a-cubed.info

I noted the other day that Pizza Hut in Japan is translated into Katakana as Piza Hatto. I commented that Hatto was more like boshi (hat) than koya (hut). I was then informed that everyone in Japan thinks that piza hatto refers to a Pizza Hat, since the logo (only in flash, I’m afraid) looks rather like a hat (instead of interpreting it as the roof (yane) of a small building). It just goes to show what a logo and translation can do to the meaning of your company name!

I’ve been meaning to write this for almost two weeks, since getting back from a brief trip to Matsuyama on Shikoku island (literally, the “fourth country”). Murata-sensei and I were visiting Orito-san of Ehime University and doing some research on CCTV in Japan. While I was there I had three meals that were worth reporting on, all for different reasons. (more…)

Last weekend after visiting the National Park for Nature Study in Meguro, we went for lunch at a Chinese restaurant near Shirokanedai called Bamiyan. It’s a chain whose principle distinctive feature is a bottomless cup for drinks via a self-service bar. Unfortunately this means that people tend to go in, order something cheap and occupy their seats for long periods. Rather than decide that the free bar is the problem, they apparently decided that it’s these "semi-free"loaders that are the issue and so they make the place very irritating to stay in for long. They do this by playing "music box" muzak constantly. One or two songs is bearable, but after half an hour it gets on the nerves to much that one has to leave. Certainly for me, this is definitely defeats the object as I won’t go to one of these again unless there’s no other choice.

There seems to have been an earthquake in Tokyo just now. Not a particularly strong one. I’m on the fifth floor of a nine story building and ti wibbled and wobbled around a bit but not worrying or anything. When I was here last year there were two or three earthquakes in Japan which were supposed to be possible to sense in Tokyo (well, I was living in Kawasaki actually, but there too) but I must have slept through the very minor tremors that were felt in this area.

It does raise the question, though, about why people move to earthquake and other risk zones (volcanoes etc). If you grew up somewhere, it’s reasonable to stay, I suppose, but it does make me wonder about my own risk perceptions and cost/benefit analyses that I’m willing to move somewhere prone to earthquakes, and pretty major ones at that. Still, I suppose it’s like many other potentially catastrophic events. You can’t let fear rule your life so you judge the risk as relatively low and get on with things. Otherwise you’d never leave your home (and most accidents happen in the home anyway).

Over the past few years I’ve had a relatively painless time with all the travelling I do. Sure, I’ve had my share of delayed flights (usually from Copenhagen into London) but rarely anything more serious. The worst was dropping my keys on a plane and not realising until getting to the car park and returning to the terminal after that airline had closed up shop for the night.

However, this trip to the US and Japan seems to be making up for the good luck I’ve enjoyed over the last couple of years. (more…)

While writing my earlier post criticising Keen’s Cult of the Amateur, I looked up Pandora’s Box on Amazon. I found the “Customers Who Bought Items Like This Also Bought” list interesting. It mostly included work by or about Dawkins’ radical atheism. From my point of view, not bad company to be seen in.

I just heard the “Budget Response” by the Shadow Chancellor, George Osbourne. It was on after “The World Tonight” and I was only half listening to it. However, I was appalled to hear him, in a major radio (and I assume this was just the audio of the TV version so on TV as well) address use the phrase “we’re gonna do X” not once but twice in a row, instead of “we’re going to do X”. This man has pretensions (and a moderate chance) of becoming the Finance Minster of the world’s fourth largest economy within a couple of years. Is this an example of trying to “connect” with “yoof” (you know, I do that all the time without debasing my English to “street” level) or is he really incapable of delivering a speech in standard English. Accents are one thing and so long as it’s understandable I’m quite pleased to hear a variety on Radio 4 (I quite like the gentle tones of the chap with the Caribbean accent they have doing continuity announcements) but there’s a reason “standard” English is used, because it’s more easily understandable to all.

Middle-aged, middle class, Radio 4 listener, now feeling like “annoyed of Kawasaki”.

Just had a phone call from a BT (British Telecom for my furrin readers) which was cut off about ten seconds into the call. Rather ironic that the UK’s biggest telecoms company can’t run their own outgoing call centres properly.

A colleague sent a link to a Japan Today article, which seemed of interest, so I followed it up. The article was indeed interesting, but one of the side-bar adverts was amusingly bizarre. It’s an “Ad by Google” and looks something like this (best I can do in WordPress to duplicate the formatting).

Hot Japan Girl
Thinking of buying?
Compare 100s
of retailers’ prices at
Shopping.com
uk.shopping.com

Back in the summer I suggested to my editor that it would be really nice to be able to have James Burke write a foreword for Pandora’s Box. Having provided suitable words for an approach I left it with the editors to contact his agent and see if he was willing to do so. I received my author copies of the book today and was really pleased to find that James Burke had written the foreword, and there is a quote from him on the back cover:

I.T. has triggered complex social, political, economic and ethical issues that need urgent action if we are to survive the coming decades of unprecedented technological change. This book is a must-read for all those who want to understand the issues or, more important, want to help in their resolution.

In the foreword he calls the book “lucid and comprehensive”.
James Burke’s socio-technical TV programmes and books (particularly Connections and The Day the Universe Changed) were a major influence on my interest in this area, so it’s particularly gratifying to me to have his imprimature on our book.