Archive for September, 2010

AiRScouter Projects Images Directly onto the Retina

A Japanese company has created a device that resembles the “scouters” worn by Dragonball characters:

This display uses the “persistence of vision” effect to project pictures onto the retina. It does this by shining a light, at a level of brightness that’s safe for the eyes, and moving the light at high speed. The images projected on the retina are recognized by the visual sense, making it seem just as if they are floating just in front of the eyes.

“When people hear the term “see-through display,” I wonder what sort of display method they think of. This display creates a mysterious effect, making it look as if there’s a 16-inch screen floating one meter in front of the eyes, and the scenery behind the screen seems transparent as well.”

“Firstly, we expect this display will be used in industrial applications. Using the AirScouter, it’s possible to look at a manual or the like while working on site. The advantage of this is, it reduces the time lost in moving around. Also, a camera can be attached, so pictures of the work site can be sent to head office. This makes it possible to work in collaboration, while receiving instructions from experts in the office.”

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Red Panda Cubs

A Sankei Shimbun video of two red panda cubs that will go on public display beginning this Sunday at the Chiba Zoo:

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Dolphin & Tourists Swim Together in Taiji

Last weeks episode of “Nanikore” went to the town of Taiji in Wakayama prefecture to check out a beach where people can enjoy a swim with a Risso’s Dolphin:

The dolphin is usually kept in an enclosure by the Taiji whale museum/aquarium. However, for two times a day in the summer, they enlarge the enclosure to include a beach area, allowing tourists to get into the water and swim alongside the big dolphin.

Risso’s dolphins are hunted and sold for meat in Japan, and the area in question is internationally-known for its dolphin hunts. That doesn’t seem to bother the tourists. They probably don’t see it as any worse than visiting a petting zoo and interacting with cute pigs, cows, and chickens.

The TV show refers to the area as Higashimuro District, not Taiji. However, the whaling museum shown in the video is the famous Taiji whaling museum, so it’s pretty safe to assume that the beach is also in Taiji. It probably isn’t too far from the location of the spots shown in “The Cove.” If you’ve seen that movie, this kind of beach and the rocky scenery should look familiar.

It probably isn’t the same exact spot, but it does look very similar to the beach on which two animal rights activists were filmed crying at an empty cove. Thanks to some deceptive editing, the final cut of the film made it look like they were watching a baby dolphin die as Japanese fishermen callously chatted in the background.

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Did You Take Your Fujifilm Pills Today?

A commercial for a new dietary supplement, created by Fujifilm:

I don’t know about you, dear readers, but when I see the word “Fujifilm” written on a bottle, I take it as a warning that the bottle contains something toxic or inedible. I guess that Fujifilm must have done some market research, and found that using its film manufacturing brand name does not scare away Japanese consumers who are interested in dietary supplements.

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Apple Denies Japanese Tabloid Report About Steve Jobs’ Ninja Stars

An article in the tabloid magazine SPA! is claiming that Apple CEO Steve Jobs had some ninja stars in his carry-on luggage when he tried to board his private jet and head home from a trip to Japan:

A security scan at Kansai International Airport, near Osaka, detected the weapons inside the executive’s carry-on luggage in July as he was returning home to the U.S. from a family vacation in Kyoto, the Japanese magazine reported, citing unidentified officials at the airport and the transportation ministry.

Jobs said it wouldn’t make sense for a person to try to hijack his own plane, according to the report. He then told officials he would never visit Japan again, the magazine reported.

Apple, based in Cupertino, California, disputed the magazine’s account.

“Steve did visit Japan this summer for a vacation in Kyoto, but the incidents described at the airport are pure fiction,” said Steve Dowling, a spokesman for the company. “Steve had a great time and hopes to visit Japan again soon.”

A spokesman for Kansai International Airport confirmed that such an incident had occurred involving “a passenger using a private jet,” but the airport’s privacy policy prevented him from saying whether the passenger had been Steve Jobs.

If Jobs indeed had been traveling in a private jet (and not a commercial airliner), it does seem a bit absurd that he would not be allowed to carry souvenir shuriken blades in his carry-on luggage.

Update: ZZ has left a comment that provides some additional information that is worth considering.

This has been rehashed a number of times. It’s not actually that odd, as checks of this sort tend to be done only when the airport in question doesn’t have a private terminal, and essentially mean that you have to use the same security corridor as all the other international flights.

Usually we are taking about using one of the ground exits from one of the normal gates and walking out to the jet. If there is even the slightest chance that a person could come into contact with other non-airport personnel between entering the airport proper and hopping on his plane, chances are he will be checked and anything considered a weapon will be confiscated.

Given Kansai Int’l space and weight restrictions (the airport is technically sinking) it’s not difficult to believe that it does not offer a private terminal separate from it’s public one.

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China May Seek $500,000 Payout After Giant Panda Death at Japanese Zoo

A panda has died at the Kobe zoo. The Chinese government, which makes big money collecting rental fees on its pandas, might demand that the zoo pay it $500,000:

The State Forestry Administration, which leases pandas to foreign countries for $1 million a year, has ordered that the corpse be sealed until the inspection team arrives at Oji Zoo in the port city of Kobe.

China’s state media said Xing Xing had been on loan to the zoo since 2002 and had recently been granted another five years in Japan.

Staff at Kobe zoo have been trying to breed from Xing Xing and with his mate Tan Tan, who delivered a stillborn cub in 2007 and a cub the following year who died within days of being born.

Xing Xing died during an operation to collect semen. The China Wildlife Conservation Association says a breeding agreement with Japan includes a stipulation for $500,000 in compensation should a panda die, Shanghai’s Oriental Morning Post reported.

The panda’s death was announced on the zoo’s website, which said the cause of death was so far “unknown”. Japan is due to receive two pandas next year for the Ueno Zoo, the biggest and best in Tokyo.

The Kobe zoo had been trying for some time to get its two pandas to produce offspring. If they had been successful, it would have meant that the Chinese government would have also collected rental fees for the baby pandas. The operation that led to the panda’s death was a routine procedure that should not have been life-threatening.

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