Giant Robot Store and GR2 News

  A much smaller Asian guy accidentally breaks leg of bully, then he actually tries to help him. He should have taken a few free shots for respect first. Instead, it’s getting blamed for the broken leg and back to being bullied the next day. Or… the bully may have a change of heart and they’ll become friends… yeah right. Either way, he’s either being a gentleman or he’s just trying to kiss up. This needs to get on Bully Beatdown. (Liveleak)  
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I don’t get why graduate students are so high strung. I mean, you get to do what you want, write/research stuff you care about, and go to/throw dinner parties with wine and conversation with smart people like you. Right? Totally chill. Not so much at the chemistry lab at the University of New South Wales. This week two Chinese chemistry students at the university got into a fight in the lab and things got nasty. Things escalated and one guy got sulfuric acid thrown in his face AND took a hammer to his head. He’s in critical condition now, in a medically induced coma, while police are trying to figure out what the deal is with his attacker. The media is reporting the aggressor is likely to be “mentally ill”. The story sadly reminds me of the true tale of Gang Lu, another Chinese graduate student who lost it and lashed out. They made an award winning movie about his rise and fall in Iowa, Dark Matter. Now that I think of it, those Chinese graduate students didn’t have too many dinner parties – more like hot pot on a hot plate.  Sad news in New South Wales though. Hoping that the student who was attacked recovers, and that the student who did the attacking gets sorted out.
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Barely making a dent in the history of Major League Baseball, Dae-Sung Koo is now pitching at 42 years of age in the Australian Baseball League which is now in it’s second season. The most remarkable thing that you might want to remember about the guy? He was a righty as a kid, but then switched to being a lefty. Who does that? Other than that, this once star of Korean Baseball, Japanese Baseball and MBLer is now in yet another continent throwing and he’s good at 42. (smh – Dae-Sung Koo)
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Super Cool “Daylight Savings” in Tokyo “Under Japan’s corporate culture many workers feel obligated to work until it is dark outside—no matter what their starting time.” Last week we reported on the Japanese government’s “Super Cool Biz” business clothing campaign, which encourages office workers to dress in cooler business attire for summer instead of the traditional heavy suits and skirts which have become the symbols of salarypeople in Japan. This week, Tokyo’s city government is taking things a step further by establishing summer hours, under which some employees report for work an hour earlier to take advantage of cooler morning working conditions, and to save costs related to air conditioning. And, of course, these workers get to leave an hour earlier, effectively creating a sort of daylight savings time without actually changing the clocks. But establishing actual American-style daylight savings time is also under consideration, much as the Japanese have traditionally very much disliked the idea. (National Public Radio – Japan’s “Daylight Savings”) The Guardian UK report has some extra details on summer hours in Japan: 10,000 on Tokyo Summer Hours. Australians Consider Japanese Quiet on Trains “Vomiting salarymen on late night trains aside, Tokyo journeys are largely a silent experience.” Have you ever made or received a cell phone call while on a train in Tokyo, Osaka or Nagoya? Bad foreigner, bad. In Japan this is considered bad etiquette, taboo even. It violates an unwritten Japanese social contract. Well, in some states and cities in Australia, government officials would like to write that Japanese contract down in ink. In Queensland, for example, there are already cell phone quiet zones at the front and the back of all trains. Officials in Sydney and in New South Wales are mulling over a similar implementation. Although there currently are no plans to impose fines for quiet zone violations, the zones on trains would ban not only cell phone conversations, but also playing music and interpersonal conversations above a certain acceptable volume. It seems like a very considerate and civilized move in a country known for boisterous and larger-than-life behavior. (CNNGo – Australian Quiet Zones)
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