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Here's a headline to ring in the New Year: Philippines braces for New Year's carnage
"Each year celebrations go too far in the Philippines, as powerful firecrackers explode in crowded neighborhoods, often during drinking sprees. Many Filipinos fire guns in the air and set car tires ablaze in the streets, making many urban areas resemble war zones."
Damn, and I just bought me a new set of white-walls . . .
Everyone play nicely and drink responsibly, ya hear? See you in 2007!
Schaudenfraude (Or John Kerry Visits Iraq)
"Finally, the next morning, Senator Kerry ate chow at the Dining Facility. Normally when a Senator/Representative visits, he is joined by a contingent of soldiers/Marines/airmen from his home state. Despite the fact that the MP unit responsible for Green Zone security is an Army Reserve unit from Massachusetts, not a single soldier went to sit with him. (By contrast, Bill O'Reilly, host of that terrible shoutfest on Fox, had over 400 soldiers waiting in line to meet him on Saturday)."
I'm sure Kerry thought he would just jet to Iraq and get some great photo-ops with smiling soldiers so he could turn around and say, "See? I support the troops, and they support me!"
His helicopter pilot while he was in Iraq is even rumored to have asked him to sign a copy of the photo below:
Ouch. That's gotta sting.
ADDENDUM:
James Taranto offers a summation of the Democratic leadership's attitude toward the military, and why the soldiers snubbed John Kerry during his visit: "But generally, there is the notion that the military is nothing but underclass idiots. Sure, they can deploy thousands of miles away and coordinate military assaults that are so precise and so technically driven that relatively small concentrations of our troops can defeat an entire nation's organized army in days. But still, they are manipulated idiots, according to the popular theory. This is wrong. Even if you disagree with the president's decision to attack Iraq, or more wisely the implementation of our plan after military victory over the Iraqi army, this does not mean the troops doing the work are idiots. Most of them are not; many of them are quite smart; almost all of them are decent folk who understand that the concepts of freedom and justice must be secured on the ground if they are to be real."
UPDATE
Michelle Malkin irrefutably bitch-slaps TPM Muckraker, as only Ms. Malkin can -- with in-depth research, independent verification of sources, and genuine photo evidence. Go see for yourself.
One of the good things to come out of the Iraq War (well, besides the prospect of finally ridding the world of yet another despot) is the U.S. government's intention to provide the best possible outcome for its wounded soldiers through expanded funding for prosthetic research and development.
From The House Committee on Veterans' Affairs report: "As Congress moves forward in consideration of its veterans research requirements, NAUS encourages a strong effort to see that critical funding is provided for the VA mission to conduct medical research, especially in the area of traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injuries, blindness and prosthetic research . . . It is essential that research be conducted to guide treatment and rehabilitation for these individuals with polytraumatic injuries. VA medical and prosthetic research programs have played a key role in meeting the current and future health challenges facing veterans with disabling injuries."
CNN published an article on November 14th detailing how advances in modern medicine are saving the lives of numerous soldiers who ordinarily would have died from the severity of their battle wounds. Now, the influx of these wounded soldiers (an estimated 20,000 or more) back into civilian life has upped the demand for newer and better prosthetics -- and in a free market, supply always follows demand.
Meet the new Proprio Foot, an ankle-and-foot prosthetic that incorporates artificial intelligence to monitor individual movement and calculate adjustments according to changes in terrain, making walking and moving a lot more natural for below the knee amputees.
Although the current military body armor is far more effective in providing safety from battle injuries than past gear, soldiers are still losing arms and legs to land mines and roadside bombs. Yet a corollary of the success in saving the lives of wounded Iraq-war soldiers is the increasing number of survivors who undergo single or multiple amputations. According to a 2004 U. S. Senate report, 6 percent of injured troops in Iraq have required amputations, twice the rate of any previous war.
“Every time a war occurs, you see an increase in technology for prosthetics," stated Scott Sabolich of Oklahoma's Scott Sabolich Prosthetics and Research facility. "(But) little do people know that really about 3,000 people each week lose a limb in the United States, and there are another 56,000 a year that go on day in and day out with the same old technology" until the rising number of surviving military wounded ups the demand for a better product.
But despite what some anti-Bush Administration types would have you believe, today's government (just like yesterday's government) actually does invest in post-battle care for its veterans, which means that every time a war occurs, we see a concurrent increase in prosthetics technology.
Which brings me back to the Proprio Foot, a microprocessor foot that was designed by a firm out of Iceland whose pioneering prosthetics have been enthusiastically embraced by the staff at the Walter Reed Military Hospital. The microprocessor creates a profile of the individual's walking style, then automatically launches into the programmed gait when the individual starts to move. This kind of advancement is light years beyond the original wooden leg, not to mention the more recent nuts and bolts sockets that offer limited range of movement with poor flexibility and no terrain sensitivity.
But why am I writing about this? The BF wears a prosthetic limb himself (his foot was amputated when he was a child), and is headed to Oklahoma to the Sabolich facility in early 2007 to get himself fitted for the new Proprio Foot. Sabolich has already fitted two Iraq veterans with these high-tech limbs, and we're both excited to see the thing up close and personal, not to mention the difference that it will make in the BF's daily life. He's been waiting decades for good prosthetics technology to emerge, and it's been a frustrating wait -- while childhood Trek geeks the world over were dressing up in their Captain Kirk costumes and dreaming of warp drives and worm holes, the BF was watching reruns of The Six Million Dollar Man and plotting out, in great detail, just how he was going to independently earn enough cash to buy a bionic leg of his own one day.
That day has been a long time coming. Thank god he spent his time wisely.
“I just wish we were able to develop better technology whenever anyone loses a leg, instead of waiting for a war,” added Sabolich in an interview with The Journal Record.
Hmmmm, maybe we'll see the emergence of a new, pro-military lobbying group? "Invade already, we need better arms and legs!"
Worship God not technology, pope says
And never mind the bullet-proof vehicle he's carted around in, the Vatican website, the Vatican digital library, the . . . oh, never mind.
But this, right here, is the real howler of the article: "In an age of unbridled consumerism it was shameful many remained deaf to the "heart-rending cry" of those dying of hunger, thirst, disease, poverty, war and terrorism, he said . . . People continue to die of hunger and thirst, disease and poverty, in this age of plenty and of unbridled consumerism," he said from the central balcony of Christendom's largest church."
Okay, Mr. Pope, how about this -- why don't you and your cronies sell off all the gold figures, the priceless statues, the brazers and incense burners, the dishes and furniture and other antiquities, and use the money to feed the hungry and alleviate the misery of those you say you're so concerned about?
What? Oh, I see. You mean, the nice little handcrafted throne with the comfy velvet cushion you sit your tushy on when you address your legion of followers is much too precious to part with? The robes and headgear and jewel-encrusted accessories?
Uh-huh, sure. I hear ya. Gotta look good on Sunday morning.
Well then, there's the matter of the prime real estate the Vatican owns throughout the world -- much of it worth billions, if not trillions of dollars. How about the Catholic church starts selling all of that off to feed the hungry and clothe the poor?
Oh. No can do. Those cathedrals are far more important than the people who come to worship in them. Gotcha.
Well then, what about the priceless manuscripts that the church can simply digitize and so sell off the originals to collectors who would gladly pay hefty amounts of cash to add such items to their art collections? That would sure go a long way toward alleviating poverty and . . . oh, uhm, okay. Not gonna happen. Your original manuscripts are more important than, well, people.
So, what was it you were saying again? I have a hard time hearing you above the heart-rending cries of the poor and the hungry . . .
Holiday shopping on the Web surges to $20.6 billion
"On Monday, Dec. 11, consumers set a single-day record of $661 million for online spending. Two days later, that record was broken as consumers spent $667 million online."
Wow. There's been some speculation from pundits that the Monday Christmas might hurt Internet retailers because of delivery problems over the weekend, but a 25% increase from 2005 holiday sales doesn't sound very painful to me.
We returned home from Tokyo a couple of days ago. I downed several glasses of sake on the plane, fell promptly asleep and didn't wake up until we were descending into LAX.
Nice.
It's still a little disorienting to be back on Pacific time. After ten days in Japan, my internal clock was just starting to recalibrate, and now I've thrown it all off kilter again, but I should be back to normal tomorrow (or so I hope).
In the meantime, I wanted to offer some hi-rez versions of a couple of the photos I took so that some of the detail that's lost in smaller versions can be truly enjoyed.
The first couple of photos are of the giant sculpture in the Mitsukoshi Department Store. Click here for a full-size, head-on shot that might give you an idea of the staggering height of the piece, and click here for a lower angle shot that displays its depth and breadth. It's an awesome piece of work, full of color and detail, and I found it curious that, instead of gracing the halls of a national museum, it towered over the staircase of a mere department store -- albeit one of the oldest department stores in Tokyo.
Here's a full-size of one of the Mitsukoshi holiday window displays, and it's a must that you see a full-size shot of the teenage fashion poetry on the back of the sweatshirt I bought for my niece.
And here's a photo of just your average residential alley. We walked through this quiet neighborhood on our way to the Contemporary Museum of Art, following the signs pasted to telephone polls, and I was struck by its ordinary beauty.
I will be truly and deeply sorry to leave behind the unexpected moments of beauty I've encountered throughout the city of Tokyo.
I have a love affair with the Tokyo subway system. Larger version here.
Another photo of shoppers in Ginza. I like the way the Canon SD900 lends an almost painterly quality to the photo -- well, that and my complete inability to hold a camera steady. Advanced anti-shake and auto-focus technology can only correct for so much.
The pic above is just a small section of a towering sculpture that graces the staircase of the old Mitsukoshi Department Store in Nihonbashi. It's breathtaking in its detail, color and size, and I wouldn't want to be anywhere near it during an earthquake.
ADDENDUM:
Don't know if this is an issue that other Mac bloggers face, but there's a noticeable color difference in the way Firefox and Safari display photos. I originally posted this last entry on Safari (because Safari includes a handy spell-checker), then pulled up Firefox to check for any cross-browser problems. The Firefox browser appears to drain some of the color from the photos, while Safari retains the warmth of the original palette . . . but then, maybe that's just a Mac thing?
Today will be the Ginza shopping experience, where the main street is closed to traffic from noon to five and the area gives itself up to a mob of brand-hungry consumers.
How brand-hungry, you ask? Here's a quote from today's Japan Times: "More than 94% of Tokyo women in their 20s own something made by Louis Vuitton; at least 92% have goods from Gucci; nearly 58% own a Prada item; and more than 51% have something with a Chanel label on it . . . when Vacationer's shopping is included, Japanese consumers may scoop up as much as 45% of all the luxury goods sold worldwide."
U.S. retailers would kill for statistics like that.
UPDATE:
Here are a couple of photos from our Sunday shopping stroll (it was a gray and hazy December day with only a bit of weak sunshine struggling through now and then, so the photos are a little washed out):
For larger versions, click here and here.
Yes, those are tables and chairs set up in the middle of the street. Literally thousands of people were in Ginza -- window shopping, actual shopping, hanging out in the cafes and restaurants, socializing. Ginza, at one point in time, was considered "the" place to shop in Tokyo, though it has since taken a backseat to the high-fashion districts of Aoyama and Ometesando. Sundays in Ginza, however, are still very popular (as you can see).
One more photo after the jump:
Larger version here.
Am sitting in an Internet cafe (Wired Cafe News -- part of the Cafe Company in Japan which boasts a wide array of styles and venue choices, with its Wired locations seemingly the best of the bunch) in the Nihonbashi district. It's Saturday, and the cafe is located in an office tower, so the place is pretty sparsely populated at the moment and the staff are standing around dying for something to do.
The coffee is good, the food is great (I had a thick, toasted "New York Style" open-faced BLT that I only wish I could get the likes of in New York, and the BF ordered a plate of Banana French Toast that came drizzled in chocolate and served with a side of vanilla ice cream) and the atmosphere is perfect -- hi-tech retro-modern is the only way I can think of to describe it. The lighting fixtures are all classic 50's modern, the tables and chairs simple yet comfortable, the entire floor is pre-distressed wood and the place has a wide-open converted warehouse look to it. There are several wall-mounted monitors streaming the latest financial news as well as a large LED display above the kitchen counter, white ceiling fans spin lazily and there are six ceiling-mounted JBL speakers for maximum sound disbursement. The wireless Internet connection is blazing fast, the background music is trendy euro-rock and lounge pop, and the waiter in his black felt fedora, white shirt, slouchy black trousers cinched up with an aged white leather belt and a pair of gorgeous pointy-toed, distressed brown leather ankle-boots, carries around a pocket PDA where he entered our orders on his touch-screen display.
Here are some quick snaps the BF took with with the built-in camera on his MacBook:
But beyond simple coffee and food items, they also serve beer, wine and liquor, boast a smoking section with leather sofas and reclining chairs and offer a counter of brand-new HP PC's for customers who aren't lugging along their own laptops.
This is exactly the kind of Internet cafe I keep hoping to find in the United States, and I can't for the life of me figure out why no one in the U.S. is willing or able to put something together like this -- which has been a constant refrain in my head pretty much everywhere I turn here in Tokyo. Is it that the Japanese consumer base is that much more demanding?
The daily business of consumption here is astonishing in its rapacious quality, with stores, restaurants and shops opening and closing at fad-like speeds. Just within the short time we've been here, a new glass and steel outlet was built and opened across the street from our hotel, featuring a Happy Lawsons children's store (at which there are daily lines of families waiting to enter), plus a bi-level HD-DVD lounge and cafe. I swear to god, one day we walked past the location and there were just bulldozers and heavy machinery, while the next day we walked outside and were greeted with the sight of a nearly complete building, just in time for the Christmas rush.
And speaking of the Christmas rush, the crowds of shoppers thronging the sidewalks are an impressive sign that the Japanese economy is in rebound mode after its dark, post-90's crash. This has been a great time to visit Japan, as the energy level is buzzing, the bars are busy, the restaurants booked up and the US dollar still doing well enough against the Yen to negate any sticker-shock effect. In fact, I've often been surprised at how inexpensive everything seems to be in comparison to U.S. prices -- bottles of wine are selling for considerably less than what we'd pay at a U.S. restaurant, fashion clothing is way less expensive than what I'd shell out at a U.S. mall or department store, a latte and scone at Starbucks is cheaper than its equivalent in Santa Monica or Seattle, and we can purchase an all-day subway pass for about 8 bucks, which is comparable to the all-day Fun Pass offered in NYC.
And I already mentioned how clean and efficient the subway system is . . . the year I lived in New York, I used the subway system as little as possible. It was filthy and sometimes dangerous. I wonder how Japanese travelers react upon their first encounter with the NYC subway system? I've already read about Japanese tourists succumbing to Paris Syndrome upon the shock of arriving in the City of Romance only to experience horrible customer service, rude French citizens and trash strewn streets . . . what must they think of New York, with its heaps of garbage bags piled on the sidewalks, taxis in disrepair (the last time I visited NYC, one of the taxi's I flagged down utterly conked out blocks before I arrived at my destination -- smoke started rising from its engine, the thing shuddered and coughed and the driver simply aimed toward the curb and banged to a halt . . . nice), harried customer service, grimy subway cars and stations, and an often aggressively hostile street culture?
Rotten Apple Syndrome, perhaps?
A rare sight in Tokyo -- a nearly empty subway car!
For larger photo, click here.
This is the middle of the day -- notice how clean the car is, and it's not just this car . . . they all look like this, with shining floors and spotless windows.
And here's a photo of a shop exterior in a residential neighborhood. We were on our way to the Contemporary Art Museum (MOT) and the red lanterns caught my eye.
The Japanese must have a colder running body temperature than Western people, because everywhere we go, we feel like we're in a sauna. The department stores are hot, the hotels are hot, the museums are hot, the coffee shops are hot, the restaurants are hot, the subways are hot (especially the subways!) -- we're peeling off our coats and mopping our foreheads, yet everyone else around us is bundled up in furs, hats, scarves, overcoats and gloves.
And no one wears sunglasses. It's weird. The December sun is glaringly bright in my eyes, even with my sunglasses on, yet the Japanese around us seem not to notice. We get a lot of quizzical looks as we walk down the street in our faded, beat-up jeans, t-shirts, overcoats and sunglasses. Dark denim and black clothing from head to toe is de rigueur, unless you happen to be a teenager, then it's anything goes.
Speaking of which, we went shopping in Harajuku today because I wanted to see if I could find something for my teenage niece, a sweet young girl who lives in Virginia -- but I had a really difficult time finding anything appropriate, as the majority of choices for young women revolved around extreme heavy-metal punk, or sexed-up slut princess. I finally snagged a black zip-up hoodie that was more funky than slutty.
Here's a photo of the front:
"Surprising touches like a lemony yellow scent jelly beans"
And here's a photo of the back:
"An image overhaul during the last few years has transformed her from the super-girl next door into a screen siren worthy for rap star love . . . "
Fuck Yeats. Japanese teenage fashion is where you find the real poetry.
Japanese food is much better when you get it in Japan. Japanese food in America -- I have no idea what it's actually supposed to represent, because it tastes nothing like what I'm eating here.
Okay, I fess up -- ever since the midterm elections, I've been nothing but tired of the news, and especially the political news. Having to watch Charlie Rangel and Barney Frank mouth off while faking an understanding of basic economics is frustrating, to say the least, so I'm taking a break.
Apparently, I'm not the only blogger suffering from political burnout, but I'm recuperating in Japan!
This is the first time I've visited Japan, and the BF and I are hanging out at the nearly brand spanking new Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Tokyo. The flight from Los Angeles to Tokyo was over 12 hours long, and while we've been here two days so far, we haven't yet fully adjusted to the time difference. It's 6:45 p.m. Tokyo time, yet 1:45 a.m. Los Angeles time, and I'm having to fight off the desperate desire to lay down and go to sleep before our 8 p.m. dinner reservation! Even 2 cups of Blue Mountain coffee aint doing the trick . . . perhaps it's time to raid the room's refrigerator for the bottled Green Tea.
One thing to note so far: the Japanese love the idea of Christmas. There are Christmas trees, holiday wreaths and Christmas window displays in all the department stores. There was even a store we walked into where an organist was perched in front of a gigantic old-style church organ playing Christmas carols for all the shoppers. The Japanese economy is beginning to pick back up after the dark years following their own post-90's bust, and the Apple store we ducked into to find power-cord adapters for our MacBook Pro laptops was bustling with shoppers. A huge Japanese fashion department store we strolled through today featured floor upon floor of citizens busily spending their Yen on very Los Angeles influenced rocker/biker threads -- I almost felt like I was shopping at Fred Segal, only the prices were better.
Thank god the dollar has held up against the Yen, though neither the BF nor I can speak a word of Japanese. We were initially approached by several very friendly and polite salespeople, but it quickly became apparent that I had no idea how to ask, "Hey, do you have these jeans in a size that Barbaric Foreigners can wear?"
Sigh. Language barriers are an economist's worst nightmare.
The second thing to note: everything is so clean! The streets, sidewalks, delivery trucks, taxi cabs, hell, even the Starbucks we walked into puts anything I've experienced in the United States to shame, including the flagship Starbucks in Seattle's Pike Place Market. The pastry case was scrubbed and gleaming (no fruit flies, scattered crumbs and smudgy fingerprints all over the glass), the staff was obliging to our language difficulties beyond all expectation, the floors were swept, the tables wiped, and the coffee drinks themselves were better than what I get in the U.S.
And it's startling to hear the entire staff say "thank you" as we walk out the door. Wait. Did they just say "thank you" . . . to me? Just for visiting their establishment? And buying one latte? Howard Schultz should come visit Tokyo more often -- perhaps the Japanese could teach him a thing or two about how to keep the company's stock from plummeting any further.
Third note: where are all the obese people? I swear, is no one in Japan overweight? Considering how fantastic all the food is we've had so far, it's incredible to me that I have yet to spot one fat ass waddling down the sidewalk.
After the jump are a few quick snapshots. I hope to post some more as our stay continues.
A few Christmas displays in a department store window:
A Japanese sidewalk in the rain. Funny, how, to me, a rain-slicked Japanese sidewalk looks distinctly and entirely different from an American rain-slicked sidewalk.
ADDENDUM:
The BF politely reminded me that not all U.S. Starbucks are created dismal. Back in May, when we were driving from Seattle to Las Vegas via Jackson Hole, Wyoming, we had the vast and distinct pleasure of stopping for a latte in Missoula, Montana. I have never, and I mean NEVER, experienced such pleasant and genuinely sweet service as I experienced at that particular Starbucks. Everything was clean, the staff was friendly and the coffee was superb. The girl behind the counter knew we were from out of town (gee, two gay guys driving up in a Porsche SUV? How did she guess?) and struck up a happy conversation about where we were headed and what we were planning for our vacation.
I was honestly struck by how open and friendly the entire staff was, and if I had to visit a U.S. Starbucks one more time, it would certainly be the one in Missoula. Do Tokyo and Missoula have something in common? Are cleanliness, sincerity, respect and a personal pride in company quality common to both big city Japan and small town Middle America? I think probably the worst Starbucks I ever encountered were in New York City -- filthy tables and floors, nasty condiment stations, indifferent staff, horrible coffee. Las Vegas was about as bad, but I think NYC wins the "I could care less that you came in here looking for a decent latte" award hands down.
Again, Howard Schultz, are you paying attention?
ADDENDUM 2:
Photos were taken with a Canon PowerShot SD900 Digital Elph. Small, lightweight, easily portable, 10 megapixel. I barely notice it in my coat pocket.
I love modern technology.