Why a volcano for Japan?

Why a volcano for Japan?

I’m sure you’ve seen AT&T’s place name mash-up ads. This one greeted me at my neighborhood trolley stop early in the morning today. If you’re wondering what that lump is where Japan should be, I’m fairly certain it’s not a tumor or a wart - I’m pretty sure it’s a volcano. I guess they’re trying for Mt. Fuji, which actually is a dormant volcano, but I don’t think most people in the US know that (it last erupted 300 years ago). So it struck me as a cryptic choice - when I think “Japan,” “volcano” is not an image that comes to mind. It’s a shame because they could have had a lot of fun with other possibilities: Hello Kitty, Shinto shrine gates, sumo wrestlers, sushi, samurai, bullet trains, Astro Boy, cherry blossoms, geishas, and so on. The real problem is that the ad designers boxed themselves in with their choice of bland gray icons, as so much that is iconic about Japan is wonderfully colorful. What makes Mt. Fuji so recognizable is its white capped peak, but that aspect is lost in the ad’s bland grayness.

Doraemon subbing for Stanford’s copy of The Thinker statue when it was temporarily removed in 2001.

If he were more widely known outside Asia, I would have picked Doraemon for the ad. Here’s a picture I took of him on the Stanford campus about 6 years ago. When the University’s copy of The Thinker was temporarily removed for minor repairs, some enterprising students put Doraemon in his place.

Today’s Photoshop Phriday at the Something Awful site had me in stitches. The original photo is at the top, and then many pages of doctored versions follow (don’t miss the “next page” arrow at the bottom). The set of historical photos on the last page is my favorite (although the picture of them on the bridge of the Enterprise really got me too). Note the fun many of the pictures have with the fact that one of his shoes is off.

…You see early morning commuters starting up their cars at 5:30 in the morning, and then going back in their houses for a while, so the cars can get fully air conditioned before they leave for work.

This is a good example of why the world needs the Japanese, because only they think of things like this. The complete collection is here - my favorite is the comb-over.

14 years after it was closed, the old Jamestown Bridge in my home state of Rhode Island has been destroyed - it’s center span was exploded last month, and the rest of it was blown up late last week. From when I was a child to when it was closed during my last year of college, driving across this bridge often gave me butterflies in my stomach. It was very narrow, leaving no margin for error when dealing with cars passing you in the other lane. And if a car broke down and blocked a lane, it would take hours to disentangle the traffic. But the worst part was the center span - as you drove across it, there was no concrete under you - only see-through metal grates that would clang noisily as they shifted under the weight of your car.

Newport is on an island (Aquidneck), and the Newport Bridge connects it to Jamestown, which is also on an island (Conanicut). The Jamestown bridge is what got you to the mainland from there. In the sunset photo above, taken before the blast, the old bridge is on the left, and the new bridge is on the right.

I don’t know the details, but apparently it took this long to get rid of the old bridge because of various financial constraints and environmental concerns. Back in 1997, the Rhode Island DOT shopped around Hollywood for a movie studio to blow it up it for them, but there were no takers (I think they were inspired by the exploding bridge in the movie True Lies).

More photos, as well as video clips of the demolition, are in a “Digital Extra” section at the Providence Journal site - you’ll need to register to see it though (I copied the photos above from there). One of their articles on the demolition made me laugh with this statement: “For all who came, the demolition was a spectacle not to be missed, a chance to say goodbye to a piece of Rhode Island history that carried terror-filled memories and yet somehow managed to endear itself with its striking profile.” I’m hoping that last statement is tongue-in-check - by “striking profile” I assume they mean, “too ugly to be forgotten” (the dim, warm glow of the setting sun in the photo above is masking a number of sins).

Some things to make you laugh:

• The Shining, Redux - a spoof trailer for The Shining, making it look like a heartwarming, father-son bonding film. It won a re-cut comptetition last year, and since then folks have made a bunch of these for other films - if you do a Google search for “trailer recut” you can find them.
• How to make an Easter turducken. “Many children wonder around Easter how it is that bunnies lay eggs. As a side benefit, Easter turducken illustrates clearly that this ‘theory’ is wrong. Obviously bunnies lay chickens, which then lay the eggs.”
• A Dr. Seuss interpretation of Bush’s defense of Rumsfeld, inspired by the actual Bush statement, “I’m the decider, and I decide what is best…” …All my decisions, they come Jesus-blessed.
• A History of US/Iranian Relations Since 9/11, in the form of a conversation between the US and Iran. For something written as humor, it actually sums up the real situation surprisingly well.
• The Senate Ethics Committee Mansion
• This is from last month, when Republican Howard Kaloogian was running to replace Duke Cunningham in San Diego (who was convicted of bribery). Kaloogian participiated in the up-is-down “Truth Tour” of Iraq, which tried to demonstrate how great things really are in Iraq. To help make this point, Kaloogian posted a photo on his web site, which he claimed he took himself, of a peaceful and bustling street in downtown Baghdad. But the photo didn’t pass the sniff test, and the blogosphere soon revealed that it was actually a photo of a street in a suburb of Istanbul, Turkey. Kaloogian then claimed it was a simple photo mix-up, and replaced the photo on his site with this aerial shot of Baghdad, where you can see that Baghdad clearly has buildings and trees (but he still kept the original caption, claiming this showed how great things are). All that may be sad rather than funny, but what I found very funny - as a former fanatical player of the game Civilization - was this take on the story.
• This SNL cartoon on John McCain is very funny, particularly the Apocalypse Now moment at the end. It first ran, I think, in 2003. It was inspired by McCain’s decision to make nice with Bush after the vicious personal attacks he suffered at the hands of Bush supporters in the 2000 primary race. As McCain is gearing up to run again for 2008, he’s cozying up to Jerry Falwell and others he once denounced as “agents of intolerance,” making this cartoon all too relevant again now.

I’ve been an astronomy buff all my life, but I’ve never seen a total solar eclipse. There’s going to be a total solar eclipse in two days, but you need to be in Brazil, the Atlantic Ocean, Africa, or the Middle East to see it. I came across this very cool map of where to see total eclipses between 2001-2025. The next one that will be visible in the US is in 2017, so mark your calendars ;-).

This article explains what it’s like to witness a solar eclipse, and why they’re visible only within paths that are typically thousands of miles long but only about 100 miles wide:

Only during totality can one observe the pearly white solar corona, as well as the ruddy chromosphere, and prominences – sights that are normally hidden from our view by the brilliant light of the Sun. In addition, darkness similar to 20 or 30 minutes after sundown suddenly falls over the surrounding landscape, allowing the brighter stars and planets to appear while strange and exotic colors rim the horizon…The regions from where the spectacular sight of a totally eclipsed Sun can be seen, however, are strictly confined to a narrow track; the path that the dark central shadow of the Moon (called the “umbra”) traces out over the Earth’s surface. That track may run for thousands of miles, yet may average less than a hundred miles in width. So while the dark lunar shadow might sweep over the Earth twice over a span of just three years, for a specific geographical location, the odds of lying directly in the path of that shadow is very small.

Here’s something I’d like for my birthday - The Meaning of Tingo: And Other Extraordinary Words from Around the World. I haven’t studied a foreign language since high school, but one thing I remember enjoying was learning words and expressions that had no exact equivalent in English. From what I can tell this book is a collection of such words from around the world. Here are a few samples from a description of the book:

Olfrygt - how the Danish describe the nagging fear of being unable to find a beer while out of town

Neko-neko - the Indonesian word for someone with a novel idea that actually makes the situation worse

Tingo - in Pascuense, to take all the objects one desires from the house of a friend, one at a time, by borrowing them

An acquaitance forwarded this link to me: PTO Requests Model of Warp Drive Invention. There’s another post with some more background. Considering some of the other ridiculous patents that have been awarded (not to mention silly trademarks), I guess they figured it was worth a shot.

Is it me, or does the guy who runs the patent law blog look way too earnest in his photo?

Over the past few weeks Russia has been having its coldest weather in 50 years, with temperatures in Moscow “…hovering between 4 and 29 degrees below zero F.” While some have experimented with a variety of new ways to stay warm…

…many Russians are resorting to a more traditional ritual to stay warm: drinking a few shots of vodka. Sales of alcoholic beverages soared by 30 percent over the past week, according to the Moscow-based National Alcohol Association. And in the town of Yaroslavl, about 180 miles north of Moscow, an elephant went berserk and ripped his cage apart after zookeepers fed it a bucket of vodka in an attempt to help it feel warmer.