30 June, 2005

Podcasting - radio reborn

Apple introduced iTunes 4.9 which enables us to enjoy thousands of free radio programmes, called Podcasts. By synchronising them to iPod, we can listen anytime and anywhere.

I'm, in fact, playing around with podcasting. Start with BBC News programmes. Me, new to this system, I haven't figured out how to use it yet. What I can say at this moment is that sound quality is not good. It IS cool, if I can enjoy radio shows, updated everyday, on the way to the office. But I don't know if it's worthwhile to take care of it (like updating podcasts, connecting iPod to PC and so on) everyday. Yes, I AM busy. Too busy to handle those sorts of tasks. Well, it's early to tell. I need more time to play around with it.

Apple also released new iPod models with a full-color display. The 20GB or 60GB models can carry up to 15,000 songs or as many as 25,000 photos. But they are not called iPod Photo.

» Apple | Podcasting

29 June, 2005

Nordic paternity leave schemes

» BBC News | Quality time thrills Nordic dads
28 June 2005

Last year, nearly all Icelandic fathers used their entitlement to three months off work on 80% of their salary.

The new paternity law came into effect in 2002. Iceland now has Europe's second highest birth rate after Turkey.

More Danish men are taking paternity leave now - 46,000 in 2004. New parents can share a year of paid leave there.

Icelandic parents can take nine months of paid leave for childcare - three for the mother, three for the father and the rest divided up by couples as they see fit.

Well, this kind of progressive approach by the government is never seen in Japan, which is unfortunately controlled by inefficient bureaucrats. However, Japanese dads need quality time with their kids, too.

28 June, 2005

Memo (3)

» BBC News | Nationwide strike in South Africa
27 June 2005

As a person who has been to Durban and had an unforgettable experience there, I cannot ignore this news. But I need time to scrutinize it, really...

28 June, 2005

Real bionic man from Chicago

Is this true? You-king gave me this article.

» CBS 2 Chicago WBBM-TV | Chicago Doctors Create Real Bionic Man
22 June 2005
By Mary Ann Childers

Chicago doctors have created a real bionic man, which must be a major breakthrough changing the lives of patients with stroke, spinal cord injury, and so on.

With 20 years of research, the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago have discovered a way to enable patients move an artificial arm as if it were a real limb, simply by thinking about making it move.

23 June, 2005

Bloggaholic

Since I started working at the current company, it's been difficult for me to have my own private time. Being followed by upcoming various projects, it's getting more difficult to do what I want, which is to blog. However, I've been trying to find time and scrabble something, somehow. That's because blogging is something that satisfies myself and functions as a refreshment to my mind.

There are so many things I want to talk about here. Every morning in the office, I switch on my PC and start Firefox, which is a default internet browser in my PC. Firefox is set to starts up with the BBC News page. Then, check some latest news. Most of the days there're some articles which provoke my journalistic interests. Although I want to keep reading articles, my boss comes to me and I close a Firefox window.

Well, blogging is fun to me, anyway. That's why I can write something like this meaningless entry this late at night. It's 1am.

Oh my got, BBC World on TV just now reports the EU sugar subsidy issue... But I am facing the fact that it's high time to go to bet. Give me more time to blog.

21 June, 2005

Tokyo is on the Live 8 list

Tokyo is added to the list of the cities that host the Live 8. And so is Tronto. In addition, Live 8 Africa will be staged in Johannesburg.

The other cities inlcude London, Philadelphia, Paris, Rome, Berlin and Cornwall. The live will take place on 2 July.

» BBC News | Three more Live 8 gigs revealed

20 June, 2005

Going nowhere: Anglo-French battle over the EU budget

» BBC News | Analysis: Two visions for Europe
18 June 2005
By Stephen Mulvey

After France and the Netherlands said No on the EU's constitution, Europe met with another obstacle - budget.

The leaders of each EU members met in Brussels on 16 and 17 June. But the summit ended up with not reaching agreement on a framework budget for 2007-2013.

There are - I think I don't need to explain these here in my poor English, but let me do so in order to satisfy myself and help my understanding - two points. One is the UK rebate, which the country started to recieve from 1984 when it was one of the third poorest countries in the European Community. And the other is Common Agricultural Policy of the EU, which especially French farmers benefit from.

And the debates are going nowhere, but at the same time highlighting the battle between the UK and France, which involves other EU members.

******

Here are some quotes which illustrate diplomatic rifts among the EU.

» BBC News | Blair vows firm line in EU battle
13 June 2005
» BBC News | UK insists EU rebate is justified
19 May 2005

Mr Blair said during a visit to Moscow on 13 June; "I will be, as is my way, diplomatic but firm."

Tony Blair's spokesman said: "The rebate is fully justified, full stop."

And Blair said the British rebate could not be discussed unless it was alongside debate on all EU financing "including that 40% of the budget goes on agriculture which employs only 5% of the people".

On the other hand, Catherine Colonna, French European Affairs Minister, made it clear there was no room for negotiation over the lucrative farm deal, saying the CAP had been reformed in 2002 and did not need to be re-examined.

And she says; "the British position on the rebate defies EU logic and undermines EU solidarity."

Blair pointed that more than 40 per cent of the EU's budget is spent on agriculture, while only five per cent of its population are farmers.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said it would "not be possible" to achieve a deal on a new EU budget without a UK concession.

Sir Digby Jones, director-general of the onfederation of British Industry, says; "if the reform is not linked to ending European agricultural subsidies, it's blatant hypocrisy."

******

» The Observer | Blair vows to break up CAP for Africa's sake
19 June 2005
By Heather Stewart and Nick Mathiason

In this context, I support Blair, although I don't know what's behind his remark and it can be part of his diplomatic tactics.

******

This summary gives you an explanation on this issue;
» BBC News | Q&A: EU budget rows

******

And the cartoon is from here;
» The Observer blog | Hands up if you *don't* think European agricultural subsidies need reforming
13 June 2005
By Rafael Behr

Whenever I see this kind of caricature, I admire a person who creates it. Needless to say, this describes the situation very well.

19 June, 2005

Little Britain with Vogue and Oasis

I came accross some information today about Little Britain, which is BBC's award-winning comedy show.

The July issue of British Vogue features a twelve-pages article of Little Britain, accompanied with special photos of the characters, by photographer Mario Testino. It is a women's magazine, but this is a killer issue for LB fans, regardless of sex. Well, I don't know I can get the actual magazine over here in Japan.

And I also found an article about the comedy in today's Observer. It is about the meeting between Little Britain's star, David Walliams and Noel Gallagher, of Oasis. This also seems accompanied with a special photo session. But I can't find images online.

Well, anyway, when will the DVD of the series 2 be out?

» The Observer | OMM | 'Yeah, but Noel, but...'
19 June 2005
By David Bailey

19 June, 2005

Stereophonics took me away from the office

I enjoyed their awesome performance last night. They played songs from their latest album. The an hour-and-half-long live rocked Japanese fans.

18 June, 2005

Stereophonics takes me away from the office

I'm going to see Stereophonics live tomorrow night. They now come to Japan as part of the tour of their latest album, Language. Sex. Violence. Other?.

I'm looking forward to the live. It's my first time to see them. At the same time, however, it's a bit bad timing for me. My work is very hectic and is about to drive me crazy. Tomorrow it's saturday, but I have to go to the office. I hope I can finish what I have to finish before I go to the live. I didn't expect that I'd be this busy, when I got a ticket.

17 June, 2005

Pen - July 2005

Pen, which mainly covers design and lifestyle for men, is introduced for the first time in this magazine section. The latest issue is all about Brazilian design. From architecture in a beautifully planned city, Brazilia, to football and bossa nova.

17 June, 2005

Casa Brutus - July 2005

"Architecture Photography" is the feature of the latest Casa Brutus. I haven't read it yet. It looks a must-buy issue for architecture lovers.

17 June, 2005

Brutus vol.573

The latest Brutus features your favourite ware. Having been influenced by my father, I'm interested in Japanese ware, especially Imari. When I was a child, my family went to Imari to look around and buy some pieces.

But this issue hardly talk about Imari. Rather about ceramic artist, Shoji Hamada.

15 June, 2005

Guardian resize

The Guardian has announced it is to introduce its new, smaller format in this autumn, about a year earlier than planned.

Carolyn McCall, the chief executive of Guardian Newspapers, said today;

Just over a year ago we made one of the most important decisions in the 184-year history of the Guardian, and the 213-year history of the Observer.

The shift to a smaller format is getting widespread in the British newspaper industry, following renewals of the Independent and Times, which have pushed the companys' sales.

The Guardian's shift tells us this tabloid size trend is not just a fad any more. So who's next? Telegraph or FT? (In fact, Telegraph has already announced it's planning to resize the format. Wait, has it done yet? To be honest, I haven't followed the Telegraph shift news.)

» MediaGuardian.co.uk | Guardian resizes ahead of schedule
14 June 2005
By Julia Day

15 June, 2005

Live 8 related news

» BBC News | Live 8 logic attracts criticism
» BBC News | London Live 8 gig gets 2m texts
» BBC News | Geldof blasts 'sick' eBay sales

I haven't read all of them yet.

14 June, 2005

Relaunched CSS masterpiece

The famous CSS site, ShaunInman.com, has been renewed. A Boston-born web designer/developer, Shaun Inman, presents sophisticated CSS design in his site. Beautiful and groundbreaking. I can't possibly know how each function works. Complicated, but it's not based on Flash. Each part of the site is made by CSS (plus JavaScript). This is worthy to be a excellent model of CSS-designed sites. If you're interested in CSS, you must visit. I haven't looked at the entire site yet, but will take a close look later. So many to be learned.

» ShaunInman.com

12 June, 2005

Matthew Barney: Drawing Restraint

Matthew Barney, of American modern art, is going to hold a personal exhibition for the first time in Japan. The exhibition will open at Kanazawa 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art from 2 July to 25 August.

The museum will show all works from "Drawing Restraint", which consists of drawings, films and sculpture Matthew has created since 1980s, and also his latest work "Drawing Restraint 9".

"Drawing Restraint 9", inspired by Japanese culture - mainly whaling and tea ceremony and beautiful scenery in Japan, is a fairy tale that music and visual image weave.

The film also features Björk, who is a partner of Matthew himself. A soundtrack she produced for the film is to be released on 25 July.

» 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa | Drawing Restraint (Japanese)
» björk.com | Drawing Restraint 9

12 June, 2005

Bute Park

I just came accross this old photo that I took during my stay in Cardiff. I miss the Bute Park.

12 June, 2005

For real this time

It's almost half year since I left Cardiff. After I came back to Japan, I found a job and moved to Tokyo. Since then, I've been too busy to put myself into the Cardiff dream.

But I've never forgot the graduation ceremony, which is to take place in July. As I wrote here, I received a letter about the ceremony from the university long long time ago. After thinking twice about my going, finally I decided to go to Cardiff.

Today I got a ticket to London. I'll be there in Cardiff next month.

9 June, 2005

Memo (2)

I haven't read this, but seems an interesting article.
» BBC News | Biting the hand that feeds you
7 June, 2005
By Stephen Evans

7 June, 2005

Make Poverty History Ad

You can watch this at here.

7 June, 2005

Clone cities - from Londonist

From Londonist. Interesting article on clone cities in Britain, which is related to the entry I wrote before.

» Londonist | Attack Of The Clones

1 June, 2005

Live 8

Sir Bob Geldof has unveiled the plan of "Live 8", aiming to repeat the success of the Live Aid concert in 1985, which raised millions of round s for African famine relief.

The concerts will take place on 2 July in London, Paris, Berlin, Rome and Philadelphia. And here is a list of performers. (from
BBC News)

Hyde Park, London
Mariah Carey, Coldplay, Dido, Keane, Sir Elton John, Annie Lennox, Madonna, Muse, Scissor Sisters, Sir Paul McCartney, Joss Stone, Stereophonics, Sting, Robbie Williams, U2, REM, Velvet Revolver, Bob Geldof, The Killers, The Cure, Snow Patrol

Museum of Art, Philadelphia
Will Smith (host), Bon Jovi, Maroon 5, P Diddy, Stevie Wonder, Jay-Z, The Dave Matthews Band, Sarah McLachlan, Rob Thomas, Keith Urban, 50 Cent, Kaiser Chiefs

Eiffel Tower, Paris
Jamiroquai, Craig David, Youssou N'Dour, Yannick Noah, Andrea Bocelli, Calo Gero, Kyo, Placebo, Axelle Red, Johnny Halliday, Manu Chao, Renaud

Brandenburg Gate, Berlin
A-ha, Crosby Stills and Nash, Brian Wilson, Lauryn Hill, Bap, Die Toten Hosen, Peter Maffay

Circus Maximus, Rome
Duran Duran, Faith Hill, Irene Grandi, Jovanotti, Tim McGraw, Nek, Laura Pasini, Vasco Rossi, Zucchero

» BBC News | Geldof unveils Live 8 show plans
» Guardian Unlimited | Geldof announces Live 8 stars