Archive for October, 2010

Bird Magic

A Korean magician produces lots of live birds out of thin air (or from out of his jacket):

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Revive Your Cell Phone Battery

If the battery on your mobile phone runs out, removing it from the phone and rubbing it for a minute can temporarily revive it and provide you with a little bit if extra power:

It has to do with heat: when a battery is warmed up, it will last longer. If a phone is placed in a very cold environment, the battery will run out quicker.

In the experiment conducted in the above “Mezamashi TV” video, rubbing was able to get about 2 minutes of extra battery life out of a battery that ran out under normal circumstances, and 20 minutes of extra battery life out of a phone battery that had been in a refrigerator.

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Should Japanese Scientists Leave Japan?

NTV’s “Bankisha” takes a look at the state of scientific research in Japan following the Nobel Prize win of professors Akira Suzuki (Hokkaido University) and Eiichi Negishi (Purdue University):

• Of the 15 Japanese who won Nobel prizes for achievements in science or literature, six have made their careers in the United States.

• Young Japanese scientists and grad students in the sciences tend to agree that America is number one when it comes to scientific research. There is more research grant money to go around and researchers are allowed much more freedom to spend that money. [Many of those interviewed were students at MIT, so they had already made the choice to go to America.]
• One Japanese researcher at Purdue says that competition is fierce in America and there is constant pressure on researchers to show results for their work.
• At Japanese universities, younger researchers face restrictions on research funding. The annual research stipends are often less than the cost of basic lab equipment.
• The DPJ-led Japanese government has cut funding to technological research programs. It is the first funding cut in 17 years, and it has made young Japanese scientists very pessimistic about their future prospects. [ Cue clip of budget review panelist and DPJ lawmaker Renho aggressively demanding to know "what is wrong with Japan being second place" in high tech research. ]
• Over the last decade, scientific research spending by the Chinese government has skyrocketed, and it continues to grow.

• Many of the young Japanese scientists interviewed by the program want to go abroad to conduct research, but statistics show that the number of Japanese researchers who go abroad is in decline. Many fear that going abroad will make it hard for them to find employment if they ever choose to return to Japan. Japanese research institutions have a very limited number of job openings, and seem to favor people who have stayed in Japan.
• Prominent scientists such as Professor Negishi are very concerned about the lack of young Japanese researchers who are seeking the opportunity to study and work outside of Japan.

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Fishing Near the Senkaku Islands

FTV spends a day with Shotaro Tamashiro, a fisherman from the island of Yonaguni, the westernmost island of Japan:

Like many other fishermen in the area, Tamashiro wants to fish around the nearby Senkaku Islands. However, because of tensions with China, Japanese authorities have told citizens that they cannot take their private boats into the waters around the islands.

On the day they film with Tamashiro, they come across another fishing boat. It is a boat from Taiwan that is illegally catching fish in Japanese territorial waters. The Taiwanese fishermen make no effort to hide what they are doing. The intruders won’t leave unless the Japanese coast guard are called in. Tamashiro regularly comes across foreign fishing vessels, and says it is very common for them to escape back into Taiwanese waters before the Japanese coast guard can catch them.

Tamashiro says he has even been fired upon by Taiwanese patrol boats. ( It is unclear whether the incident he refers to took place in a disputed area. )

Also shown in the clip is a meeting between a Fisheries Agency official and Yonaguni fishermen. They ask that the official confirm that the Senkaku Islands are Japanese territory, and demand to know when they can fish in the area. He confirms that the islands are part of Japan, but he gives no concrete answer about the fishing question.

Tamashiro and other Yonaguni residents are disappointed in the weakness the Japanese government has shown towards China in the recent dispute over the arrest of a Chinese trawler captain who rammed Japanese patrol boats in the waters around the Senkakus. If the islands are Japanese territory, why does the Japanese government stop Japanese citizens from fishing in their vicinity? If Chinese patrol boats seized Japanese fishermen, would the Japanese government stand up to China?

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Japanese Demaeki vs. Roller Coaster

In the cramped and crowded cities of Japan, most fast food delivery shops rely on motorcycles or mopeds to deliver their food. To keep food from spilling or getting messed up, delivery bikes are equipped with a stabilizing device called a demaeki (出前機). As bikes twist and turn, the demaeki keeps food from tipping over and spilling.

Here is a clip from a TV show that tested to see if a demaeki could prevent a bowl of noodles from spilling on a roller coaster ride:

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Hakuho’s First Sumo Match

Mongolian-born sumo grand champion Hakuho first came to Japan in 2000. Although he was the son of a silver medal-winning Olympic wrestler, the 15-year-old looked like he was too skinny for sumo and had no luck finding a Japanese sumo stable willing to take him in. Hakuho was prepared to return to Mongolia in shame, but fellow Mongolian Kyokushuzan intervened on his behalf and on the day before Hakuho was scheduled to return to Mongolia, a stable master agreed to accept him.

Here is a video of Hakuho’s first sumo match, which took place in 2001:

After winning, Hakuho starts to leave the ring, but is called back in. It seems he was not yet familiar with the customs of sumo, which require the winning wrestler to stay in the ring while his victory is formally announced.

Six years of hard work followed, with Hakuho winning matches and promotions until he reached the top of the sport. He is now the only active wrestler who holds the highest rank of Yokozuna.

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