Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
76 year old Japanese man, Masafumi Nagasaki lives on an island alone and naked. The island is 1000 meters across and he bakes in the sun. The island has no drinking water, yet this is where he chooses to call home. He gets a bit of money from his family and that’s about it. A short documentary sounds like a great plan. (Reuters – Naked Hermit)
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Where does one go if you’re Japanese, out of a job in manufacturing but an expert? Yes, China. That’s where a lot of technical experts can go find a second career to hopefully work and teach the great skills that some Japanese possess. Of course that comes with issues. There are 2800 Japanese in manufacturing town of Dongguan alone. “”From Japan’s perspective, emerging countries are getting a free ride of the benefits we nurtured. So yes, it is a problem,” said Yasushi Ishizuka, director of the intellectual property policy office at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.” Yet, jobs are jobs, people will follow the money to survive. Some say that this manufacturing knowledge aren’t crucial secrets. It’s the world today and that’s how it is. (Reuters – Manufacturing China)
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Sporting a funny haircut and looking a bit interesting, Kazuo Ueda spent much of his life making a Yiddish – Japanese dictionary. Is it useful? Not really, but that’s how academia works. It’s a lot of effort on one small topic no matter how narrow and useful. But it’s done! Ueda now is showing signs of Parkinson’s and it’s attributed perhaps to his hard work. That said, a dictionary will cost $700 which is a steal of the fan of both languages. Are there any aside from him? Either way, we’d say congrats on the 28,000 words and the effort. (NPR – Yiddish Japanese Dictionary)
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We mentioned it once a while ago in June 2011 and now it looks to be banned. Babies born in Hong Kong can stay in Hong Kong which then includes the parents. Mainland Chinese have been flocking to Hong Kong to give birth. The tension between Hong Kong and Mainland continues. (LATimes – Anchor)
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Most of you won’t have heard of any of the players involved. This is a story about a leader, Bo Xilai of Chongqing, one of the largest cities in the world. It’s in China. His wife allegedly was involved in killing a British businessman, Neil Heywood. The police chief, a colleague of Bo, decided to leave friendship aside and work on the case. The story is unfolding as we speak. Some of the players like Bo haven’t been seen in public in a month. The police chief nearly sought asylum in the US and is now in trouble. That’s a photo of Bo below. Seen him? (Reuters – Murder)
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