A Geologist's Theology

In July 2007 the announcement was made of the "New Seven Wonders of the World". Considering that of the previous list, only the Pyramid of Giza remains intact, I suppose it was time for the update. The 2007 list includes plenty of sites that are readily recognizable, such as the Colosseum in Italy, the Machu Picchu in Peru, or the Taj Mahal in India. The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, on the other hand, are less familiar as they existed. Instead, we are apt to recognize them in phrases, storybook references or even from being featured in video games.
One of the Ancient Wonders still refered to in popular culture is Colossus, as in Colossus of Rhodes - consider the adjective "colossal". The great statue was reportedly made of bronze and stood 107 feet (30 meters) tall. It's said that an earthquake in 226 BC toppled the statue, and it was not rebuilt because the oracle of Delphi told the Rhodians that they had offended Helios, a personification of the sun.

The oracle of Delphi, or Pythia, is possibly better known than many of the Ancient Wonders. Pythia was indeed a wonder of the ancient world in the sense that a priestess should preside over such a position of power in a male-dominated society. Nonetheless, the Delphic oracle existed for some 12 centuries, until about 393 AD.
However, in a piece by John Roach in National Geographic in August 2001, it was proposed that psychic powers of Pythia were in fact due to gas vapors, ethylene in particular, which rose up from the faults located below the temple. The hypothesis was considered and dismissed over time until experts gained a better understanding of geologic and volcanic activity. Now a study shows that this explanation is quite viable. Leave it to a geologist to say God lies not in the heavens, but right beneath our noses.
Read the National Geographic article HERE

A post about Martha Stuart

Did you know that Martha Stuart was in court again last year for trying to trademark the name of a village in New York state?

Martha Stewart is attempting to trademark the name Katonah for use on a line of furniture and home products. The name comes form the New York town she resides in, and is named after a beloved 17th century Native American tribal chief. Residents of the town say that no one should own the name, and one has written a protest song that is gaining mainstream attention. Will she trademark the name anyway?

(BizWeek Article here)(Wiki entry here)

Did you also know that Martha Stuart recently came to Japan? I don't know if she's planning to name any new lines of clothing or furniture after a small town in Japan, or start some Martha Stuart Kimono brand, but she did post about her trip on her blog (HERE). Apparently she spent time in Kyoto and Tokyo in November, and during that time she visited the Miho Museum!
Miho Museum is one of my favorite places in Japan. I was a bit surprised that when I went there, I was scolded for trying to take pictures of the artwork, but there are plenty of pictures on Martha's blog of her posing in front of lots of artworks. Then again, she went there with the founder, owners as well as the architect, I.M. Pei.

Home Alone

Every Monday I download the podcast of the radio program This American Life on NPR in Chicago. It is something I look forward to every week along with a half dozen or so other radio podcasts, but TAL is easily my favorite.
This week's offering featured the theme "Home Alone" about those in our society who chose to live alone in life. It's not hard to recognize the stigma related to this "phenomenon" of people who are thought to be deviant or intrinsically lonely based on this one factor of single dwelling. Then again, it's not hard to understand why that stigma exists; human society is intrinsically interdependent. We are not brought into this world single-handedly, but it is our choice in how we will live in this world, and inevitably, - to quote the popular television series "Lost" - we may live together, but we die alone.
Personally, when I first moved to Japan for four months as a student back in 1997, people were astounded at the fact that I knew no one where I was going. But I wasn't worried because I knew that there would be others there that I would get to know; and I did. Besides, the previous year I went to India for three months not knowing a soul, and ended up discovering enough beautiful souls that India still occupies a special place in my heart today.
I have experienced communal living in dormitories with roommates or housemates. I have lived with a Japanese family that housed and fed me for three months, expecting little in return (at least at first). And I have lived with my girlfriend/fiancee for over two years now. These have all been valuable experiences for me that I wouldn't trade for the world, however I also value the times when I have lived alone. For two years in the Japanese countryside, I had my own apartment and few visitors. For about one year in Kyoto, I lived in an apartment near the university I was attending, cycling back to my empty apartment in the middle of the night after finally closing my books for the day. Some of those days were lonely, and some of those nights I wished for nothing more than to be with my family and loved ones. But I recognized that there is a value in living alone and building up a sense of security in who you are as a single entity.
In the end, though, I think we all want to be part of the world around us. Those who cringe from that are indeed oddities to some extent, but only if they try to banish the outside world. For most people living alone, they enjoy that private space where they are free to invite people in or retreat to the peace and quiet of their own existence for a little while. And in some ways, these are the stable bastions of society who go against the grain and snap stereotypes like the brittle, bare-bone ideas they are. Afterall, I certainly can not deny that I look forward to putting on my headphones and fading into a different world, listening to the stories of TAL or even the daily news. Even on the crowded trains of Tokyo, instead of feeling like an isolated sardine in a metal box, I can close my eyes and be someplace else. Even alone, we know when we are home.

Think Globally...

Recently I've been thinking about the benefits of "buying locally". Last Saturday I went to our local grocery store about a 10 minute walk from our apartment. I picked up some pork meat, and then gradually getting closer to home at each stop, went to the vegetable stand (which sells local vegetables at much lower prices than any of the super markets) to get veggies, and then a bread shop (run out of a local home which sells fresh baked breads using mostly organic ingredients). I brought my own cloth bags to do the shopping so didn't return home with any unneeded paper or plastic, and the whole trip was done on foot in 20 minutes. I know not everyone is as lucky to have these things within walking distance, but we all make choices that can affect that situation, and there are plenty of other things that individuals can do.
The thing is, a lot of web sites these days suggest "Ten things you can do for the environment!" and whatnot, but I find that most of the things just don't apply to me. For example, an environmental NPO I keep an eye on is now running a campaign to wash 3 out of 5 laundry loads with only cold water, and they give a percentage of energy (and money) you will save as a result, stating that water heating accounts for approximately 19% of total home energy use. Well, in Japan, many residences - particularly, mine - use cold water to wash clothes for 5 out of 5 loads. For a warm water cycle, we reuse the (basically clean) bath water using a pump that runs the water from the tub to the laundry machine. As for clothes driers, Japan has no laws against line drying and many, many people do this. In New Hampshire, a man is fighting local laws that prohibit use of a clothesline (listen to story here) but I don't even own an electric clothes dryer. And I don't feel like I'm particularly missing out on anything.
Of course there is still plenty that I can do to help do my part for the environment, and there are times when the weather report makes me wish I did have a clothes dryer, but all this still makes me realize how wasteful we have all become. Most of the suggestions are for how to cut down on what is primarily wasteful behavior; it's not enough, it's nothing that actually improves the environment. The hope is that if we can specify options that help cut people's bills and makes them feel better about themselves, thus connecting environment and economy, we are headed in the right direction. Unfortunately, the direction we are facing is not quite where we want to be headed.
The IPCC, the UN panel which recently won the Nobel Prize, recently released their 4th assessment report saying that irreversible damage to the environment has been done and we can expect temperature rises and a rise in sea level over the coming centuries no matter what - even if all CO2 emissions were to stop dead in their tracks - so it's time to start considering "adaptation", (listen to the 4 minute broadcast online here). Of course there is so much more we could be doing as members of the human race, but maybe the IPCC realizes that it's just not going to happen. One can only hope that the world makes some real headway in the talks that will start in December in Bali, Indonesia on what to do as a follow up to the Kyoto Protocol.

Please Yous English

Mayor Stranczek of Crestwood, IL has held office since 1968 and will be retiring at the end of this year.

Dear Austin Powers, this bird is a real common shag!

For your amusement, a random piece of information I ran across at work today.

The European Shag or Common Shag (Phalacrocorax aristotelis) is a species of cormorant. It breeds around the rocky coasts of western and southern Europe, southwest Asia and north Africa, mainly wintering in its breeding range except for northernmost birds. In Britain this seabird is usually referred to as simply the Shag.



Pictured: A young European shag (source: Wikipedia)

What is Lycanthropy?

In my work, I am often doing various searches online to find the definitions of things, or delving into a Thesaurus to give some versatility to the syntax of terribly boring reports. One of the perks of this is that I often come across pretty interesting, though trivial, bits of information. The other day I came across this word: Lycanthropy. Apparently this is a Greek word meaning "wolf-man" (lykoi anthropos) and refers to "a psychiatric state in which the patient believes he is a wolf or some nonhuman animal.
With the observation of Halloween just past, it seems all too appropriate to apply this term to what happens to many children on that day. It may be all-in-fun, but there were a few years where I dressed up as something that just felt so right (maybe it was the actor in me) that I felt quite lycanthropic (although somewhat ashamed to have embodied Bugs Bunny)! Truth be told, when I was about 8 years old, I felt quite comfortable while under the influence of what could be known as peiratês anthropos (arrr, pardon me Greek matey!).

Bath Nation

I don't think any other country has quite as much fun in the bathtub as the Japanese do. The Japanese suggest 12 home bath brews, one for each month of the year.

This month, November, is the "mikan-yu", or tangerine bath.

This is about the time of year that the Japanese start eating this small citrus fruit and spend the evening sitting under their kotatsu (low, heated tables) watching television. So maybe it's no surprise that the sweet aroma of the mikan fruit would find its way to the bath waters. According to a Japanese website, Yu-no-Kuni (meaning something akin to 'Bath Nation'), one should take the peels of about 20 mikan and dry them. Then wrap the dried skins in a cotton gauze bag (or thin towel) and drop it in the bath.
And just to show you how seriously the Japanese take bathing (move over rubber ducky), take a look at this graph:

The graph is from a study done by the Tokyo Gas Company to measure how well the skin holds heat in the bath. In regular bath water, represented by the lower, blue line, the skin heats up by only a fraction and then loses that heat rather quickly. In comparison, with a tangerine bath, the surface of the skin gains nearly 3 degrees Celsius (about 5 degrees Fahrenheit) and maintains heat for about 50 minutes. Amazing research and I hope the scientists all took a long, hot bath after they published their results.
But there's no need to make a science project out of it. Enjoy some tangerines (mikan are also known as satsuma oranges) and save the skins for the bath. Mikan skins even have a special name in Japanese - chinpi - and they can be used to make a cleaning solution too. Boil 400cc of water and 4 chinpi and then have at it. I suppose you could even use it to clean the bath tub.

Talk Radio

With podcasts available to download onto a portable player, (i.e. my iPod) I have come to love talk radio. I can easily imagine a world before television where radio programming was literally the talk of the town. In fact, the advent/popularity of podcasting (which is basically a revolution of radio programming in a way the VCR revolutionized the way we watch television by making it available to us when we have the time to enjoy it) has probably reinvigorated radio programming. Hard for me to say, though, since I didn't even have "local" radio available to me in Japan - by which I mean, I can now listen to Chicago Public Radio on the subway in Tokyo.
While I enjoy listening to various news programs, my two favorites are not news related so much as they are thematic storylines. At the top of my list is This American Life (from Chicago NPR), followed by RadioLab (out of New York). These are expertly produced and edited and always provide intelligent entertainment; each show lasting for approximately one hour and updated weekly.
I remember years ago when I noticed my mom listening to audiobooks (or the "traditional" term, books-on-tape) while she went for evening walks. It was around that time or soon after that the iPod reached its popularity, and it seemed a well-timed turn of events since more books were becoming available in audio format. Now audiobooks are no longer in the same family as Large Print Books catering to people with poor eyesite, but are for those of us on the move, mainly urban dwellers commuting to work or looking for something to engage us while at the gym.
So even though talk radio, per se, often causes people to conjure up images of a stuffy commentator taking calls from the general citizenry, I think it's far time that this view is updated to reflect what is really available out there. And for those that don't have an iPod or mp3 player, check out local radio listings online.

Dinner with I-san

Today I had dinner with my co-worker, I-san, who specializes in cartography and GIS applications. His desk is behind mine, and he's usually buried in huge map sheets, measuring coordinates and matching contour lines, or otherwise writing reports about his current project in Montenegro.
I suppose he must be in his late 40s or so, as he has two children aged 19 and 22. We talked about how his youngest is thinking to study overseas for a year. He said when thinks back to when he was in university himself, he would have liked to study abroad if he'd had the chance. But through his work at our company, I-san said he's been to about 25 countries now. Wow! Myself, I can count 6 countries in the 10 years since I made my first trip overseas. Then there's our Section Chief, D-san, who I remember saying once that he has been to over 40 countries, and I don't think he's even 60 years old yet. (Then again, you have the most widely traveled man in probably all of history, former Pope John Paul II, who traveled to 117 countries during his pontificate.)
I-san told me anecdotes about his recent trips to Montenegro and Macedonia, and a one-day siteseeing trip in New York City on his way to Brazil. I also learned that there was McDonald's in Sri Lanka (surprising, as I thought most Sinhalese were vegetarian. To which you might respond, "But there's McDonald's everywhere!" On the contrary, there are still places where the golden arches do not exist: list of countries without McDonald's.) He told me about what a great time he had in Paris for two weeks once, and was surprised to find a little Japanese restaurant in a Parisian suburb 50km outside of the city, run by a Cambodian staff. "I guess Cambodian cuisine doesn't fare as well," he said,"but who knew a Cambodian could make such good Japanese food!" Although, the question remains, would this little restaurant receive a stamp of authenticity through the new government certification system that goes into effect this year? (see here)
All-in-all, I was glad I-san asked me if I had time for a beer after work. I suspect he wanted to practice his English, which I would have been fine with actually, but in the end we spoke in Japanese for the duration. It was a good time and nice to get to know another of my co-workers.

It's Golden Week in Japan, which means a few National holidays in a row, giving quite a nice little hiatus from work.

J and I have recently discovered a downtown park in Tokyo that is fun to go to on weekends. We first went to Yoyogi Park on Earth Day (Mar 22) for the events they had there that day; food fair, shops and booths by organizations involved in enviro-biz or education.

Last Monday we went again with a packed lunch and I brought my didgeridoo (Australian aboriginal instrument). J brought her scetch book and some drawing pencils, but ended up listening to the didge music I played along with a group playing djembe drums a few yards away. I reckon we'll continue going to the park throughout the summer, so I plan next time to watch J draw the drummers or the landscape.

Incidentally, J just put her webpage back up of some drawings she did in 2004-2005. Click on the title: Beautiful Life
(navigate by clicking the months on the left, days at the top, and drawings for the same day on the right. for example, August 4th shows 8 drawings for that day.)

The link between language learning and environmental management: going beyond lip service

I began to explore the discipline of environmental management several years ago, while working as an educator with Japanese high school students. I was lucky to be employed at a school with an advanced English education program, and was working with some of Japan’s brightest pupils who were already familiar with the concepts of globalization and environmental degradation. However, during many of our discussions, the most common solutions to environmental concerns proposed by the students were conserving energy by turning off lights and setting their air conditioners to a lower setting in the summer, or saving natural resources by walking or using a bicycle instead of an automobile. I was proud of the fact that they considered some of the personal actions they could take, however, something inside me told me it wasn’t enough. Solving environmental problems would take restructuring the way we do things to some extent, not merely limiting our options. Is there any real benefit of doing less bad? The first step is considering what is necessary and adjusting our consumption patterns accordingly, but ultimately more innovative steps would be necessary in order to reduce the amount of waste we produce, or the CO2 levels in the ozone. What mechanisms would be necessary to achieve the goal of creating a “sound material cycle society”, with the goal of zero-waste, as proposed by the Japanese government?


While I was teaching, I spent my weekends at my part-time job working at a hairdresser’s. A beauty salon is not necessarily a place one would consider environmentally friendly, yet its purpose is to make people look more beautiful. At the root of beauty is the element of health and well-being, and I began to ponder the question of what the result would be if people spent as much time trying to make the environment around them beautiful. Every weekend I watched the chemicals found in many hair products get washed down the drain, and soon began to investigate the use of labeling on the products which would tell me which chemicals might be avoided, or what packaging would be environmentally friendly. I discovered that the company Body Shop had just released new packaging for their cosmetics line at the time, and it was awarded for using a simple design, a homogeneous single-layer plastic for easy recycling, and replaceable fillers in cosmetic cases. I thought maybe it was the beginning of more environmentally designed products for personal care items; however without a high level of demand, product makers are unable to continue their efforts. Many of the people I spoke with continued to use what they were accustomed to, or the lowest cost product, with little concern for how it was made or how it would be disposed. People might invest in a fine pen with replaceable ink cartridges, but would they go to the trouble to investigate an environmentally friendly shampoo? Moreover, by what standards would one judge the environmental impact or the benefits of using such a product?


I searched beyond personal care products, looking at items that commonly carried environmental labels or product displays that signaled potential environmental benefits. In Europe, Germany’s Blue Angel label and the European label, the EU flower, seemed to enjoy a marginal portion of the market. Also, in Japan, there was a great variety of products that bore the Eco Mark, from copy paper to employee uniforms to agricultural mulch sheeting of recycled pulp. Eco-labels are a simple marketing device supported by consumer rights groups to inform the public about how they are spending their money. Without a readily identifiable marking, most consumers don’t have the time or the motivation to buy environmentally preferable products, especially if there is a cost mark-up. This begs the question of how consumption patterns could be altered so that environmental considerations are taken into account at the time of purchase; not just for our daily needs, but for our ‘wants’ as a modern society that currently depends on consumption for economic development.


As an educator in language, an important lesson is that you can teach a student about grammar, but they won’t speak until they practice. In other words, you can present the rules to the game, but results only come from action. When Japan enacted the Basic Environmental Law, it seemed to contain all the proper language, but legislation was taken a step further to include an Action Plan in 1995 which would later serve as the basis for the Green Purchasing Law in 2001. When those around you are taking action, it encourages each and every participant to join. With this in mind, Green Purchasing in Japan is reaching levels that have begun to raise awareness on a general level, from ministers in the central government, to public servants and citizens in towns and villages. Japan’s strategy for sustainable consumption using Green Purchasing deserves greater attention if societies hope to decouple consumption of resources and economic activity, particularly developing nations in Asia who will look to Japan for assistance and support, to ultimately achieve the goals of sustainable development.

No Windows

The town where my office is located is well known for two things. One is the largest unsolved bank heist of 300 million yen that ever took place in Japan over 30 years ago. The other is Toshiba's research factory. The two are actually related in the fact that the money stolen in the heist was reportedly the bonuses of factory employees.

An additional mystery, upon my arrival in Fuchu, was the building pictured below. It is a tall tower with Toshiba printed in large letters across the top and not a single window. What on earth could it be?! (Hint: think about all the things Toshiba manufactures. What could be tested in a structure such as this?)

value of money

I have a coin holder in my pocket that is worth more to me than the coins it holds. It's one of those molded plastic football-shaped cases that was a real hit way-back-when (in a way, it was the iPod of the 1950s). I've been using it for a long time and it has developed some war wounds (or, depending on how you see the glass, laugh lines), but it's also received plenty of comments and compliments. In Japan, a country that uses six different coins, a coin case is a must.

Countless convenience store clerks have asked, "Ooh, that's handy. Where did you get that?"
"This? Yes, it's very... convenient."
Dozens of grocery store check-out lane workers have checked it out, "Oh, can I see that case?"
"Well, I suppose that's what the check out lane is for," and I let them have a look.

In fact, it's so popular I've even thought I should import the things and sell them to everyone who comments on it. So, you might ask, how much is it worth?

Well, at the moment, mine has 34 yen in it (which is worth 29 cents), so maybe wash the coin grit out a bit, it's market value might rise to around 50 cents, give or take. Okay, maybe new it might be worth over a $1 even. But to tell you the truth, I'm not really interested in selling them. The one I have is worth a lot more to me.

My dear friend, Francis, gave it to me when she was about 88 years old. She had received it at a social gathering of Friends of the Elderly (which it has printed on it in black lettering), but gave it to me since she didn't go out shopping by herself anymore. To me, this is a perfect gift; I've had something to remind me of her daily for nearly 10 years because of it. Every time someone comments on it, I imagine Francis smiling over my shoulder.

I remember sitting together at the dining room table, where she'd often ask me if I wanted to eat the vegetables she didn't like from her Meals on Wheels home delivery lunches. Strangely, most kids don't like brassica oleracea a.k.a. the brussels sprout, and apparently neither did Francis - lucky for her my taste buds had developed a liking for them, especially when covered in butter. But I would sit with her, not for the free lunch handouts, but for the stories she would tell. Often times her audience was just me and the cat (although I'm pretty sure the cat was there for the free food). When she recounted some part of her life, her eyes would light up, and her smile would let you know when she was taking a few liberties with the facts, but she always made sure her audience heard a good story.

Every time I use that coin case - which is practically daily - I get a little more for my money. The people at the check-out counter don't know it, and the guy at the vegetable stand doesn't realize it, but for the cost of a few coins, I gain the extra value of memories. And as a result, the person at the register usually gets a customer who is now smiling rather warmly while he takes a few coins out of a small, orange, football-shaped rubber molded coin case.

"Ooh, that's a neat case. Where did you get it?"

"Oh this old thing? Yes, I quite like it. I got it from a very dear friend a long time ago."

credit cards

I made the mistake of reading this at work (on my lunch break). I think people were wondering why I was stifling laughter, but if you read through this account of a guy who challenged the security measure of signing for credit purchases, you'll understand.

http://www.zug.com/pranks/credit/

p.s. don't forget to read part II

http://www.zug.com/pranks/credit_card/

Part-time Cosmonaut

Today I made a discovery worthy of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy that there is no difference between the words "waitress" and "weightless" when rendered into Japanese.


"Would you like space cakes with your order?"

Letter to the Editor of any Fashion Magazine

Pardon me if I sound trite, but I have a fashion beef with anyone who is past puberty and can't do up their necktie properly. I recognize that there are various styles and ways to knot a tie: windsor, half and full; four-in-hand; the shelby knot, etc., and there are any number of patterns or widths that come in and out of style, but there are some things that cross the boundary of proper jugular accessory rules.

I'll admit to committing plenty of fashion faux pas over the years myself, so my concern is more one of compassion than anything. I feel terrible when I see someone with a coffee stain on their tie, or when someone has tried to iron it. But, the worst is "the shortchange", when someone has obviously shortchanged themselves in the length department. Every now and then I discover someone who has overcompensated the girth of their knot (probably a rookie windsor convert) in sacrifice of their tie's arrival anywhere even remotely near their belt buckle. They'll try to keep their suit jacket fastened shut to conceal their shortcomings but it is as obvious as a tri-colored toupee to me.



On the other end of the spectrum you have "the swinging crotch cover" created by the man who doesn't seem to understand that the necktie was not intended to be tucked into his pocket with his car keys. Not to mention the chances skyrocket that he will pee on his tie if out drinking at the pub after work (how many alleged "oops, spilled my beer" claims have you felt compelled to believe?).




And then there's my personal favorite: The Dilbert Tie :)

I'm a minority!

According to this article (click) by the Pew Research Center, only 8% of Internet users blog. Of that number, over 50% are under the age of 30 and half of those remaining live in the suburbs. So as an Internet user who is not under 30 and lives in Tokyo, I am a minority.

Well, that and the fact that over 98% percent of the population here is Japanese ;)

Working 8 hours

They say that time flies when you're having fun. So I figure I must be having a ball because I don't seem to be able to get anything done.
;)

new pastime

I reckon "pastime" is the right name for it since it's basically whatever we happen to be engaged in as time passes. Mobile blogging; I can hardly think of anything better... at the moment at least.

Having looked out the window of my morning train only to discover the alleyways of Tokyo - they should seriously reconsider the phrase "wrong side of the tracks" since neither side of the train yielded exciting results - this morning, before exiting my abode, I set up a blog mailer that promises to revolutionize the world wide web, or at least my morning commute.