians, whether it was 100, 200 or 300.000, merely reflects a lack of targets, as opposed to lack of brutality on the part of Imperial Japanese forces.

At some point, given the lack of further aggressive action, Japan must be forgiven. China cannot use the 'Japan excuse' to paper over her own problems.

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2005-08-15 07:45:37 AM bbcrackmonkey

See that 13 year old boy blind-folded and tied to a tree? Guess what's about to happen to him.



Japans's atrocities in Asia are equal to or even greater than those committed by the Nazis in Europe. I believe the Tokyo War Crimes Commission estimated that Japan killed 20 million Chinese civilians during the course of their imperialist stage, and that's not counting the countless other nations they invaded during this time. What is so different about the Japanese brutality and the Nazi brutality is that with the Nazis, it was organized from the top down, with the leadership largely controlling the level and scope of the atrocities, but with the Japanese soldiers it was grass-roots brutality that killed most people.



Sometimes they would have killing competitions to boost morale, in which individual Japanese soldiers would go out and kill as many Chinese peasants as they could and whoever killed the most won a prize or something. They viewed other Asians with the same contempt that the Nazis viewed Jews and Slavs, they viewed them as nothing more than rats and vermin, and usually treated them accordingly.



Just FYI, there are a lot worse images I could show you, piles of dead babies, women with their breasts cut off (a common practice after gang-rape) where their ribs are showing through their chest and they are bleeding to death, huge piles of decapitated heads, etc.

Sorry to be so morbid about these things, but I think the world has a right to see what happened, just as it has a right to view the pictures of the Holocaust in the face of those who would deny or downplay such events.

The Confederate Battle Flag

I haven't watched the Dukes of Hazzard movie, and I might never, but it does bring up the Confederate Battle Flag (CBF). I grew up watching the Dukes, I was born in Texas and raised in Georgia. When I see the CBF, I think I first think of the Dukes, and then I probably think of the South. Racism never even occured to me. When I heard people pointing it out as a symbol of racism, I wondered what their reasoning was.

When the South seceded, from what little I know, it was about autonomy and taxes as well as slavery. When the South fought the North, I presume the CBF was used as a banner to rally under. As it was used then, and as I view it now, it was a cultural and nationalist symbol.

Since the South was necessarily fighting for slavery, and since, from what I read, groups like the KKK and neo-Nazis use the CBF to further their causes, it's really kind of difficult to defend it as a non-racist symbol. Nevertheless, I still think of it culturally.

But as food for thought, what about the swastika? That quite clearly is a symbol of the Nazis, but what about the swastika as used by Buddhists? (and what about the cross as used by the KKK?)

In the end, symbolism is powerful, but another labeling tool. Unsurprisingly enough, what that symbol represents, and the people who use that symbol, must be taken on a group by group, individual by individual basis. Damning the CBF because of racists seems to be categorical-thinking and closed-minded. Racism is bad, no doubt, but taking away a flag to fight racism sounds about as smart as burning books or censorship.

Battle Angel movie

I'm pretty excited about the prospect of a Battle Angel movie.

Inspired by Japanese graphic novels, he is currently developing Battle Angel, a cyborg thriller set in the 26th century. "It's going to be a mega-budget film shot in 3-D," Cameron enthuses. "It's set in a post-human world in the distant future, and a number of the main characters will be computer-generated. It's a kind of virtual film-making. We're building a whole new motion-capture technology. I'm impatient to get on with using the tools of the future."

I've been a fan of Battle Angel Alita for quite some time. I often find myself comparing it to Ghost in the Shell, but mostly because those are the two most sci-fi mangas/animes that I've read/watched and liked. While I find GitS's world kind of empty and nihilistic, Battle Angel's is really more of a struggle between persons, peoples, and ideals.

GitS did very well, so I think it'd be interesting to see how mainstream Americans receive Battle Angel.

Cinderella and the Big Bad wolf get into a cab...

Stop me if you've heard this one... Fables is a story about fairy tale characters who come to live in New York City (or rather, the other way around). Willingham appears to have a pretty wide familiarity with fables and fabulous stories as he crams quite a few of them in there.

One thing that bothers me is his apparent confusion between the Brothers Grimm's two Snow Whites. Still, his characterizations are interesting and compelling, as are his storylines and dialogue. The quality of the art varies, but is typically very well drawn. Not just the characters, too, but a lot of attention has been given to buildings, animals, knick-knacks, and such.

It's not a great book, but it's still very good. It has a lot of interesting what-ifs, and it's nice to see these old characters have new life.

Oh well, intelligence is overrated...

The creationists have taken Kansas. Good googly moogly.

Bend it like Beckham

I wasn't surprised that it was a good movie, but I was surprised that I liked it as much as I did. Bend it dealt primarily with the issue of an Indian girl, Jess, wanting to play a European male dominated sport, soccer. Along the way it touched on issues of homosexuality, interracial marriage, racism, etc...

Every time I see a movie/tv show/whatever dealing with racism/sexism/bigotry I immediately get turned off. It's not that I don't think it's an important issue (few things are more important to me), but I just don't know what else I could get from it, and so I feel it'd be a waste of time. In the end, though, the movie was greater than the sum of its parts.

In one scene where her parents are sitting in the house and looking at all the stuff they've bought their daughters, they wonder what they did wrong, what more their daughters could want. I had my answer all prepared and it screamed inside my head. But, Jess understood something I didn't, which was that her parents only knew of their world and their culture, that Jess was entering a realm in which they had no control, and so they could offer her no protection.

And if you're looking for some insight into second generation Indian female life, I can think of no better movie :)

WWII, the Japanese, the Chinese

I had a conversation with my mom about the anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. She insisted that the Japanese must never forget the atrocities they visited upon the Chinese. I agreed, but said that it was also dangerous to generalize.

The Holocaust was performed by the Nazis, as differentiated from the Germans, but the Japanese are just the Japanese. I don't believe the Japanese of today are the Japanese of yesteryear, but then again, I'm no historian. I'm told they have done this kind of stuff time and again.

On the other hand... It seems like the Germans have a pretty hard line against all things Nazi. A friend of mine went to Germany and found it a very nice place. So nice, in fact, that he asked a passing German where all the ghettoes were. In Germany, this means something completely different. The German in question looked flustered and said, "We don't have that kind of thing anymore!" So the question, then, is "Are the Japanese embarassed by their transgressions?" Are they contrite?

It seems like every year I hear about the Chinese demanding an apology from the Japanese, and I seem to recall that they do. Like, the Americans with Pearl Harbor.

Of course they lost the war, but they moved on and created one of the world's major economies. Japan's a large source of artistic creativity. They're emulated just as often as they're mocked, if not more so. Everyone knows and admires their technology. Japan as a nation moved on, which is why the Japanese of today aren't the Japanese of yesteryear.

I have a feeling that a lot of Chinese people look to the past and remember their country's former glory as well as its injuries. Not just those directly touched by the war, but current generations.

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A relevant article.

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Originally uploaded by adampsyche.

yup

Evolution and creationism/intelligent design

For the intelligent, there is no question that intelligent design is an extension of religion; Christian religion to be precise. If intelligent design proponents really weren't trying to push Christianity, then this (thanks Critch!) would certainly be in the curriculum as well.

Creationists/intelligent design proponents should firstly become familiar with the proper terminology surrounding the debate. First and foremost: theory. As in "the theory of evolution".

And while the "giant spaghetti monster" certainly is a funny agitprop, I think it is probably counterproductive in its excess. People don't like being called out on their hypocrisy. But more importantly, I think to oppose absurdity, one must use moderation.

As far as evolution and creationism go... When I was a kid, I used to use the word "weird" to describe things that were strange, in a negative way. One day someone said to me, "weird" is just another word for "different", so from then on, everytime I used the word "weird", I thought "different", and suddenly different things weren't so negative. It's funny how language shapes perception.

My feelings on religion and science can be similarly explained. So if you get the urge to explain something unknown by saying "God did it" (or any other deity/deities), say "I don't know", instead.

Person 1: Holy crap! How did you survive that plane crash??
Person 2: It was the will of Ganesh.

Person 1: Holy crap! How did you survive that plane crash??
Person 2: I don't know.

Person 1: How did humans come to be?
Person 2: God created us.

Person 1: How did humans come to be?
Person 2: I don't know.

It should become clear that religion is not science. Religion is not knowledge. Religion is a placeholder for knowledge.