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General Rants

Ranting is one of the things we do best as a species.

Planet Earth: now with more obesity than hunger
2006.08.15, 22:07 | Comments (3)

Anyone inclined to a sense of genuinely absurd injustice will not be surprised to learn that the obese now outnumber the hungry.

Specially trained attack medaka
2006.08.13, 17:42 | Comments (0)

I noticed they seem to go after the larvae that give them a bit of a chase, ignoring the easy ones right in front of them. They’re sporting about it, and not unaware of the thrill of the hunt, bless their carnivorous little souls. I hope they prosper and multiply (within balance).

Telephoto lenses and orientalising Asia
2006.02.20, 21:45 | Comments (3)

Michael Turton: Probably somewhere a cultural critic has written a learned tome about how the telephoto lens overdramatizes the effect of crowding in Asia….

The new Quark logo
2005.09.11, 11:29 | Comments (44)

One of these logos is not like the other. Oh, wait: yes it is.

Somewhat moved
2005.08.29, 21:48 | Comments (14)

With each book I removed from the shelves I felt like David Bowman unplugging HAL’s memory modules towards the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Bust a move
2005.08.08, 15:23 | Comments (16)

So now I have several hundred Sophie’s Choice moments ahead of me.

Palindrome t-shirt
2005.07.10, 11:17 | Comments (4)

I was wondering if it would fit.

Inadvertent graphic design
2005.07.10, 10:14 | Comments (6)

Hitting tab to hide the palettes so I could take a look and see where I was, this particular view struck me as a piece of inadvertent graphic design.

Bryant Park
2005.05.23, 05:13 | Comments (2)

Before I forget, two things worth keeping in mind about Bryant Park (behind the New York City Public Library): it’s a free wi-fi hotspot and it has a public restroom.

Landing
2005.05.22, 13:13 | Comments (8)

Nearly home. The plane is slowly descending towards Chiba.

Utopia Parkway
2005.05.19, 00:14 | Comments (5)

It may be the best street name in the English language…

The kindness of strangers
2005.05.17, 04:54 | Comments (12)

Speaking of pizza, we’re having a competition to find the best in the Bronx. Next up, Ernie and Louis. Frank’s Pizza was just amazing, but Ernie and Louis were written up as the best (my friend doesn’t think so; he gives it to Frank). Ernie and Louis had a fight many years ago and Louis left to start his own place. So there is Ernie and Louis (with no Louis), and then there is Louis’.

Farewell to DC
2005.05.14, 10:24 | Comments (4)

After work yesterday I was exhausted but couldn’t resist taking advantage of the fact that it stays light until nearly 9:00 p.m. here at this time of year. I walked up to the Capitol and watched it turn slowly from building to icon as twilight deepened. There are other buildings in Washington, and I have photographed them, but this one is really something else and I wasn’t going to leave town without getting close to it.

A morning coffee thought
2005.05.13, 04:57 | Comments (4)

In Japan and the US, the public space where you can sit and drink your coffee in the morning comes courtesy of entities to which we no longer pay much attention.

Unearned déjà vu
2005.05.11, 19:29 | Comments (13)

Right at the point of the cab ride from Dulles airport to my hotel where the fortieth or fiftieth anonymous glass office block was making me wonder just where exactly I was (and how long before I wasn’t), the car swept around a bend in the expressway down onto a ramp behind the Lincoln Memorial and I caught a glimpse of the Washington Monument over the tops of the tress with the Capitol shining in bright sunlight in the background.

On my way
2005.05.07, 05:24 | Comments (6)

In about half an hour or so I leave the house to make my way to Shinjuku where I’ll catch a Narita Express to the airport. From there, naturaly enough, I’ll catch a plane (at least, that’s the plan). At this point, it’s just a matter of what I’ve forgotten to pack.

H×M: the restaurant find of the summer has wi-fi
2005.05.03, 19:03 | Comments (4)

I’m writing this from a brasserie in Hiratsuka called H×M where today we ate lunch, and where we returned for dinner: it was that good, and dinner seemed like the obvious and right thing to do. In between meals we walked down to the beach and drank a couple of bottles of wine, and talked and listened to the sound of the waves.

Start spreadin’ the news…
2005.04.30, 10:41 | Comments (13)

I’m off to discover the New World. This time next week I will board a plane at Narita and fly to the United States (my first time to visit the country). As they say in the movies, yee-hah.

The Blair robot project
2005.04.05, 20:23 | Comments (7)

At least he hit his mark. News of Tony Blair calling an election ran on the BBC’s website with this picture. In it, Blair has apparently just stepped outside Downing St. to casually inform a passing throng of reporters that there will be an election. But one thing grabbed me about it: and it is the wrong thing….

Tokyo doesn’t need you to like it
2005.04.01, 00:29 | Comments (6)

It struck me that this is something a lot of people struggle with – I’ve struggled myself and, the gods know, still do on occasion.

Surfacing, decompressing, coming back to earth
2005.03.19, 14:19 | Comments (6)

There are lots of words that describe the kind of week I’ve had, and they’re all pretty damned good. Saying that and then just adding the word “intense” ought to give you enough of a picture.

Jackson pseudo-trial
2005.03.12, 20:52 | Comments (17)

Today for some strange reason – don’t ask me why – I thought I would read a story on the Michael Jackson trial. What I found could only have come from a ‘news’ outlet owned by Rupert Murdoch, although why the BBC decides to mention something like this is beyond me.

Old money #2
2005.03.11, 15:42 | Comments (0)

A rooster on the ¥1 note issued (I think) just after the war.

Old money
2005.03.09, 23:26 | Comments (9)

Money is cool. No, not like that.

Antique mudball
2005.03.08, 21:31 | Comments (8)

Two years would count as antique, wouldn’t it, for a mudball?

A sucker for snow
2005.02.25, 00:11 | Comments (6)

I’ve never really lived with it, never had to shovel drives wait-deep of the stuff, never had a roof collapse from too much of it, but, gee, I love snow.

Beware of incompetent people
2005.02.22, 19:14 | Comments (15)

They have fewer options for self-preservation than the rest of us…

Mojtaba Saminejad and Arash Sigarchi
2005.02.21, 21:43 | Comments (2)

The Committee to Protect Bloggers has nominated today as “Free Mojtaba and Arash Day.” Post a link, display a banner, write a letter, make a noise. Free speech is a precious thing.

Fired for not blogging
2005.02.17, 08:02 | Comments (5)

I wonder how long it will be before we hear of people being fired for *not* blogging.

Instant house
2005.02.14, 23:45 | Comments (2)

I should have set up the web camera to take a time lapse movie of the day … but there just wasn’t time. Before I’d remembered that this was something I could do, the house had pretty much been built.

Programming from the interface
2005.02.11, 15:41 | Comments (2)

Terrific, thought-provoking article from Jason Fried at 37 Signals about doing away with functional specs and programming form the interface.

Anyone seen £5 billion?
2005.01.31, 22:28 | Comments (11)

I don’t know about freedom being on the march, but it sounds like an awful lot of money is

To be less stupid
2005.01.28, 13:25 | Comments (1)

Web standards help

First swim of the year
2005.01.24, 17:38 | Comments (2)

It seems a ridiculously long time to be out of the water, but I went for my first swim of the year in my regular pool today.

Some people do need convincing
2005.01.23, 02:12 | Comments (5)

Phil Ringnalda on the new tag soup

Advertising on the trains
2005.01.20, 21:39 | Comments (10)

I wonder how long it will be before we hear something like this…?

Fearful Asymmetry
2005.01.15, 14:07 | Comments (9)

I don’t know who has an immortal hand in this, or eye toward the effects, but nature, as someone once said, seems to abhor symmetry.

2005
2005.01.11, 08:27 | Comments (7)

Very belated New Year’s greeting to you. Back from a holiday-without-computers.

Arrival
2004.12.24, 13:14 | Comments (13)

Once you’ve lived away from home for long enough, returning comes to seem simultaneously both alien and familiar enough to constitute its own realm of experience.

Dial-up, great whites, and drill-powered beer pumps
2004.12.21, 01:43 | Comments (8)

My country, yes (if not exactly my milieu)

Four stars and a planet
2004.12.17, 01:23 | Comments (4)

Castor, Pollux, Saturn, Procyon, and Sirius are describing a beautiful bezier curve to the east of Orion…. It’s a very clear night here and they’ve got a lot of company up there.

Let the panic begin
2004.12.15, 23:38 | Comments (8)

Leaving on a jet plane

The Gokunama dragon
2004.12.12, 00:27 | Comments (14)

I noticed the other day that the dragon contains the word Kirin in katakana worked into the lines.

Deceit, thy name is yellow
2004.12.08, 01:07 | Comments (5)

I think I’m switching my allegiance to Indian yellow, not least because it’s made from the urine of cows that have been fed mango leaves.

A cleaning out
2004.12.06, 00:25 | Comments (8)

I saw a television show tonight about the various ways burglars gain access to houses and apartments, and the methods they use for conducting their business.

Smart: the roadster
2004.11.23, 22:50 | Comments (24)

The Smart car that’s also a roadster

Battlezone and Asteroids
2004.11.13, 18:16 | Comments (11)

Oh, where are the games of yesteryear.

Plackets, stands, yokes and collars
2004.11.13, 01:09 | Comments (7)

>A crumpled collar is an index of engagement and presence (no matter how feined) and anyone still crisp by mid-afternoon arouses suspicion.

Garry Wills on the death of the Enlightenment
2004.11.08, 01:50 | Comments (40)

“Can a people that believes more fervently in the Virgin Birth than in evolution still be called an Enlightened nation?”

Denial
2004.11.07, 02:12 | Comments (18)

I’m still in it.

Supersize me
2004.11.02, 23:50 | Comments (29)

I ate McDonalds ‘food’ today for the first time in a couple of years. I’d just been to the pool and had a good long swim and felt like eating lots of fat and sugar. Where else was I supposed to go?

Ring ring ka-ching
2004.11.01, 01:59 | Comments (4)

No matter what format I used or what I tried, I couldn’t get a new ringtone on the phone, which left me wondering why it was so hard to do.

Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States
2004.10.31, 14:55 | Comments (19)

What a statesman.

Niigata Quake: biggest since 1995
2004.10.25, 21:30 | Comments (0)

The Niigata quake was the biggest in the country since the Great Hanshin Earthquake

24-metre-high wave
2004.10.24, 15:54 | Comments (0)

The largest wave recorded since monitoring began was produced by last week’s typhoon.

Niigata Earthquake
2004.10.24, 15:39 | Comments (17)

There’s a technical term for how earthquakes like this make you feel.

Unjustified
2004.10.24, 11:29 | Comments (26)

Justified text on the web isn’t.

More on kanji tattoos: a cautionary tale
2004.10.22, 22:30 | Comments (10)

If you can’t read it, don’t get it tattooed on you.

World record
2004.10.17, 21:20 | Comments (2)

Who holds the record for the stupidest record?

Contra contrails
2004.10.14, 00:02 | Comments (4)

I may be changing my mind on contrails…

iPod light sabre
2004.09.29, 00:28 | Comments (0)

For twenty bucks, Griffin can turn your iPod into a light sabre (OK, laser pointer).

The disappearance of printed manuals
2004.09.26, 10:22 | Comments (6)

Software developers – printed manuals please!

The Japan Photography list lives on
2004.09.22, 20:30 | Comments (0)

When people implode in public like that, it’s always embarrassing. But when they do it so destructively, well, you have to feel for them.

The vanished: breaking the extinction taboo
2004.09.19, 09:41 | Comments (0)

Alex Steffen proposes a strange and beautiful idea to raise awareness of the number and variety of species that have become, or are about to become, extinct.

Your iPod’s little secrets
2004.09.13, 10:52 | Comments (32)

We may regret this, but let’s all ‘fess up about our iPods’ most embarrassing tracks.

A waist is a terrible thing to mind
2004.09.10, 07:36 | Comments (9)

Even today I’m pretty much hobbled. I can’t really bend at the waist, which for a biped is something of a hassle. If you were designing a humanoid robot, the first thing you’d do is give them a waist (otherwise they wouldn’t even be able to tie their own shoelaces).

Top 25 Censored Media Stories of 2003-2004
2004.09.08, 21:05 | Comments (6)

Bush, Cheney, Ashcroft, Ken Lay — all the names you’d expect are there.

Bush by numbers
2004.09.04, 09:56 | Comments (3)

Bush by numbers: Four years of double standards, by Graydon Carter

The danger to political dissent is acute
2004.08.31, 00:16 | Comments (3)

Let the eagle soar indeed.

Back in the stream
2004.08.28, 14:01 | Comments (8)

Swam back upstream Thursday to Tokyo after a very nice time in Takayama. It’s really a delightful town once you get away from the station and across the river to the older part.

Some, er … holidays
2004.08.23, 08:34 | Comments (5)

Given the forecast, I predict I’ll be doing a lot of thinking in black and white.

Imaginative leaps
2004.08.21, 17:16 | Comments (2)

Visting Malcolm Gladwell’s site for the first time in a while I was dismayed to see no new articles from The New Yorker (with any luck it’s because he’s busy writing a new book). So I started poking around looking for something to read and came across links to older pieces he’d done for Slate.

Crop failure
2004.08.20, 22:56 | Comments (6)

The bamboo continues to do well but given the overall success rate this year I wouldn’t be surprised to wake up one morning and find a panda out there eating it.

Thalassa! Thalassa!
2004.08.19, 22:34 | Comments (4)

I was dumbstruck tonight when I realised I couldn’t remember the last time I’d swum in salt water.

Hats are back
2004.08.18, 08:14 | Comments (4)

Now we just need the return of hat checks so we have somewhere to put them when we go out.

Thorpe vs. Phelps
2004.08.16, 11:54 | Comments (12)

Indeed, the men’s 200m freestyle final tonight is going to be quite intense.

Nagoya subways to disable cell phone service
2004.08.15, 10:33 | Comments (5)

Public convenience vs. social responsibility is hard to talk about, tricky to finesse, and mighty difficult to legislate. Public health issues are easier to deal with.

Guilloche
2004.08.08, 11:13 | Comments (3)

It seems the word “guilloche” has almost as many permutations as the thing it describes

Telephone lines and ocean liners
2004.08.05, 23:14 | Comments (4)

A Modotti photograph of telephone lines reminds me of Cassandre’s Normandie but predates it by a decade.

Sacrificial pawn
2004.07.24, 10:02 | Comments (4)

Bobby Fischer was taken into custody at Narita airport last week. This Radio Netherlands article suggests he may be about to become a piece in game being played between Japan and the US.

Food should not be feared
2004.07.12, 12:35 | Comments (15)

Surely “all things in moderation” (including moderation — which sentiment I demonstrated with fearful gusto that evening and upon which we need not elaborate) is all you really need to keep in mind to eat well and beneficially?

Convergence of the distractions
2004.06.22, 00:15 | Comments (5)

Many mobile phone users already move through public spaces like cows with BSE, distracted, dawdling, getting in the way, ignoring their responsibilities to pay attention to what’s going on around them. Imagine what it will be like when they can watch television, too.

Solstice sans sun
2004.06.21, 22:15 | Comments (1)

A typhoon crossing over the west of the country meant we didn’t see the sun at all today, making for a disappointing solstice.

We’re number one
2004.06.14, 10:33 | Comments (10)

Tokyo is yet again the most expensive city in the world in which to live.

The bigger picture
2004.06.11, 14:17 | Comments (4)

This is one of those I’m-so-busy posts you see from time to time…

A month of long weekends
2004.05.05, 15:34 | Comments (0)

Instead of there being the supremely misnamed Golden Week (as inconvenient a shoe-horning together of stray holidays as ever there was anywhere), April should simply be a month of long weekends.

Big week on Doonsebury
2004.04.22, 21:21 | Comments (8)

There’s a big episode happening on Doonsebury this week — one of those before-and-after events that will cast a shadow through the strip from now on.

Baggins vs. Bach
2004.04.13, 09:17 | Comments (24)

How can it be that in any list of favourite classical music the top 20 results contain The Lord of the Rings soundtrack and no Bach?

04.04.04
2004.04.04, 04:04 | Comments (7)

And by the way, happy 04.04.04, everyone. I certainly wasn’t awake at four minutes past four this morning for the real thing so I’m manually sending this entry back in time.

Department of Homeland Photo Ops
2004.03.23, 09:59 | Comments (0)

Here’s a paragraph I think you’re going to be seeing a lot more of over the coming weeks. From the rooftops indeed.

Pah-tay
2004.03.21, 12:09 | Comments (9)

Spent a couple of lovely evenings out this week, a welcome break in a monotonous string of late nights working.

Hay fever
2004.03.16, 21:50 | Comments (6)

I used to look on sufferers of hay fever with a mild, disconnected pity but now I am one and it’s the saddest bloody thing in the world.

Picture enhancement that works…?
2004.02.20, 21:41 | Comments (3)

Dave Etchells, The Imaging Resource: Every year after the PMA show, people always ask me what I thought was the most interesting/exciting product I saw there. This year, the easy answer is DO Labs’ DxO Photo Pro software, an amazingly powerful tool/technology for correcting optical distortion and artifacts in digicam images.

L is for smoky
2004.02.10, 22:28 | Comments (8)

I was struck with a powerful hankering for whisky

New Lego master builders chosen
2004.01.29, 23:19 | Comments (1)

Wired is reporting on Lego’s three new master builders who will work at LegoLand in Carlsbad, California. Congratulations to the winners, and kudos to all the finalists.

Musical literacy
2004.01.22, 22:52 | Comments (13)

What do you need to have heard to be considered musically literate these days?

Lego returning to core market
2004.01.11, 09:38 | Comments (28)

Lego is apparently expecting a pre-tax loss of over 200 million dollars this year — the worst it’s ever been for them. The good news is the company has decided to stop selling electronics and movie tie-ins and return to its core business of making some of the best toys for children ever.

Axis of Advil
2004.01.05, 23:18 | Comments (13)

My head has joined the Axis of Advil. I’ve been getting headaches migrating across the top of my head each evening like flocks of birds across a winter sky. Probably a brain tumour.

Happy…
2003.12.31, 21:58 | Comments (6)

… New Year, everyone. All the best for 2004 — I hope it’s better than this year was in all the ways that count. Peace, happiness, wisdom, and a little bit of money to us all.

Tokyo’s Artelligence Quotient Skyrockets
2003.12.30, 12:48 | Comments (0)

I would have thought that one of the first things you’d need to do if you wanted people to start taking you seriously again would be to stop coining words like “artelligent.”

Thoroughly Ripped Off
2003.12.30, 11:58 | Comments (25)

I’ve been ripped off before, but perhaps not quite this thoroughly (albeit ineptly).

Emperor’s Birthday
2003.12.22, 23:50 | Comments (3)

Tomorrow is the emperor’s birthday. It’s a national holiday and, by the look of it, quite a few people will be spending it queueing to get into the palace grounds.

A Dozen Chinese Proverbs
2003.12.12, 21:55 | Comments (4)

There are about a dozen Chinese proverbs that apply to me at the moment and I’m in flagrant violation of every one of ‘em.

Extinct Data
2003.12.04, 22:50 | Comments (1)

An article by Simson Garfinkle on technologyreview.com called The Myth of Doomed Data has the Cassandra in me all riled up.

Stock Up for Buy Nothing Day
2003.11.28, 11:53 | Comments (9)

Get all of your Buy Nothing Day shopping out of the way early.

“Why Were Their Poets Silent?”
2003.11.12, 15:56 | Comments (1)

The Literary Saloon points to an article by John Pilger called The Silence of Writers.

Stop the Page, I Want to Get Off
2003.11.11, 19:03 | Comments (8)

Why on earth did DesignObserver go with light-coloured type on a dark grey background? I’d love to read it, and I would … if only the page would stop moving.

Faxen
2003.11.07, 01:16 | Comments (15)

The thought occurs to me, as such thoughts often do at this time of night, that the plural of fax should be faxen.

Low-carb Depression
2003.10.27, 15:27 | Comments (8)

A nutritionist commissioned by McCain’s — the potato product company — claims that the Atkins diet can lead to winter depression.

American English Continues Its Descent
2003.10.23, 08:57 | Comments (12)

Ian Garrick Mason in The Christian Science Monitor looks at a new book on “the degradation of language and music and why we should, like, care.”

Abolish the Catholic Church Now!
2003.10.10, 23:12 | Comments (40)

Absolute madness from the Catholic church, telling people that condoms are useless in preventing the spread of HIV.

Japanese ‘Culture’
2003.10.10, 08:28 | Comments (1)

Robert Brady identifies the touchstone of Japanese culture. Be very afraid.

Stop and Smell the Hydrants
2003.10.06, 16:47 | Comments (13)

I’ve noticed something about the way a lot of people walk their dogs.

More Cell-phone Sickness?
2003.10.01, 21:49 | Comments (42)

I’m not really a raving Luddite (I just play one on the internet) but I couldn’t help noticing stories on a Dutch government study of 3G signals causing nausea, tingling sensations and headaches.

Sundown on the Union
2003.09.28, 20:01 | Comments (3)

Levi’s is closing its US plants and moving all production off-shore.

International Talk Like a Cistercian Day
2003.09.20, 11:26 | Comments (14)

International Years We’d Like to See
2003.09.20, 00:12 | Comments (8)

2003 is the International Year of Fresh Water. I like the idea of dedicating years to particular issues, but feel that we may be overlooking some of the more colourful opportunities that could help get a greater number of people involved.

To that end, a decade of suggestions…

Mobile Phones = Premature Senility?
2003.09.15, 20:48 | Comments (4)

Can’t remember who you wanted to call? Mobile phones may be making a generation of teenagers senile before their time.

Sanitized for Our Protection
2003.09.05, 23:57 | Comments (3)

Charles Taylor in Salon on how the new Bertolucci movie will be sanitised for American audiences.

Psychoanalysing Junior
2003.09.02, 21:25 | Comments (12)

Bush doesn’t seem like someone I’d want to sit next to on a Greyhound cross-country bus trip, and yet we’re all doing just that and the trip is taking 4 years.

Back on the Mainland
2003.08.31, 11:43 | Comments (4)

The trick, I realised, to distinguishing snakes from branches on the roads as you ride towards them wondering whether to go over or around is that snakes have a slight specular highlight to them whereas branches don’t.

Autumn Sea
2003.08.21, 20:46 | Comments (2)

The word from the fishermen is that there was no summer this year.

Timeless
2003.08.19, 22:17 | Comments (33)

My watch died, and died good. I wore it in a couple of oceans, a sea or two, a strait here and there, and more hot springs than I can remember and it never once complained. Until a month ago, when it didn’t just complain but stopped dead, drowned like a sackful of kittens when I wore it into a hot spring in Hakone.

Your Permanent Record Isn’t
2003.08.18, 23:49 | Comments (3)

Wired has toned down its hype-addled techno-boosterism considerably, but is still capable of publishing some refreshingly stupid and short-sighted things, such as this opinion piece from Microsoft CTO David Vaskevitch.

Thylacines in Melbourne
2003.08.18, 20:26 | Comments (0)

From the Sydney Morning Herald: Tasmanian tigers, or thylacines, are running wild in parkland 25 kilometres from Melbourne’s CBD, according to at least 20 sightings reported to the Victorian government.

Block the Receptors
2003.08.14, 17:34 | Comments (0)

After helping my friend move the other night and getting home very late I crawled into bed and found I had an amazing headache which was swarming over my head like flies on a corpse. It wasn’t just one headache but many, collectively determined to find a way in.

I found myself thinking of Lindt 70% cocoa chocolate, because some people get headaches when they eat high-cocoa confectionary. Then a strange thing happened. Here’s what I wrote in my notebook in the morning.

Breakthrough Swim
2003.08.13, 22:46 | Comments (8)

I need to try to write something about the swim I had today because, well, it was a bloody good swim, a breakthrough swim, one of those swims you have about once a year. The kind you write about.

Affordances of the Squeaky Gate
2003.08.12, 12:10 | Comments (3)

Gateways into vestigial collective security.

The Fever Diaries
2003.08.12, 11:43 | Comments (4)

A while back I caught a cold and went through one of those half-delirious fever periods getting over it, the kind where weird dream-like thoughts occur to you as you loll on the tidal plain of consciousness between the ocean of sleep and the firm land of wakefulness. Here are some scribbles from my notebook of that time.

Perfidious Nature
2003.08.07, 15:57 | Comments (4)

I just went and sat out in the garden for a minute to take a little break from work and cool down a bit and I noticed something very disturbing.

Help Viewer
2003.08.05, 16:49 | Comments (10)

This is an old and oft-heard rant, but I hope the person or people responsible for the Help Viewer in OS X were fired.

Can Salarymen Beat It?
2003.08.04, 10:04 | Comments (2)

What is one to make of the news that “Japanese businessmen will be able to cast off their ties and dress like Michael Jackson with a new lineup of suits planned for next spring”…?

Jack Kerouac Bobblehead Doll
2003.07.30, 12:05 | Comments (26)

CNN: The first 1,000 fans at the August 21 game between the Lowell Spinners and Williamsport Crosscutters of the Class A New York-Penn League will receive bobbing likenesses of Jack Kerouac.

Kyodo Festival
2003.07.28, 11:30 | Comments (2)

By way of getting something to look at back on the main page here, this is a photograph from the local festival the weekend before last. I’m crawling out from underneath the cold I caught so bear with me as I catch up here.

Big Weekend
2003.07.22, 11:41 | Comments (6)

A mixed bag of a weekend, mostly good but the souvenir I’m left with is a sore throat that seems to want to head south into my lungs.

Yukata Season
2003.07.16, 11:42 | Comments (5)

Summer in Japan means festivals and fireworks, and festivals and fireworks mean yukata (light, summer kimono).

Sea of Fire
2003.07.13, 11:40 | Comments (3)

200 North Korean missiles pointed at Japan? Bring ‘em on!

A Few Ideas from the Maybe Pile
2003.07.11, 14:37 | Comments (3)

A few things I found jotted in my current notebook that I’ll probably never get around to doing.

The Virtual and the Actual
2003.07.11, 11:18 | Comments (4)

If, as John Perry Barlow famously said, cyberspace is where you are when you’re on the telephone, then mobile phones represent the first real and widespread encroachment of the virtual upon the actual.

Flip Flop on Milk Fats
2003.07.01, 11:04 | Comments (6)

In yet another example of the possibility that we may not know anything at all about matters dietary (surely “everything in moderation” is all you need to know), there’s now research that suggests dairy fats may prevent asthma.

Vast Blackwing Conspiracy
2003.06.28, 10:05 | Comments (9)

Weed species and vermin thrive around humans. Just something about us, I guess. The crows in Tokyo have been scary for a long time — and they’re getting scarier.

Human Traffic Observations
2003.06.25, 17:51 | Comments (11)

I try to stay well off the sidewalks when I’m cycling, but sometimes it can’t be helped. When approaching people, there are some behaviour patterns to watch out for. A few gross generalisations from today (and my responses)

Power Nap
2003.06.23, 23:28 | Comments (13)

Some years ago, a fellow I was working with introduced me to the secret of the 20-minute power nap: guiltlessness. Researchers at Harvard University seem to be confirming the benefits.

Fuckham
2003.06.19, 18:52 | Comments (25)

On the train today I looked over at a train on the other tracks and saw yet another guy in a Beckham shirt. Beckham and his wife arrived in Japan yesterday to make more money. Sometimes you just want to say fuck ‘em.

Straws Wrapped and Unwrapped
2003.06.19, 18:34 | Comments (5)

Do you take the wrapped or unwrapped straws?

Don’t Drink and Blog
2003.06.08, 14:00 | Comments (6)

Someone should take away your keyboard so you don’t blog drunk. Had a friend over for yakitori last night and…

Bush: Made for TV
2003.05.29, 23:08 | Comments (12)

Take me back to the White House now, dammit! My country needs me.

The High Cost of Killing
2003.05.28, 21:38 | Comments (11)

War is now a U.S. franchise, and for the coalition of the willing, it’s time to settle some bills.

Those Bloody Buttons
2003.05.22, 11:42 | Comments (10)

I knew those buttons would come back to haunt me.

Without Christo
2003.05.20, 10:38 | Comments (9)

Christo and Jeanne-Claude don’t have a monopoly on wrapped buildings (or mountainsides for that matter).

The March of the Tchotchkes Continues
2003.05.07, 01:15 | Comments (7)

More action figures! This time from the long-running TV show Kamen Raidaa.

Mediaburn on the Legality of Gulf War II
2003.05.06, 22:24 | Comments (4)

Gary Santoro of Mediaburn on the legality of Gulf War II

White House Aid Quits…?
2003.05.05, 14:00 | Comments (5)

Just received e-mail from a friend: White House aide quits over the Iraqi museum business. He saw the headline tick by on his TV screen. Haven’t been able to find details on the story online yet.

Would Somebody Please Give the U.S. a Big Joint. Now!
2003.05.03, 21:37 | Comments (16)

How fucked up is America these days? From CBC: A top White House drug policy official is threatening retaliation from the U.S. if Canada relaxes its laws against marijuana possession.

Signal Blockers in Cinemas
2003.05.02, 11:50 | Comments (9)

From the BBC: Cinema owners in Dublin have come under fire for stopping customers from receiving calls on their mobiles in the middle of a movie.

Bush Plays Dress-Up
2003.05.02, 10:07 | Comments (8)

Bush’s Dukakis-in-a-tank picture

mtaste: Coordinating Musical taste
2003.04.30, 16:17 | Comments (6)

Steven Frank’s nutty idea about a musical taste coordinate system.

Zeitgeist
2003.04.24, 01:24 | Comments (0)

Screen-shot of BBC headlines in the feeds tonight. Such is the spirit of the times.

“Who falsifies this?” - Blix
2003.04.23, 16:36 | Comments (2)

Dr Blix: “Is it not disturbing that the intelligence agencies that should have all the technical means at their disposal did not discover that this was falsified?” From the Sydney Morning Herald. Also contains a link to an op-ed piece in The Independent on the absence to date of any WMD in Iraq.

Next on the List: France
2003.04.23, 16:27 | Comments (6)

Move over, Syria: there’s a new contender for that number 2 spot.

Spam We Will Never See
2003.04.17, 11:59 | Comments (4)

In the spam industry, vast untapped markets remain unexplored.

Little Eva, 1946 - 2003
2003.04.12, 14:30 | Comments (5)

So, you’re the BBC reporting on the passing of Eva Boyd (better known as Little Eva), singer of the 1962 hit “The Loco-Motion.” Do you include her photo?

Manichaean Maniac
2003.04.06, 11:27 | Comments (6)

A comforting story about George W. Bush’s religious tendencies, guaranteed to help you sleep better at night.

McDonalds: More Sugar!
2003.04.02, 11:29 | Comments (6)

Bring on the sugar so we can boost that caramelization index, I say.

April Ghoul
2003.04.01, 21:29 | Comments (4)

Cold-smitten and cough-racked on April Fool’s Day. Hope everyone had a good one.

Bursting Out All Over
2003.03.29, 19:29 | Comments (0)

The Mae West of trees — brazen, unashamed, irresistable

The Roaring Nineties
2003.03.27, 12:03 | Comments (7)

As Japan enters its fourth recession in a decade, it’s hard not to get a little nostalgic about earlier times.

North Korea: Japan May Face “Self-Destruction”
2003.03.27, 11:23 | Comments (3)

North Korea has warned that Japan would face “self-destruction” if it puts a spy satellite into orbit. [AFP story via Yahoo News]

Music of the Spheres
2003.03.21, 12:44 | Comments (4)

With things on earth going to hell, it’s forgiveable to turn to the heavens for the occasional diversion. Today the action takes place in Pisces. Happy equinox, everyone.

Is This Invasion Even Legal?
2003.03.21, 11:35 | Comments (51)

Is the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq even legal?

Zoo
2003.03.17, 22:53 | Comments (3)

I don’t know why, but we decided to go to Inokashira Zoo on the weekend.

No War is Inevitable
2003.03.17, 18:44 | Comments (4)

I’m not going to write about Iraq. I’m not. But the way that any military action has been made to seem inevitable is a stunning display of media acquiescence and made me think of these two paragraphs from a 1985 novel by Richard Powers.

Spelling Checker No Replacement for Brain
2003.03.15, 16:26 | Comments (5)

In the stating-the-obvious department, Salon mentions an Associated Press story about a University of Pittsburgh study of the effect of software that checks spelling and grammar. Predictably enough, the upshot is that such software is no replacement for a brain.

Earthquake!
2003.03.13, 12:21 | Comments (8)

They scare the shit out of me…

Oenonism
2003.03.09, 11:19 | Comments (2)

Via dangerousmeta comes this fascinating story in The Chronicle of Higher Education about the language of wine ‘criticism.’

Jovian Moons Hit 47
2003.03.07, 14:44 | Comments (0)

A well-endowed planet, Jupiter.

Final Flurry
2003.03.06, 12:29 | Comments (8)

Maybe snow tonight in Tokyo

Tokyo Tunnels
2003.03.05, 11:48 | Comments (16)

Is there a secret network of tunnels beneath Tokyo linked by a mysterious code? A chance find in a second-hand bookstore has led journalist Shun Akiba to think so.

Ideal Client
2003.02.27, 12:08 | Comments (5)

Every now and then (far too rarely) you get to work for an ideal client.

Lego Vending Machine
2003.02.14, 23:40 | Comments (6)

My Interesting Day, Part 3 of 3: The Lego Vending Machine

The Clock Garage
2003.02.14, 23:21 | Comments (2)

My interesting Day, Part 2 of 3: having visited the client, I stumble upon the truly astounding clock garage. Glad I had the camera with me today.

People in Animal Suits
2003.02.14, 22:46 | Comments (2)

My Interesting Day, Part 1 of 3: People in Animal Suits.

God Gave Me This Vehicle
2003.02.08, 12:01 | Comments (7)

SUV owners fight the backlash against their inefficient, dangerous, socially irresponsible vehicles. Good luck, suckers.

Most-photographed Intersection in the World
2003.02.07, 23:23 | Comments (7)

This intersection, ‘Scramble Crossing’ in Shibuya, must be the most-photographed intersection in the world.

Purple Streak Anomalies
2003.02.07, 10:25 | Comments (9)

I hate to begin posting again after a brief absence with wild, unsupportable generalisations (although it’s never stopped me before), but are times so tough in newspaper publishing that copy- or sub-editors have been completely eliminated?

Surfacing
2003.02.02, 12:16 | Comments (1)

I hadn’t had a cold for a few years but I caught one last week and it sunk its teeth in a couple of days ago and I quickly devolved into something the consistency and speed of slime mold. Time to claw my way back up the evolutionary ladder to something resembling primate.

Franz Kline Roadworks
2003.01.27, 21:00 | Comments (3)

The roadworks outside my place has left the street looking something like a Franz Kline exhibition.

Contrails
2003.01.23, 11:25 | Comments (11)

The whispy akashic records of jet flight.

Litho-intelligence
2003.01.20, 20:37 | Comments (0)

Killer headline, but it would seem that for stones, meteorology is destiny.

Fuck the Public Domain
2003.01.16, 10:49 | Comments (0)

As you no doubt know by now the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld copyright term extensions.

Clear Skies
2003.01.11, 12:18 | Comments (4)

Overhead powerline pollution. Pet peeve.

Not-So-Good Vibrations
2003.01.11, 11:54 | Comments (0)

Construction right outside my window. With pnuematic pounding thingies, no less.

Camera Obscura
2003.01.08, 02:11 | Comments (13)

We’re playing Name That Camera!

New Year’s Irresolutions
2003.01.05, 22:33 | Comments (0)

Knowing myself as well as I do, which is to say better than I would at times wish, I’ve long given up making New Year’s resolutions. This year, however, I thought I should have another go at it and resolve to undertake some small thing, something modest, which would Make Me a Better Person (the long-delayed journey of a thousand miles starting, as it does, with one step).

European Copyrights Expiring
2003.01.03, 11:04 | Comments (5)

From the NYTimes: European copyright protection is expiring on a collector’s trove of 1950’s jazz, opera and early rock ‘n’ roll albums.

2003
2003.01.01, 22:01 | Comments (5)

It’s the Happy New Year post, featuring photographs taken throughout the night and a recording of the bell of Gotoku Temple tolling in the new year.

Happy 25th
2002.12.25, 00:42 | Comments (6)

Happy 25th, everyone!

Yes, We Have No Sopranos
2002.12.23, 21:06 | Comments (10)

Well, I’ve exhausted the local video store’s supply of The Sopranos. Now what do I do?

Night Fever
2002.12.22, 15:39 | Comments (0)

Gimme that night fever, night fever…. Muzak® is evil.

U.S. Blocks Cheap Drugs Agreement
2002.12.22, 12:10 | Comments (6)

BBC: U.S. Blocks Cheap Drugs Agreement. “This means millions of poor people will still not have access to medicines for diseases such as HIV/Aids, malaria and tuberculosis.”

Jurisdiction: A Shot Across the Bow
2002.12.18, 12:34 | Comments (5)

Via dangerousmeta, a link to a ZDNet story on 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that challenges the recent Australian High Court’s libel jurisdiction decision.

Afros and Pink Teddy Bears
2002.12.14, 16:21 | Comments (22)

Does anyone else find this advertisement for a local DSL service somewhat surreal?

Kissinger Quits Panel
2002.12.14, 11:28 | Comments (2)

Kissinger quits as chairman of the 9/11 inquiry. Could the disclosure requirements have had anything to do with it?

Rocky VI
2002.12.14, 00:44 | Comments (79)

Just shoot me now. The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that Sylvester Stallone has been hired to do “Rocky VI.”…

Jurisdiction
2002.12.10, 23:50 | Comments (4)

From the BBC: Australia’s high court has ruled that the financial publishers Dow Jones can be sued in the Australian state of Victoria over an article that appeared on their website.

Questionning Tanaka’s Nobel Prize
2002.12.09, 12:44 | Comments (3)

The ABC reports on a “bitter dispute” over the worthiness of the Japanese recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Don’t Steal Music?
2002.12.07, 22:43 | Comments (5)

You can rent audio CDs from Tsutaya, the largest chain of video stores in Japan. They’ll also sell you an astonishing array of blank media to on which to record them.

Glyphs: “Shin”
2002.12.07, 22:07 | Comments (17)

In response to a comment on a previous post about kanji tattoos, here are some glyphs for the character “shin” – core, heart, marrow.

The Kitty-chan Sandwich Maker
2002.12.03, 23:55 | Comments (9)

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Kitty-chan sandwich maker, octopus ball cooker, and hotcake iron.

Spam Poetry #6
2002.11.30, 13:40 | Comments (0)

How poignant:

Arab Americans…
You CAN revive a stale relationship
Climax easily before he does

Kanedaaaaa!
2002.11.29, 01:02 | Comments (8)

I thought I was in with a chance at meeting Otomo Katsuhiro of “Akira” fame but it turns out it’s not going to happen. Bummer.

Kissinger is Doing What!?
2002.11.28, 12:08 | Comments (2)

The Bush administration places itself firmly beyond the reach of parody with its appointment of Henry Kissinger to lead an investigation into the September 11 attacks. Story from the BBC.

Childhood’s Necessary Things
2002.11.23, 23:45 | Comments (5)

An inhexaustive list of things that no childhood should be without.

Evolving Back Into the Water
2002.11.22, 23:58 | Comments (0)

I guess I should make it official and say that I’m now more comfortable in water than I am on…

Whoa, dude!
2002.11.22, 16:26 | Comments (7)

A confusing, uninformative and ultimately worrisome piece in New Scientist on supposed “links” between pot and mental illness. Caveat lector!

Save Us From Ben Affleck
2002.11.22, 15:49 | Comments (3)

Save us from the “criminally lucky” Ben Affleck, the epitome of blandness.

BMA Calls for GM Crop Ban
2002.11.21, 10:48 | Comments (2)

The British Medical Association calls for a moratorium of field tests of gentically modified crops.

No-go for the Leos
2002.11.20, 00:47 | Comments (7)

I guess it was too much to ask after last year’s lucky break (when I even managed to snap a…

Permission Granted
2002.11.18, 21:58 | Comments (1)

It’s all Franz Kafka’s fault.

B&O: Bonkers & Out-of-touch
2002.11.17, 18:39 | Comments (25)

How is it possible that the Bang and Olufsen web site admits only viewers using Internet Explorer? What cretin designed this site? And what moron at B&O gave it the green light?

There’s a Lot Of It Going Around
2002.11.08, 17:22 | Comments (9)

Jerry Kindall describes a recent rip-off experience of his own.

The Value of Design
2002.11.07, 13:21 | Comments (4)

James Spahr of DesignWeenie posts a succinct observation on an extremely annoying trend: the decreasing value of ‘design,’ specifically Blogger’s…

Personal Best
2002.11.02, 21:53 | Comments (4)

Sometimes we surprise ourselves.

1500m
2002.11.02, 10:45 | Comments (1)

Today’s the day I make my Master’s swimming debut in the 1500m freestyle. Yoicks!

The Man That Got Away
2002.10.30, 17:44 | Comments (5)

How much smarter would I have been had I not filled my head with song!?

Out-thunk
2002.10.29, 21:24 | Comments (3)

There’s something deeply humiliating about being out-thunk by a seven-year-old. My daughter was making cross-eyes at me earlier this evening…

The *Last* Thing We Need
2002.10.25, 20:46 | Comments (4)

Humans are doing a pretty damned good job of sucking the life out of the planet as it is. Imagine…

Kanji Tattoos
2002.10.23, 17:15 | Comments (190)

Folks, if you’re going to get a kanji tattoo, please be careful. Draw it on yourself first (or have a…

Return of a Modest Proposal
2002.10.22, 21:33 | Comments (5)

Arianna Huffington’s latest piece in Salon centres around an idea which is by no means new – people have already…

A Double-edged Snout
2002.10.22, 19:33 | Comments (0)

This makes me very nervous. New strain of pigs carry human genesGlobeandmail.com By manipulating swine sperm, Italian researchers have made…

199 km/h
2002.10.22, 10:03 | Comments (2)

A 24-year-old man has been booked for travelling at 199 km/h on his way home from watching the Australian Motorocycle…

Getting the Flock Outta Here
2002.10.10, 18:20 | Comments (1)

Stepping outside just now to walk down to the corner store, I looked up to see the stars – it’s…

My Lost Week Ends
2002.10.10, 13:08 | Comments (0)

I’d like to be able to say I’ve been having Ray Milan-esque adventures or marauding like Albert Finney in Under…

Armed Forces Radio Fallen?
2002.10.01, 21:20 | Comments (0)

I don’t know who’s taken over the station, but this sure isn’t Armed Forces Radio. Something funny’s happened to 810kHz…

Tiny Maps
2002.09.20, 23:49 | Comments (0)

I spent a good part of the day preparing a series of test maps in English for a service that’s…

Hidden Signals
2002.09.17, 21:47 | Comments (1)

As the number of mobile phone antennae skyrockets, it’s somewhat heartening to see that some places are trying to avoid…

Half-conversations
2002.09.16, 23:43 | Comments (3)

Mobile phones have filled the streets with half-conversations. Regular old public telephones (remember those?) tethered people to a little bubble…

Wait – There’s Oil Involved!?
2002.09.15, 19:28 | Comments (0)

Hilarious headline and sub-head on the Washington Post’s main page just now: War May Unshackle Oil in Iraq Hussein’s ouster…

Thorpe’s New Coach
2002.09.14, 10:01 | Comments (10)

Ian Thorpe has a new coach, which is big news if you follow swimming. To say that Tracey Menzies has…

The Coolpix Lives!
2002.09.11, 02:12 | Comments (4)

On the off chance that the tip Eric sent along might work (when it hadn’t twice before), I put batteries…

The Lego Credit Card
2002.09.07, 11:13 | Comments (1)

I’m not making this up: you can now get a Lego credit card (page is in Japanese). This is…

Get a Real Job, Tom
2002.09.06, 15:10 | Comments (4)

Goddamn it – this sort of thing should be illegal. The more I see what kind of crap people are…

The Demon Plates
2002.09.05, 21:18 | Comments (2)

I called by the demolition site this morning as instructed but they weren’t ready to get up on the roof…

Behave
2002.09.05, 00:39 | Comments (0)

Margaret Berry of The Morning News has written a wonderfully witty series on etiquette (which would dictate, I guess, that…

House Week
2002.09.04, 23:55 | Comments (3)

Next week is going to be House Week on Antipixel (in the spirit of last year’s Leaf Week). I’ll be…

Oni-gawara: Half-way There
2002.09.04, 10:58 | Comments (0)

I just walked down to the old house and spoke to the demolition workers about taking the oni-gawara off the…

Flabbergasted
2002.09.04, 00:24 | Comments (0)

M. Sinclair Stevens dropped a perfect little stone into the boiling cauldron that is my mind just now. It deserves…

Another House Dies
2002.09.03, 19:47 | Comments (2)

The neighbourhood becomes an uglier place tomorrow when yet another old house gets demolished. Seeing these places disappear puts…

I Don’t Know What Hit Me
2002.08.26, 23:06 | Comments (0)

Quite a weird cold I had, or bug or whatever it was. Legionnaires’ Disease maybe. There was an outbreak in…

Lucky Me
2002.08.21, 16:06 | Comments (0)

Midori Nakayama is a good swimmer. Really good. She’s in the top 10 worldwide in her Masters age group for…

Wile E. Coyote C’est Moi
2002.08.20, 15:18 | Comments (2)

Over about 30 minutes in the middle of the afternoon yesterday I was struck by some sort of bug. I…

Reports of Japan’s Death…
2002.08.13, 11:09 | Comments (5)

…may be greatly exaggerated. But then again, you never know. Recent Japan punditry reminds me of the parable of the…

I Swerve for Rabbits
2002.08.08, 18:29 | Comments (7)

When driving through the countryside in Australia, I’ll swerve to hit rabbits or foxes if I think it’s safe to…

The Miraculous Becomes Mundane
2002.08.06, 21:05 | Comments (1)

A recent post about watching “Spider-Man” garnered some good comments about the prevalence of computer-generated imagery and effects, a lot…

Remarkable Achievements of the Bush Administration, No. 425
2002.08.06, 15:11 | Comments (1)

To say that Bush and the grownups he’s surrounded himself with have some serious problems is something of an understatement….

Real Mac Freaks
2002.08.05, 23:18 | Comments (0)

A couple of stories on wired.com look at people’s, um… devotion to Apple: Tat’s the Way Mac Heads Like It…

Photoshop Therapy
2002.08.03, 18:38 | Comments (7)

Do you ever make up improbable GUI elements when you’re bored? Come on, tell the truth….

Sign Up for the Human Extinction Lobby!
2002.07.17, 15:06 | Comments (5)

I’ll try to post some good news soon, really. In the meantime, where can I sign up for the Human…

True Axis of Evil Closer to Home?
2002.07.17, 08:28 | Comments (1)

Rumsfeld is quite a piece of work, isn’t he: Rumsfeld out to unshackle the militaryEsther Schrader, Sydney Morning Herald The…

Ambulatum Interruptus
2002.07.17, 08:19 | Comments (0)

I think I’d make a good New Yorker – at least when it comes to walking. A while back I…

Scottish Salmon Heading for Extinction?
2002.07.16, 21:59 | Comments (0)

You’ve got to hand it to humans; we’ve really fucked things up. Scottish salmon in “extinction vortex”Danny Penman, New Scientist…

GM Contamination Scare in NZ
2002.07.16, 10:02 | Comments (0)

Via dangerousmeta, news on a GM crop contamination scare in NZ: Fallout from GE corn scare continuesStuff.co.nz The Greens and…

The Opiate of the Masses Just Got a New Syringe
2002.07.15, 22:28 | Comments (0)

If I watched TV, I’d want one of these. It’s like a Tivo for your Macintosh. Of course, what I’d…

Corporate Crime: Straight to the Top
2002.07.13, 09:48 | Comments (0)

Paul Krugman on George W. Bush setting precedents in the corporate crime wave. I’m constantly stunned by how the U.S….

Killing Jasmine
2002.07.12, 18:08 | Comments (2)

We will never be jasmine-free. Quite a few years ago my wife and I made the mistake of planting jasmine…

Towelling Inferno
2002.07.12, 15:19 | Comments (2)

Seems like just last year we had a summer and here it is again already. In the southern hemisphere, I’m…

Anti-nuclear
2002.07.05, 10:31 | Comments (1)

I wish things like this didn’t happen. Japanese Shipment of Nuclear Fuel Raises Security Fears By Howard, nytimes.com TAKAHAMA, Japan,…

Nice Caps, Shame About the Face
2002.06.29, 22:54 | Comments (0)

Anyone else notice how Mark Van Bronkhorst’s Conduit typeface is attaining a disturbing level of ubiquity? It’s an Officina…

Remaining U.S. CEOs Make a Break For It
2002.06.29, 19:20 | Comments (0)

The latest on the corporate crime spree from SatireWire: Unwilling to wait for their eventual indictments, the 10,000 remaining CEOs…

The US: Backward Nation?
2002.06.29, 00:34 | Comments (2)

New Scientist picks up on one possible effect of the Supreme Court’s school voucher ruling allowing public funds for religious…

Separation of Church and State Weakens
2002.06.29, 00:09 | Comments (0)

For good and ill the United States sets the tone these days for much of what gets discussed and how…

The Plunder Continues
2002.06.28, 20:15 | Comments (0)

I’m going to get off this corporate crime kick real soon now, I promise (because, really, it’s endless). Listening to…

The True Price of Petrol
2002.06.28, 11:28 | Comments (7)

I’m seeing a disturbing increase in the number of SUVs driven in Tokyo. The streets here are generally extremely narrow…

More GM Crop Bad News
2002.06.28, 11:01 | Comments (0)

I’m starting to get a picture of the world my grandchildren will inherit – and it’s not pretty. Crop pollen…

More Corporate Criminals (collect ‘em all)
2002.06.28, 09:19 | Comments (0)

How many Japanese brokerages indulge in illegal practices? Ten percent? A quarter? Guess again, folks. Illegal Practices Found at 60%…

Dan Gillmor on the Corporate Crime Spree
2002.06.27, 22:40 | Comments (1)

Read Dan Gillmor’s column on the recent corporate crime spree – “Corporate sleaze carves into our trust” and weep. Gillmor…

An Eco-disaster Waiting to Happen
2002.06.20, 10:19 | Comments (2)

Australia has introduced more non-native pests to its ecosystems than, I imagine, any other country. Now it’s about to happen…

Spam Poetry No. 2
2002.06.14, 17:59 | Comments (1)

You can’t make these up. Over 250 MILLION Email Addresses all time low 30 year mortgage rates I will take…

The Philosophy of Punctuation
2002.06.08, 10:59 | Comments (0)

Garret at dangerousmeta points to an article by Paul Robinson on a subject close to my heart. The Philosophy of…

Kibble-consciousness
2002.06.06, 11:00 | Comments (2)

The Sydney Morning Herald has real paragraphing problems lately. I see breathless young copy editors, their minds perhaps already agglutinatively…

Australia Rejects Kyoto
2002.06.06, 08:27 | Comments (1)

Very disappointing: Australia rejects Kyoto treatyCNN.com CANBERRA, Australia (Reuters) – Australia, the world’s largest coal exporter, will not ratify the…

Spam Poetry
2002.05.27, 09:38 | Comments (2)

In homage to other modern Imagists, the morning’s mail brings a little spam poem: pearl white teeth in 1 week…

A Gentle Reminder
2002.05.15, 01:55 | Comments (2)

Scroll all the way to the bottom of this page and you can see a somewhat less obtrusive rendition…

New EU Flag Design
2002.05.13, 10:59 | Comments (10)

Rem Koolhaas has been commissioned to design a new flag for the EU. The result is something between a…

The Ineluctable Difficulty of Typographical Politeness
2002.05.08, 00:23 | Comments (0)

Here we are in the year 2002 (last time I checked) and it’s still extremely difficult to be typographically polite…

Deep Throat to be Revealed: No Word on Pricing
2002.05.07, 22:08 | Comments (0)

Was it Haig? Kissinger? Someone from the CIA? James Mann, who worked with Carl Bernstein at The Washington Post, seems…

Bouncing Microwaves
2002.05.02, 21:09 | Comments (2)

Tsuyoshi Hondou, a Japanese researcher currently at the Curie Institute in Paris, thinks that mobile phone use inside trains and…

The State of Things (a maudlin poem in headlines)
2002.04.30, 21:54 | Comments (1)

A quick look through the headlines at News on Japan paints a rosy picture: Toyota faces an uncertain market in…

The Weight of the Past (& Lost Negatives)
2002.04.24, 13:14 | Comments (2)

The past is a mighty tree forever growing out of the soil of the present (the future lies buried underground)….

CSS-blindness
2002.04.24, 12:41 | Comments (3)

Been more than a little preoccupied this last week as I plumb the quirks and mysteries of CSS for these…

Around the Neighbourhood
2002.04.18, 10:34 | Comments (1)

Been going for walks, too. Walks are good for keeping you away from computers….

Yow
2002.04.18, 02:11 | Comments (1)

Something’s wigging out here. The right margin has sprung a leak and is sinking to the bottom of the page….

Photos On Their Way
2002.04.18, 01:47 | Comments (0)

Spent the last couple of days getting a gallery section together – something I’ve been meaning to do for a…

Ikeya-Zhang
2002.04.08, 01:00 | Comments (0)

Went outside with Jun tonight to the top of an apartment block near our house to try to see…

Work Stupidity (No. 527 in a series. Collect ‘em all)
2002.03.26, 23:31 | Comments (5)

I’m still too furious to adequately describe a certain episode of classic work stupidity that occured last week. It’s already…

Big Sight Not Pretty Sight
2002.03.23, 11:18 | Comments (0)

I went out to MacWorld Tokyo yesterday (more on that soon) which was held at the Tokyo Big Sight…

Way Behind With E-mail
2002.03.20, 00:40 | Comments (0)

Been a bad boy and gotten way behind answering e-mail. If I owe you, forgive me. I’m working my way…

Old Late-’90s Joke
2002.03.13, 23:56 | Comments (0)

That old late-’90s joke you used to hear when interviewing at companies (“And of course we have flex-time here; you…

Logophrenia
2002.03.04, 23:38 | Comments (2)

I spent two days skiing and was struck by the fact that I don’t think I saw a single item…

What Stops at a Workstation?
2002.03.01, 01:00 | Comments (6)

Old joke: if the bus stops at the bus station, and the train stops at the train station, what happens…

eDesign Ain’t Me Design
2002.02.27, 14:46 | Comments (0)

I saw an ad for a new magazine called eDesign and thought, “Hmm… could be interesting. Where’s the URL…

Reinventing the Folder
2002.02.24, 23:19 | Comments (4)

In this day and age you can be reasonably sure that most people won’t have too much trouble with…

Sniffle & Cough
2002.02.19, 13:19 | Comments (1)

The Cold That Just Won’t Leave

Got Those All-nighter Deadline-looming Blues
2002.02.14, 19:49 | Comments (0)

<sigh> P.S. These aren’t my legs, by the way. The drape of the trousers lacks an insouciance that I…

Hammered!
2002.02.13, 22:59 | Comments (0)

What a week…

Speaking of Coffee…
2002.02.07, 14:30 | Comments (0)

I’m a junkie

Starbucked
2002.02.07, 14:27 | Comments (0)

I’ve been Starbucked

Flashing Buildings
2002.01.31, 23:51 | Comments (1)

This monstrosity is what passes for architecture in Tokyo these days. It’s a flashing building currently being finished on…

Catching Up is Hard to Do
2002.01.27, 14:38 | Comments (0)

Been stricken with a nasty cold that’s decided to make itself at home now that it’s had a couple of…

Antipixel = No Advertising
2002.01.27, 13:31 | Comments (3)

Don’t even bother posting spam here; it’s gone as soon as you do

Eating Whales
2002.01.27, 11:27 | Comments (4)

‘Cruel’ citizens demand bite of beached whalesMainichi Interactive OURA, Kagoshima – Local authorities here have been flooded with calls from…

The Spectrum of Customer Service
2002.01.24, 00:22 | Comments (2)

The good, the bad, and the end-user

Say It With Me: Spec, Spec, Spec
2002.01.22, 08:18 | Comments (0)

Even the simplest JPEG should be spec’d out.

More on Lego
2002.01.21, 22:18 | Comments (2)

Link to a great Fast Company article on Lego’s problems.

Just Imagine™
2002.01.20, 21:45 | Comments (3)

Lego: something rotten in the state of Denmark

Go, Philips!
2002.01.19, 23:22 | Comments (2)

Plastic.com has a thread on how Philips is making noises about releasing a CD player that circumvents copy protection: Philips…

A (belated) Happy New Year
2002.01.18, 23:15 | Comments (0)

… and thanks to the folks who sent mail telling me to get off my arse and back to work….

Yoicks!
2002.01.18, 23:12 | Comments (2)

Time to get back in the saddle here, pardners. Back and well-rested after a holiday back in the olde countrie….

Time to Get Going
2001.12.19, 12:02 | Comments (2)

I should start packing

Two More Sleeps
2001.12.17, 23:56 | Comments (0)

Two more sleeps and we’re out of here

Christmas Cabbages
2001.12.17, 00:00 | Comments (0)

The Christmas Cabbages are out in abundance. Just what is it with these things anyway?…

Graphic Design For Your Smoking Pleasure
2001.12.16, 12:10 | Comments (1)

Cool matchbox design

Earthquake Prediction?
2001.12.16, 10:49 | Comments (2)

Temperature rises hint at earthquake prediction Catherine Zandonella, New Scientist Subtle signals from within the Earth might one day warn…

Problem solving vs. Styling
2001.12.14, 00:05 | Comments (0)

The Red Rock Eater News Service featured an article today about Richard Saul Wurman’s Access guide to San Francisco, specifically…

Abode of Chaos
2001.12.09, 23:36 | Comments (0)

The sorry state of my ‘office’

Another One Gone
2001.12.09, 16:40 | Comments (2)

Not only has it been a beautiful day and I’ve been stuck in front of the computer, but I just went for a walk to get some fresh air and stretch my legs and discovered that one of my favourite houses in the neighbourhood has been demolished. This is the sort of thing I take personally.

Beezy Beezy Beezy
2001.12.09, 00:25 | Comments (0)

You’ll have to excuse the paucity of posts recently — getting pretty busy as I try to wrap up a bunch of things before heading back to Australia…

No More Looting
2001.12.08, 23:32 | Comments (0)

Hisane Masaki, Japan Times: After years of foot-dragging, Japan is taking its first significant step toward shedding its reputation as…

Segway = Heart Disease?
2001.12.07, 23:28 | Comments (0)

Christopher Orlet takes a contrarian view of the Dean Kamen’s Segway in Salon: Segway’s assault on walking It is unfortunate…

Vinyl Going Strong
2001.12.07, 21:17 | Comments (0)

Rumours of vinyl record death greatly exaggeratedsmh.com.au [The CD] is feeling the heat from a format which many music fans…

On Japanese Food Shows
2001.12.05, 22:52 | Comments (2)

My Theory of Japanese food shows

Not Looking Forward To This
2001.12.05, 09:56 | Comments (0)

T-minus 30 minutes until I stroll nonchalantly down the road to the dentist to get another wisdom tooth yanked.

Zonked
2001.12.03, 23:26 | Comments (0)

I think that’s it for the day, folks. I’m zonked

The Archipelago of Dr Moreau
2001.12.03, 09:06 | Comments (0)

Govt OK’s human-animal embryo cloning yomiuri.co.jp A government council said Wednesday it had permitted cloning technology to produce combined human-animal…

Stress Management
2001.12.02, 23:44 | Comments (2)

Sometimes all you need to unwind is a barrel of monkeys.

I Hate Computers
2001.12.01, 23:50 | Comments (0)

Been stuck in front of the computer most of the day for lots of wrong reasons and only a few right ones.

Art Spam
2001.11.30, 11:30 | Comments (8)

In these wintry economic times, spam is flying around like snowflakes in a gale. My e-mail filters are pretty good at sweeping it into the trash, but here’s a subject line that’s good for a chuckle:

I Hate Christmas Music
2001.11.29, 18:39 | Comments (9)

Not even December yet and Christmas music is seeping out of the stores like something from an open wound. No wonder suicides start to skyrocket as Christmas approaches.

Lone Leonid
2001.11.29, 16:54 | Comments (0)

Damn! I shot 24 exposures of Ektachrome 400 on the night of November 18/19 and managed to capture just a single Leonid meteor. It’s the little blur heading into the trees on the right-hand side of the picture.

Stand and Deliver!
2001.11.29, 01:13 | Comments (1)

Get ready for some new films about Ned Kelly. You can’t know Australia (should you want to) without knowing Kelly.

I’m Stamped!
2001.11.28, 16:42 | Comments (0)

The Immigration Office visit couldn’t have been smoother. I’m not just ready to fly, I’m once again a single passport holder.

Stamp Me
2001.11.28, 09:49 | Comments (0)

Off to the Immigration Office to get rubber-stamped for next month’s trip back to Australia.

It’s a Start, Maybe
2001.11.27, 10:34 | Comments (4)

Shunning professional models, Davenport began an in-store competition two weeks ago to unearth four representatives of the “healthy and confident” Australian woman to represent their merchandise.

Yellow and Its Discontents
2001.11.25, 15:55 | Comments (8)

Throughout the neighbourhood the ginko trees are competing with each other to see who can most loudly proclaim the doctrine of The One True Yellow.

Riparian Feast
2001.11.24, 07:48 | Comments (2)

Slow news day at Antipixel as we’re going to head off to Okutama for a barbecue by the river.

A True Education
2001.11.22, 11:19 | Comments (0)

It’s an effective and irresistable tradeoff: Be quiet and do as we say and you will be admitted to an elite which will guarantee material success throughout your entire life.

How Much to Be a Doctor?
2001.11.22, 10:10 | Comments (0)

Teikyo med school may have asked for preadmission bribes Daily Yomiuri On-Line The Education, Science and Technology Ministry said Wednesday…

Good Band Name
2001.11.21, 15:54 | Comments (0)

Good name for a band

Road Sense
2001.11.21, 15:43 | Comments (0)

You would think that in a country with such narrow roads and such a high urban population density as Japan that people would have developed better road sense. But you would be wrong.

Boondoggled!
2001.11.21, 11:41 | Comments (0)

Won’t be getting a lot of done here today: a crew is ripping up the road

Fat Nation
2001.11.21, 11:17 | Comments (1)

Chefs cop flak as nation goes to fat smh.com.au It was “old-fashioned” to suggest that regulating food intake was entirely…

Low-fibre
2001.11.20, 17:51 | Comments (0)

Big disappointments from Usen with their 100Mb fibre optic service

Crikey’s Limerick Competition
2001.11.20, 11:33 | Comments (2)

A limerick contest where nobody seems to be able to write a limerick

I Hate Clouds
2001.11.19, 00:16 | Comments (1)

This totally sucks

Aargh
2001.11.13, 00:36 | Comments (0)

Doesn’t look like we’re going to be able to get out of town for the Leonids next weekend. Going to…