This is hilarious. Two Korean girls doing karaoke. Watch the video, but you have to watch the whole thing. Don't just stop half way... ;)
Update:
Here's some more info about the video...
Update 4/05:
I think the video has disappeared from other sites, so here's a backup copy I kept.
This is thoroughly disheartening. Just when people are beginning to think of innovative ways to gather and coalesce intelligence information, politicians shut them down for a few seconds of media time.
This was one of the most interesting and bold experiments in intelligence that I've heard about, and it's been shut down for no good reason but misplaced moralizing.
Hillary, if you want to prevent innovation in intelligence techniques, go do it in a country we don't like.
I went up to Pittsburgh this weekend to see my friend Paul, back on leave from INSEAD in France, as well as Carl, Al, Matt, Nelly, and others. :)
We had fun watching Strong Bad. Check it out. The dragon one is hilarious.
Anyway, I drove up Saturday night, and came back Sunday night. Four hours each way, so I was pretty beat. I should have expected that when I rolled in at 12:30am on Saturday, they'd be blasting music and playing video games until 4:15am. ;) It was fun. :)
And Paul also kicked my butt in Go. As usual. ;)
I'm going over to George Mason tonight to pick up my books for class. Orientation is August 16, and classes start on the 18th. And we have to move into a new apartment on the 17th... Crazy. I was completely floored when I read that we were supposed to actually read a case in preparation for one of the orientation sessions! So I have to go pick up the books...
I've gotten through about one out of four of the summer reading books. Maybe I can get through most of the second one before school starts, but it's pretty tight. I'm way too busy now.
More later on my classes and everything. I've registered now, and have one class per day on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and three per day on Tuesday and Thursday. That will leave me time on MWF mornings to go to work for a while. I'm starting to get that electrical tingling feeling one gets before a big test... I just keep shaking my head at the insanity of it all... But yes, I am excited. ;)
I just read the 日経新聞 (Nikkei Shimbun) today — I hadn't gotten a chance to read a Japanese newspaper in quite a while. I came across a number of interesting stories I wanted to mention...
First, non-smoking areas in hotels are continuing to spread, due in part to a "health promotion law" that was passed a while ago. It's also due to families complaining about the smoke. Some hotels have prohibited smoking in their restaurants or lobbies (including the Four Seasons in Tokyo), and some are just prohibiting it on weekends to cater to family travellers. I think this is a great thing. Japan is far too smoky in public places.
Next, I read an interesting article about what they called 「Ｊ感覚」, or "Japanese Feel" goods. In this they were referring to all the cute characters and related products that have come to symbolize Japanese consumer culture to a large extent. The subtitle of the story was 「『カワイイ』を作る」, or "Creating 'Kawaii'", which means 'cute' in Japanese. They mentioned that in places like Taiwan and Thailand now, most younger people understand and use the word 'kawaii' in everyday speech due to the Japanese influence.
The interesting thing was how Sanrio and other companies with a repertoire of such characters have finally begun to develop the Chinese market thanks to recent crackdowns on piracy and counterfeit goods in China. This is a great move for Japan, considering the pressing need for them to move from a manufacturing-based economy to a service- and knowledge-based economy. Japan could really take advantage of their highly developed sense of 'kawaii' in selling it to the world, as long as it's not stolen and copied by the workers on the factory floor.
We're having a cookout/pool party Saturday, and are rushing to get everything ready. It should be fun, but we've never done this before so it's pretty crazy...
At first, we thought there would only be about 15 people, but now it's up to 41. We went to CostCo last night and got a ton of food, but we still are worried it won't be quite enough. I think it's ok though, cause if it's obviously not enough we'll just run out and get some more at the grocery.
We used evite.com for to organize it and, let me say, it really rocks. It makes it so easy for people to rsvp that they actually do. And you can see the current status of everyone at any time. Pretty nice. :)
It will be really interesting because the people who are coming don't know each other for the most part, although they're all interesting and fun people. Some friends from High School, some from the Japanese Embassy, some from the Chinese discussion group, some from the blogging community, etc. ;)
Joichi's party on the 7th was a fun time. It took place at Casablanca in Old Town, a middle-eastern restaurant...
For me, it was yet another strange experiment in meeting people I've talked to and gotten to know over the net. The only people I recognized were Mena Trott of Movabletype, and Joichi, so I was forced to practice my shiny new contact-making überskillz and just walk up to strangers and introduce myself. Crazy.
The funny thing about all that is that I had fun. I always hated parties when I was a kid, thinking that all the wining and dining my parents did was superficial and forced. I thought that no one was being genuine, that no one at their parties was interesting, et cetera.
Welp, I've found that for the most part, I was probably wrong. It merely seemed to be that way because the protocols employed to converse in such venues were so utterly different than those I ascribed to at the time. Clothing, manners, speech, and topic selection were so alien to me that I just didn't understand what was going on. I was a rational mind, and they were social minds. I didn't grok the protocol.
But now I've learned that by observing the basic protocol of interaction, I can have meaningful and fulfilling interactions with non-rational people in these situations. I can even talk about interesting things, but I just have to make sure that (as per the protocol) I introduce the subject with an appropriate segue, I don't go into too much detail, and I allow the conversation to move off that topic freely.
I know some of you will be reading this and rolling on the floor laughing, but this is actually the way it is for me. I'm pretty amazed I've actually been able to learn these protocols well enough to reach this level of comfortability. Although, when you think about it, it's almost like learning a language, which I've learned how to do pretty well too...
Fun time Joichi -- have to do it again sometime. ;)
Check out (via memepool) mdunkerton's video of a couple of japanese guys doing crazy matrix-style ping-pong in the traditional style of bunraku, with men in black suits secretly moving things. This is AWESOME.
Update 2/04: No longer at the above site... Check here at NTV.
Howard Dean is guest blogging on Larry Lessig's site, so I actually read some of his ideas. I'm not too surprised. He's pretty much in line with other Democrats on most of the issues. The following is the list of things I require in a candidate, and I don't think such a person exists at present, which is why I'm so disenchanted with politics. At least give me one person I can vote for...
Pro-economy — Competition is what drives the economy, and the economy is the most fundamental factor in the success of our nation. Strict regulations must be enforced to ensure a level playing field, and good competition, but over-regulation must be avoided. Cities must be specially cultivated as centers of commerce and engines of the economy through tax incentives, etc.
Pro-responsibility — Individuals are responsible for their own lives, and their own behavior. They should be given a good basic education (high school), and expected to make something of themselves. Social programs should be limited to what is necessary for promoting social stability and economic growth.
Pro-choice — Abortion should be legal up to a point. That point must be negotiated, but where we are now is a good starting point. Population control should be considered a practical measure to engineer our quality of life, although the U.S. doesn't need it quite yet.
Pro-science — Fundamental scientific research must be supported by the government and fear-mongering backwardness (such as regarding stem cell research) must be overcome. At the same time, cheap access to technology, including medical technology, depends on free-market competition, so socialized systems must be cut back drastically.
Pro-environment — The environment is a limited and shared resource that must be managed closely and carefully. We should expand protected lands. We should develop a hydrogen fuel infrastructure for our economy. Where certain environmental treasures are destroyed, they may never exist again, and we cannot recreate them; thus, we must err on the side of caution in most cases acknowledged to be important by the scientific community.
Pro-citizen — we must make sure that the rights of citizenship are only for citizens. Illegal immigrants should be deported and denied use of public money. Borders should be closely monitored. To this end, efficient national and state identification systems should be developed, allowing easier and smoother security, and proper allocation of tax monies to the citizens who deserve it.
Pro-gun-rights — Everyone should at the very least be allowed to keep firearms in their homes for self-defense, and as a fundamental check against governmental tyranny. Handguns or other self-defense weapons should also be allowed to be carried when concealed, but not openly brandished.
Anti-drug-war — The drug war has failed, just like prohibition. We need to reevaluate our strategies in combating drugs, to make sure we achieve low drug use. To this end, drugs should be legalized, but still tightly controlled. Money going to the drug war could be put to much better uses...
Pro-defense — A strong national defense is important, but international relations are the basis of peace and good will towards the U.S. We must cultivate good relationships as much as possible with other nations, only putting our foot down when we feel a moral obligation to do so, and only when it is practical. If we make commitments to nation-building, we need to stay for at least 10 years to ensure stability, possibly more, but such projects should be extremely rare, and must have a well-defined plan and payoff.
Let me know who fits the bill, and I'll vote for them. :)
かなり前から思っているけど、日本のサイト何ってデザインという場面で欧米に比べて少し遅れているのではないか？
特にニュースのサイトで感じるが、例えば MSNBC と 読売新聞 を見ると明らかですね。
また、多彩なメディアもまだまだ普及していないらしい。ブロードバンドの導入も割りと最近からのせいか、ＭＳＮＢＣ 見たいに無料でビデオを流したりするサイトは中々見つからない。
格好いいサイトに気がついたら是非教えて下さい。特にアエラ見たいな週刊誌のような内容を読みたがっているけど、殆どは紙でしか読めないようですね。どうしてでしょう？
creativepro.com - QuarkXPress 6.0: A Safe Upgrade in Dangerous Times
Found this link from Keisuke, a friend of mine from when we worked at Quark together. He's still there, as is evidenced by his design of the splash screen for XPress 6.0. As I've mentioned before, I also went back earlier this year to help them in the rush to release 6.0 for a few months.
I can't say too much (in detail) about Quark, since I recently worked there again, but I can say this: they are actually improving the code significantly, after years and years of talking about it. This is a good thing, and was spurred on partially by the need to support OSX.
On the other hand, they are moving almost all development to India, which may make sense for the bottom line, but doesn't make sense for American programmers, or for American dominance of the software industry. It is pretty clear that this sort of outsourcing will eventually cause us to lose our long-held lead in software development knowledge, which I still think is very unfortunate.
The 4th was a nice time this year. Last year the Mall downtown was empty. No one wanted to go down except a few of us, and although the fireworks were nice, it was all sort of strange.
This year, we had a party at my parents' house as usual, where we swam and ate good food and talked to people we haven't seen in a long long time... I met some great people from Taiwan, Japan, and Germany, and garnered some invitations to visit them in the future. :)
Later, we went down and sat right in front of the Lincoln Memorial, looking over the reflecting pool to watch the fireworks, and it was packed. I should say, it was reassuringly packed, because it reminded me of how it had always been in the past. The security was new, but the police were not. It all seemed very normal, and the traffic jams of people were so much less annoying because we felt good that everyone was out there...
This country has been the greatest social experiment ever conceived. I hope it continues to improve and reinvent itself for a long long time to come. :)
Scientific American: Nanotech for New Organs
This is pretty amazing. Applying fractal computational models to the creation of an artificial vascular network to support the growth of artificial human organs.
Kaazempur-Mofrad and his colleagues used fractal computational models to design networks mimicking the intricate branching pattern of actual blood vessels. They then etched those nano networks onto silicon surfaces, which in turn served as molds for biocompatible polymer films. The next step was to sandwich a microporous membrane between two films and seal them together.