More Pointed Reflections on the 11th Than I Would Have Liked

The US Embassy in Cairo was stormed today and the black flag of Al-Quaeda was raised in the place of Old Glory. Our consulate in Benghazi has been stormed and burned with one of our personnel murdered.

That these savages did this on THIS DAY is no accident.

 ^{UPDATE 9/12:This statement now is being disavowed by the President and was strongly rebuked by Secretary of State Clinton. It seems to have preceded the Benghazi attack but that is not entirely clear as everything over there is still higgly piggly. Here it is behind a spoiler tag in case the State Department memory holes it.}
 

U.S. Embassy Condemns Religious Incitement

September 11, 2012

The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims – as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions. Today, the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, Americans are honoring our patriots and those who serve our nation as the fitting response to the enemies of democracy. Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others.

Ponder that..

We are still at war.
Kow-Towing to our assailants is unlikely to persuade them to leave us alone.
Den Beste has thoughts.

UPDATE 2: At our embassy in Libya, 4 personnel including Ambassador Stevens were murdered. Stevens is only the 6th US Ambassador to have been murdered on duty.

With the death of our Ambassador the President has issued a much more appropriate response.

"I strongly condemn the outrageous attack on our diplomatic facility in Benghazi, which took the lives of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens,” Obama said. "Right now, the American people have the families of those we lost in our thoughts and prayers. They exemplified America's commitment to freedom, justice, and partnership with nations and people around the globe, and stand in stark contrast to those who callously took their lives.”

More here, here, here, here, and here.

This is still in a state of flux, but for what it's worth, as I type this Libya has issued a strong apology and condemnation of the attack on their soil and Egypt has said nothing.

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Its Long Sleep is at an End

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11 Years

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Upon Reflection I've Reached the Following Conclusion....DO WANT!1!

Two of the Brickmuppet's Crack Team of Science Babes gleefully report on an interesting project at the AIAA-Houston section newsletter which is undertaking a reprint and analysis of the famous series of articles published in  8 issues of Collier's Magazine in the 1950s titled Man Will Conquer Space Soon.

The series laid out a very forward thinking vision of space exploration that included detailed plans for exploring both the Moon and Mars. The plan, developed largely by Wherner Von Braun and Wley Ley was, surprisingly sound technically (if not fiscally). Scott Lowther, who publishes the superb Aerospace Projects Review, is overseeing the republishing of the articles in high resolution which is particularly significant given the art by Fred Freeman and Chelsey Bonnestell. The ads have been replaces with short aerospace articles relating to the series that include some technical analysis of what they got right and wrong. Upcoming issues of AIAA-Houston will do the same for the remaining 8 installments of the old series.

Here's a sample:

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Bachelor Chow: Cheapass Japan Tourist Version

This is not a travel suggestion.

So I picked up several cup o' noodles type ramen cups from a Lawson 100. I knew I'd be schlepping around the apartment for several days while my ankle healed.  One thing I did NOT have was a pot or teakettle, but this was of no concern to me because there was a microwave in both the communal kitchens back at the maison.

However, upon  putting the cup in the microwave I discovered that I had not stared at the hieroglyphics on the side of the cup long enough. You see, in Japan, Nissins' noodle cups are foil lined, resulting in an electrical storm in the microwave.

I didn't want to buy a 30 dollar pot to cook 7 noodle cups over 18 days, so I improvised. Fortunately, I'd also decided to try out the Japanese equivalent to Jiffy-Pop.

This left me with a flimsy aluminum pan on which I was able to fashion into a spout and voila...
I'm pretty sure this is not healthy for the long term and I wouldn't use the pan for frying or anything, but for boiling water it worked fine.

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MGFX : What's Missing?

I discussed Mysterious Girlfriend X a couple of times when I started it. Now that its done I must say it's pretty good.
It's quirky and odd, but it's kind of touching in a socially maladjusted way. 

However, I noticed something else as it progressed.
No cellphones.
Also, the camera. It's a camera...not a cellphone ap and seems to use film.  Furthermore, Urabe doesn't seem worried about infinite digital copies.
So the show is set in the past.
Is it really a period piece?
If so when is it set and what are the little period trappings that I'm missing?
The "UFO" that Urabe uses on her pencil was seen a lot in the '80s (on Urusei Yatsura for instance) but that might not count.

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The Anti-Mac

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A Log Cabin in Tokyo

The Maison I was staying in was was only 7 kilometers outside  of Ikebukaro. I decided one evening that rather than taking the train in I'd hoof it. In addition to any cool sights on the way in, this would give me my bearings in case I ever missed the last train in the evening, 3 miles is only a short walk if you know where you are going.

To my great dismay, despite walking all the way there, I saw no headless motorcyclists, flying vending machines, Black Russian sushi chefs,  sword wielding meganekos, teeny-boppers wearing the wrong heads or technicolor gangbangers. But I did amble across a log cabin deep in the wilds of Tokyo.

The interior is decorated in early log, with a few cigar store Indians for good measure.

...and there were awesome steaks to be had for 2500 yen. Heavily peppered, marinated, and, inexplicably, buttered (!?). After debuttering it was perfect.

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Less Than 2 Weeks

That's how long it took these shoes I bought just before the trip to have their heels degenerate into this....

Which is why there is frequent mention of my feet in the posts on my recent Japan trip.

It's worse than that. The first week I did very little walking because I had a sprained ankle, so the shoes wore out in a remarkably short time. Now, it's true that there were days that I walked 14 miles or more but by the second weekend this had started to happen. The shoes left blood blisters on my heels which I shan't post here out of respect for my audience. Walking the last week was exceedingly painful, but unlike the sprain, bruises and blisters don't threaten long term debilitation, so I was able to hobble about with three pairs of socks to keep the trip from being a bust.

Shorter version of this post:
Spot Bilt sneakers: Don't buy them.

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How They Treat the Help is More Relevant Than How They Treat The Debutante'

In the previous post I mentioned the unwelcome fact that the textbook category "under 200 bucks" was in the minority for me this year by a wide margin.

This was demoralizing, but not as demoralizing as it must be for the people who work in the bookstore. These kids and their parents can't get in the face of the provincial, detached professor that ordered a 274 dollar book with no resale value because it comes with a one use online access code...because they'll get expelled.

However, they can scream at the clerk...who works for the store that ordered the book they were told to order by the professor...
...or weren't...as I explained to one angry angry mother who as I walked past was berating a stock clerk and demanding to know why the bookstore didn't even have the book her darling little social promotion needed.

You see, several professors do not order their books, expecting the students to buy it online....before the semester starts. I happened to have in hand my syllabus for a class where that was the case and showed it to her.
She stopped screaming at the clerk, but damn...
No effing class...
I was out of the bookstore in 40 minutes which was an impressive performance by their staff, but the staff are stuck in there dealing with angry entitled millennials and their parents  7 days a week for about 3 weeks straight.

I'm glad I don't work in retail any more.

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Annoyances Bacterial and Otherwise

Holo the iMac is in the iMac hospital with a few minor hardware issues (the SDcard slot doesn't work for instance) and some software problems that might include a staph infection.

School started this week and my joy at being on the final stretch ( I'll gradgeeait in Spring or Summer 2013) was tempered by the fact that the textbook category "under 200 bucks" was in the minority for me this year by a wide margin. This was demoralizing.

I was under the weather most of the week with a cold I'd picked up on the plane. This came to a head on Thursday morning and I called in to work. Around 3 AM I got up with an excruciating headache, burning eyes and sore throat. On my way to the loo I noted there had been a power failure. Then I noted that, even though the lights weren't on the fan was running, then I noted my father asking why I was fumbling around in the bathroom like I couldn't see....because all the lights were on and he could see me...

oh...

Noting this fully woke me up and I further noted that my eyes were in fact closed and wouldn't fully open. After some effort and panicked facewashing (and the loss of several eyelashes) I pried my eyes open, regained some of my sight and noted that the eyed were discharging blood and goop.

After a quick trip to the hospital I was prescribed antibiotics for a severe sinus infection. I was fine by Friday afternoon, and my vision is now back to normal, but that really gave me a start.

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Oh HELL No

Worst.
Possible.
Path.

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Sic Itur Ad Astra

Neil Armstrong

There is pressure to hold a state funeral for him. I think that is certainly appropriate as he is a greater hero and gentleman than many of the Presidents so honored. However, a more fitting way to honor him is to ensure that we become a space-faring civilization.

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Weird Mac Issue

I got home the other day and discovered that the trash on my iMac would not empty.

Additionally none of the 4 browsers would refrain from utterly locking up.

I tried to switch partitions but the computer told me that I had to wait until the trash was emptied.

This went on until last night when it occurred to me that most of the things in the trash were from an attached thumb drive I was trying to clear. I ejected the thumb drive and the trash emptied immediately.

So I tossed the thumb drive and now I'm back online.

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Sendai and Kurihara

In the previous post, I mentioned the "Sendai fiasco".

I was originally going to head up to Hokkaido, but a series of delays meant I'd missed the last train to Aomori from whence one gets on the night train to Sapporo. I took the Shinkansen back to Fukushima and decided to get a hotel, but none were to be had. All the hotels were packed because of a festival or something. It was pouring rain so couldn't really take pictures and I got back on the last train to Sendai. I could not help but note that for a radioactive wasteland Fukushima sure looks busy.
.
Hotels were hard to come by in Sendai as well, I ended up spending 140 bucks because no single rooms were available. The next day I ambled back to the station.

 I decided to head out to Kurihara and get some pictures of, the earthquake recovery, which I'm told is spectacular. Additionally nearby Matsushima is supposed to be quite scenic and Ishinomaki is the town where that beached whaling ship was turned into a museum.

Of course there is the matter of scale, and the fact that the local rail line was shut down a few years ago due to the improvement of the roads. There is a bus service however, so I took that.

I got off in Kurihara next to the town hall and started hoofing it to the next bus stop. One thing that interested me is how much this area reminds me of semi-rural parts of Virginia. There are lots of strip malls and stand alone stores with big parking lots.

Sticking to the areas around the train stations gives one a skewed view of the country.

Eventually, I got farther out into the countryside and followed the road towards Ishinomaki.




Coming to a fork in the road, I spied a sign that actually had the distance on it....24K.
"Oh"
Well 15 miles wasn't necessarily a deal breaker, especially since it was downhill, but I'd been hiking with determination for nearly 4 hours, so it was demoralizing. Furthermore, I needed to ensure I could secure transportation from there. Finally, I hadn't eaten all day and was becoming quite aware of being in the sun. I decided to find a place to eat and get my bearings. This turned out to be a noodle shop a bit down the street.
I ordered some ramen and asked for directions. I asked about nearby train stations and was told that there weren't any. I asked about bus stops and was told that there weren't any. This I found perplexing as I'd gotten off a bus to get there, so I pulled out my bus schedule and asked for assistance in finding the stops. The waitresses were incredulous, 'that bus stop was over 15 clicks up the mountain'....'Hey Mr. You're really sunburned!'

None of the bus-stops on the schedule was in Ishinomaki and all were farther than the one I had gotten off at. If I proceeded to Ishinomaki I'd be getting there only a little before dusk and then have to secure transportation out that might not be available, for one thing I'd have to hunt for train stations. I reluctantly decided to head back to the bus stop.

The return trip was longer, not only because it was uphill but also because my feet began to hurt mightily. It turned out that the insoles in my 3 week old hiking shoes were disintegrating, leaving my heels on spiky hard plastic things...this grates after a while.

This was bad.

There are NO size 11 and a half (wide) shoes in Japan, certainly none out there.

I hobbled back to the bus stop, and at the convenience store across the street I purchased a pint of Pocari's peculiar perspiration. I crossed the street, sat in the shade and rejoiced in my timing as the bus was due in mere moments. As I sat there I noted a bus pull up on the other side of the street.
The neuron smouldered.
I drank a swig of the drink.
The neuron fired.
"At bus stops the bus will stop on whichever side of the street it's going..that is the opposite side that it put you out on"
The bus pulled away...
Profanities were uttered.
There would be another bus...in 2 hours.

I ambled around the area and looked at this scenic little pond behind the convenience store. It evidently was a dug to get material for the road but was deepened made part of the drainage system and stocked with fish.


I went into the store twice more. There was a nice old lady there who finally asked what I was doing in the area. I told her I was waiting for a bus. She then revealed that this store had seats for people waiting for the bus...right across the room concealed behind the asparagus crates.


I was able to sit down next to a fan...for the last 20 minutes of my wait.

The bus arrived and, being on the right side of the street this time, I got on it and returned to Sendai Station. I'd planned to get a hotel and make good on the trip the next day, but, upon noticing that there was a bit of blood coming through my socks, I instead hopped on the bullet train and beat a hasty retreat to my maison near Ikebukarou via Utsunomiya and Omiya. That's when I realized the full gravity of the issue I was having with my shoes. I decided to wear 3 pairs of socks on my next forray, but I rested for a day , elevating my feet and giving my sunburned hide a respite.  I went to the SKYTREE the next night.

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SKYTREE by Day

Well, the next day I decided to head back to the Tokyo SKYTREE and see the view during daylight. SKYTREE opens at 08:00 so my initial plan was to be there at eight, but after getting up at six and going to the station it occoured to me that this would involve being on the Tokyo mass transit system during rush hour.

Ummm....no.

I left a bit after 8:30.


Although the Tobu Line runs the train to the Tokyo SKYTREE, the Tobu-Tojo Line is a spur line from Ikebukaro and does not connect to the rest of the Tobu network. Thus several transfers were involved.

It's important to note that the wondrous and magical JR Railpass does not work on the Tobu Line, (or the Tokyo Subway for that matter) so if one wants to go to see the SKYTREE one must actually pay to ride the train. The JR Yamanote line is railpass friendly and is generally the go-to transportation method for tourists in Tokyo as it circles the city and hits all the biggest train stations, so directions to the SKYTREE are best given from there. Take the Yamanote line to either Ueno or Nippori and transfer to the Keisei Line. Ueno is an awesome stop in its own right with the museums and park, but the transfer in Nippori is much easier as the JR and Keisei lines are right next to each other, whereas in Ueno they are separate stations about two blocks apart. Anyway, from Nippori, or Ueno, get on the Keisei main line and then get off at the Sekiya station. If you see a post office you are using the wrong exit, instead you should see a train station across the street (yes it is a street, not a bikepath, you can get run over so look both ways) handicapped access is on the other side around the block to your left. This is the Tobu Railways' Ushida Station. It's not Sekiya, which might be important to remember on the way back (derp).

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On observation deck of SkyTree.. MY GOD I CAN SEE FOREVER!

UPDATE: Well, I'm not sure why that posted 4 times from my Blackberry....It appears that reception at the TOKYO SKY TREE is 4 times as good as normal! (There...fixed...)

This is the best of a series of terrible pics. The pictures from the observation decks do not do justice to the view at night. I was looking at a train pass below and thought to myself "golly, that looks fake!"

Then I realized that Tsuburaya and the guys at Toho were GENIUSES!

I ordred ice crean at the sky tree cafe, it was rather pricey and is the only time I've ordered a dessert on this trip. However, it gave me a chance to sit by the window. The ice cream was soft serve vanilla over corn flakes. This was bizarre but it begs the question "Why has no one here thought of this!?"

The view from the top is truly awe inspiring. It's a far different effect than, say, the Empire State Building, because Sky Tree has no nearby peers, at night one can see as far as the big Ferris Wheel and out into the inland sea. The rivers with their tour barges are especially neat.

Note that I arrived at 10 minutes to 6 and got to the top at 8 pm...on a weeknight. The line for tickets was almost as impressive as the view.

No video that I took was any good but I did take this which flashes on one of the windows of the upper observation deck periodically.


^{That little Eiffel Tower looking thing in the background...that's Tokyo Tower.}

I note a startling lack of MASER cannons around the facillity. Given the trouble the previous "highest tower in Tokyo" had with giant caterpillars, moths, pterodactyls, giant apes (both mechanical and organic) and sundry other assailants, I can only see this as a major oversight.

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Yeah, That TOTALLY Looks Like a Destroyer to Me

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Oh Joy...

...oh wait. This isn't joy that I'm feeling...this is that other thing. It appears that Taliban forces have stormed and entered a Pakistani air-force base....but not just any base...

Worryingly, the militants may have good reason to attack the base. W.araich says that the site is home of Pakistan's nascent drone program, and a Telegraph report from 2009 said the site was thought to house Pakistan's nuclear weapons 

This report is 18 hours old as I type this but at the time it was posted the battle was apparently ongoing.

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Time to See What All the Fuss is About

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