Category: japan |日本 | 일본

  • Robots in religion + more things

    Robots in religion I was sparked to lead this post based on footage that I watched about a priest in South India with regards a robotic elephant. Robots in religion have taken off in both Shinto and Hindu ceremonies. Japan Academics have widely talked about how the Shinto-based belief system have aided Japanese societal acceptance…

  • Vintage Obscura Radio + more stuff

    Vintage Obscura Radio Vintage Obscura Radio – back when I used to work at Yahoo! we had an editorial team who surfaced great websites like the Liveplasma, which allowed you to discover new artists and authors based on what you liked. Or The Cloud Appreciation Society. We used to package up the best of these sites…

  • Decivilisation + more things

    Decivilisation President Macron The Threat of Decivilisation | Quillette – President Macron when having a Chatham House type discussion with sociology experts used the phrase processus de décivilisation – as a descriptor for the widespread civil and political unrest that has rocked France. On the face of it, decivilisation is an appropriate term if Macron believed…

  • OPEC + more things

    OPEC OPEC – the national cartel for oil producing countries is having a meeting this weekend. OPEC stands for Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. For me, OPEC is something from my childhood. I grew up in the aftermath of 1973 OPEC embargo. The 1973 OPEC embargo 1973, a coalition of Arab countries launch an…

  • Giorgio Moroder

    Giorgio Moroder introduction David Hoffman spent decades making corporate films and documentaries, he has self-made films and footage such as this clip on Giorgio Moroder. If you’re younger than 30, Giorgio Moroder is the old guy who collaborated with Daft Punk on their album Random Access Memories. The story of Giorgio Moroder is larger and…

  • Yamato + more stuff

    Space Battleship Yamato Space Battleship Yamato goes back to one of the most creative periods in Japanese animation or anime as its known. It develops a complex plot and covers themes such as honour, sacrifice, death and loss. The show was originally made in three TV series and four movies from 1973 through to 1983.…

  • UK economic hole + more things

    UK Economic Hole Will anything revive UK productivity? | Financial Times – I am not convinced that anything currently on the horizon will sort out the UK economic hole.  Verdoorn’s Law and Nicholas Kaldor If we go back to 1949 Dutch economics Petrus Johannes Verdoorn came up with a law – the long run productivity…

  • Training AI + more stuff

    Training AI for fitness Japanese sportswear brand Asics (アシックス) have launched a campaign that’s training AI to create more inclusive and representative images of fitness as an activity beyond über fit athletes. Asics called these über fit representations exercise airbrushing. Generative AI is only as good as the source material that it gets to work…

  • Apple and China + more things

    Apple and China Elliott Management wrote this opinion piece on Apple and China: Apple is a Chinese company | Financial Times – interesting assessment of risk exposure with a focus on the Apple share price. The Apple and China relationship started before China joined the WTO. Taiwanese contract manufacturers had built huge industrial sites in…