3/20/11

Operation Tomodachi Logo by Murakami Senami

On March 12, 2011, the US armed forces began the current relief effort known as Operation Tomodachi. Here is the unofficial Japanese logo by Murakami Senami:

operation tomodachi

3/19/11

Japan Prediction: Nuclear Holocaust, Tokyo Evacuated

March 19, 2011: Via NEWiS - Exclusive!!! Who predicted disaster in Japan

In the early 2000s, Russian blogger/engineer Artem Dragunov had a motorcycle accident and was in a coma for 2 days. After that he started having dreams about the future, writing them on his blog, and many of them have come true! On February 21, 2011 he predicted the recent earthquake in Japan.

And his future prediction for Japan is very dire:

artem dragunov

And on March 11th, the day of the quake, he wrote the below comment on his blog Guest from the Future Dream 20022011:

"Let's count. Dreamed a dream the night of Feb. 21. Today 11. Three weeks shorter.
Just at that time dreamed of a lot of water and a couple of big fucking. 11 plus 21 - the beginning of May. HERE Remember - early May .."


Hopefully, this time he'll be wrong.

3/16/11

From North Korea: 'Pyongyang Style' by Steve Gong

Steve Gong recently went to North Korea and filmed this stunningly beautiful video with a hidden camera:



"Pretty much the only way anyone can visit North Korea is by joining a tour.  The entire time while you’re in North Korea, you’re not allowed to go anywhere without minders following you around.  These tour guides also restrict the amount of contact you can have with the locals, and it’s extremely difficult, if not impossible, to have any chances of interacting with a North Korean civilian.

This video is an insight into just that – what interacting with a North Korean civilian might be like."


Via Gizmodo

3/15/11

Japan's Earthquake Alarm System TV Broadcast

Here is a truly incredible video showing how Japan's ElarmS system worked:



"ElarmS, or Earthquake Alarm Systems, can provide warning of ground shaking during an earthquake. The objective is to rapidly detect the initiation of an earthquake, estimate the level of ground shaking to be expected, and issue a warning before significant ground shaking starts."

3/12/11

Help Japan with your website or blog

Help Japan with a couple lines of code on you website


"The Hello Bar is a simple website toolbar that engages users and communicates a call to action. With the disaster in Japan getting worse, many people are looking for ways to help in whatever way possible. If you are unable to donate, or to offer your services, you can help if you run a website. Hello Bar which is simple piece of code that is put in the body tag within your website, which will display a bar on the top of your website can help with the promotion and help influence people to donate. Larger website will no doubt start using their own techniques in helping promote the need for aid for Japan, and what better way to do this than to put a bar across the top of the screen which wont go unseen."

This is a donation request for the American Red Cross. Copy and paste the below HTML code into the body tag of your website or blog:




See more here.

3/10/11

3/1/11

Charlie Sheen in "Winning"

And now for something completely different. Whether you love him or hate him, this very funny mashup video of Charlie Sheen is really winning:




(^^)v

UPDATE: Despite being hospitalized three times in the past month, AND losing the highest paying job on TV AND recently losing custody of his sons, here is proof that Charlie Sheen is, in fact, winning:

charlie sheen winning

2/25/11

LIVE FROM JAPAN: THE WORLD'S FIRST ROBOT MARATHON!

Just a few days ago, I wrote about the Attack of The Japanese Baby Robots! and now THEY ARE TRAINING THEM IN THE WORLD'S FIRST ROBOT MARATHON:

"And now here is Kenny Blankenship and Vic Ramano!"



"Your Humble Announcer: MXC is back with more city kids vs. farm kids. It's street ho's versus...oh, forget it."


(@_@)

2/24/11

Japan vs USA Robots

The below pic says it all:



And as I have heard many say: "There is only one country in the world that makes robots like people and people like robots."

Don't think so? See below:

Japan Perfects Robots

O_O


Here is one of the video highlights from world's first robot marathon held recently in Osaka, Japan:



(*_*)

2/17/11

Radiohead in Shibuya Tokyo?

radiohead in shibuya

English: Shibuya Hachiko Plaza Friday 6:59 pm

"Radiohead posted a message in Japanese on their Twitter page today giving details to a location in Tokyo ahead of the release of the ‘The King Of Limbs’ this Saturday (February 19)"


Via Radiohead Tweet Coded Message To Fans In Japanese

UPDATE: Radiohead forced to cancel Tokyo event

By Danielle Demetriou, in Tokyo 18 Feb 2011

"Radiohead brought foward the release of their new album after being forced to cancel an event in Tokyo because of police fears over crowd safety.

An enigmatic tweet posted by Radiohead which spread rapidly around the world has resulted in the cancellation of an event in Tokyo's due to the high volume of fans expected to attend.

The message, written in Japanese and posted on Twitter by the popular British band, read simply: “Hachiko Square Shibuya, 59 minutes 18 Friday.”


Continued...

Somehow, I knew that this would happen. Well, to make up for all of this confusion, in addition to the moved-up release of their new album "The King of Limbs", Radiohead also posted a new music video called "Lotus Flower":

2/14/11

2/10/11

Coming Soon: "NINGEN GAKKI"

Like music? Thinking of starting a band? Well, very soon from now, you'll be able to move to Japan and BE the band with the new "Ningen Gakki" or "Human Instrument" toy from TAKARA TOMI:



ningen

2/9/11

STOP THE INTERNET KILL SWITCH!

Dear Friends,

Have you heard about the “internet kill switch”? It gives governments the technical or legal power to cut off their entire country’s internet access, and it’s no longer just a pipedream of dictators, but a very real threat to all of us who use the internet around the world.

Egypt used it last week, Austria’s already got it, the U.S. has a law drafted to establish it, while other governments across the globe are testing to see how easily they could plunge their country into an information blackout. And they can do it one of two ways: either by creating the legal authority that gives them the power to demand that the internet service providers (ISPs) operating in their country shut down, or by configuring a “switch” that controls their country’s entire internet infrastructure.

Just because we use the internet everyday, doesn’t mean we always will be able to do so. A global movement of internet users can help stop our governments (democratic and authoritarian alike) from acquiring an internet kill switch, but only if we act fast. Add your name to our global "Stop the Switch" petition, which we'll deliver to those countries considering the switch and globally to the United Nations, which is meeting soon to discuss freedom of speech online:

https://www.accessnow.org/Stop-the-Switch

From Australia to Zimbabwe, we see how vital access to the internet, both on computers and mobile phones, is for people to freely express themselves. An internet kill switch puts your ability to communicate with friends and family online in jeopardy by placing control over the internet firmly into the hands of your government, who may not necessarily have your interests and rights in mind when they flip the switch.

With the U.S. just a few votes away from giving President Obama and any of his successors ultimate control over the country’s internet access, imagine what is being considered in other countries across the world. We need a global internet uprising to protect our rights, and we are starting at the top with the United Nations. Please join our call before the internet kill switch becomes the global norm:

https://www.accessnow.org/Stop-the-Switch

As online communication becomes an increasingly important part of all aspects of our lives, governments have sought to censor, filter, surveil, and now, shut off access to these vital tools. Just imagine if your government decided to switch your internet -- and you -- off.

In Egypt, using powers granted to Mubarak under emergency law, the government was able to shut off the internet with a couple of phone calls to each of the internet service providers (ISPs) operating in Egypt. Egyptians employed innovative work-arounds to avoid the shutdown like using international dial-up, but do we really want to resort to that? Lets draw a line in the sand as governments around the world race to acquire an "internet kill switch."

Governments habitually put their own survival above the well being of their people. The only real deterrent to the internet kill switch is us -- a global movement for digital freedom; please join the international campaign to “Stop the Switch!”


https://www.accessnow.org/Stop-the-Switch

With hope,
The Access Team

P.S. If you missed our live web symposium last week on The Middle East, The Revolution, & The Internet, you can watch it at: https://www.accessnow.org/policy-activism/press-blog/The-Middle-East-The-Revolution-And-The-Internet

P.P.S. You can also read Access' open letter to Vodafone's CEO here: https://www.accessnow.org/policy-activism/press-blog/open-letter-from-access-to-the-ceo-of-vodafone

For more information on the internet kill switch see:

http://opennet.net/blog/2011/01/egypt%E2%80%99s-internet-blackout-extreme-example-just-time-blocking

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/02/05/INO91HHD7P.DTL

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/global-net-crackdown-to-shatter-utopian-internet-experts-20110204-1ag3i.html?from=smh_sb

http://www.renesys.com/blog/2011/01/egypt-leaves-the-internet.shtml

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20029282-281.html