Longest-Range Headed Goal Ever (58m) Scored in Japanese Second Division

Longest-Range Headed Goal Ever (58m) Scored in Japanese Second Division

YouTube User FootballTsubu: J2ファジアーノ岡山 世界最長級58mヘディングシュート, October 30, 2011

Title: J2 Fagiano Okayama: Longest-Range Headed Goal Ever
Corner Display: J2 Week 33, Yokohama FC vs. Okayama
Transcript: Okay! Yokohama FC and Okayama, the 14th minute of the second half. FC’s keeper makes a goal kick. Okayama’s Ueda (first name Ryūjirō, age 23) heads it…and…somehow…JUST LIKE THAT…GOAL! (Color Man: “Now that’s unusual! That’s surprising.)

Please take another look at it. There. Now, people were saying the field was slippery because it had been raining since before the game started that day, but… After the game, Yokohama FC measured the distance on this über-lucky ball… So, how many meters did it travel?

(Yokohama FC Member Shin Nagamine: “57 meters, 80 centimeters.”) That’s 50 centimeters longer than the 57.30-meter goal made in the Norwegian league this September, considered the longest header on record [currently a Guinness World Applicant]. But it hasn’t yet been decided whether a Guinness application will be made on behalf of this goal.

Underwater Eruption Covers Unique Area with Great Biodiversity

Video: Volcanic Eruption in El Hierro

Underwater Eruption Covers Unique Area with Great Biodiversity
The marine reserve in La Restinga has allowed excellent conservation of the area
El País: La erupción submarina cubre una zona única de gran biodiversidad
Bernardo Marín reporting from Valverde, Canary Islands October 14, 2011

Disquieting stains on the sea are evidence of an underwater eruption which close to the Sea of Calm in the southeast of El Hierro (Canary Islands). A place of enormous ecological interest, with “a very high level of biodiversity in an excellent state of conservation,”in the words of Alberto Brito, professor of Zoology and Oceanography at the University of La Laguna. A unique place where tropical species live together with others more characteristic to temperate waters. “There are populations of cetaceans living here permanently, like the bottlenose dolphin, two stable populations of beaked whales, Hierran lobsters, sometimes whale sharks, and a beautiful, little-eroded sea floor of black coral,” he says.

For the moment, Brito is not too worried about the health of this rich ecosystem and says that, if there is damage, it should recuperate as normal when the eruptions cease. “Today we were able to begin work with the beaked whale population in El Hierro, and everything was normal,” he assured. But he also says there is risk for species that live deeper down and the threat would increase if there is another eruption closer to the coast, where the reserve is located and where there is greater biodiversity, a possibility which scientists have not yet ruled out.

Santiago Hernández, Professor of Zoology at the University of Las Palmas in Gran Canaria, doesn’t want to be an alarmist, either. In his statements to [press agency] Efe, he has stressed that there is no need to fear the gas emanating from the sea, which only affects fauna in a transitory and momentary way. Previous experience indicates to him that recovery will be rapid.

The secret to conserving the area is the creation, after a petition by fishermen, of the marine reserve in 1996. Fernando Gutiérrez, president of the fishermen’s association of La Restinga and one of the driving forces of that campaign, said the reserve was created to safeguard the sea. “We have eradicated longline fishing, fish traps, kites, and this has assured exemplary fishing which is totally sustainable,” he affirms. But the value of the reserve is not just piscatorial.

The marine reserve is 7.5 square kilometers. Only scientific diving can be done within its heart, called the integral reserve. Outside that is a so-called buffer, where fishing is restricted to catching tuna with hooks and live bait. Finally, there is the normal reserve, where several kinds of fishing can be practiced. The extreme southeast of the island has permanently good weather, without even wind, hence the water there is named the Sea of Calm. This circumstance encourages overfishing, which is why the reserve was created.

In addition to the piscatorial and ecological interest of the area, the south of the island is crucial to the economy of El Hierro, as it is an all-world mecca of diving. Before transit was canceled on Saturday, boats set out for Photo Sub, a photography contest of global reach. The divers enjoyed a bed of corals. Scientists of the National Geographic Institute showed a fractured black coral as evidence of the eruption.

This afternoon, this natural paradise appeared to be covered by a dark green and brown stain only a mile from the coast. It was much closer than the two made out yesterday. The Government of the Canary Islands has assured that this is not evidence of a new eruptive focus; it is merely a “fumaroliana emission” (of gas) and an evolution of the previous stains. While lacking analysis, the experts explained that volcanoes expel carbon dioxide composed of sulfur, nitrogen, fluorine, and chlorine in distinct proportions.

CSIC scientist Ramón Ortiz explained on the island that the stain “is anecdotal”, that there is a crevice, and that magma flows to one place in some cases and another place in others, and that one cannot predict whether it will advance toward the coast or the sea. He added that precautions can only be taken in a matter of hours.

Madrid Reinvents Sushi

Three pieces created in Kabuki mark the different paths of Madrileño sushi’s creative development. Photo by Joaquín Secall.

Madrid Reinvents Sushi
It all began seven years ago in Kabuki. A daring chef put truffle pâté and scallion in a nigiri of Atlantic halibut. He unwittingly began a revolution which has turned Madrid into a capital of Japanese fusion.
El País: Madrid reinventa el ‘sushi’
Carmen Pérez-Lanzac reporting from Madrid October 28, 2011

In the summer of 2010, Luis Arévalo locked himself up for three months in a local restaurant in Fuenlabrada and set about the difficult task of starting a luxury restaurant from scratch, the first to be 100% under his control. After his professional formation in Japanese restaurants in Peru, Chile, and Spain, the sushiman had realized the dream of every aspiring chef: two investors had offered to help him open a local restaurant. “The only thing that matters to us is the bottom line,” they said. Arévalo, a 42-year old who hails from Iquitos in the Peruvian jungle, now remembers those days while cleaning an enormous piece of fish belly (the prized toro) behind the bar of Nikei 225, his luxury restaurant (15 Castellana Street). “The first two weeks, my creativity was blocked. Then I realized that the key was my memories of what I had eaten during my life.”

Arévalo took typically Peruvian flavors – kebabs and heart brochettes, yellow pepper, Huancaína sauce – and began to combine them with sushi. “With the help of a table, I crossed different sauces with different seafood. That’s how I learned that Huancaína sauce doesn’t go with salmon, but it does go with scallops, and Atlantic halibut was perfect for marinated kebabs.” From the luck of the laboratory came, among other discoveries, a dozen nigiris which have contributed to the success of the restaurant. This chef who arrived in Spain by bus from France to get around customs and who worked without papers (“until Saint Zapatero gave them to me”) behind the bars of various Japanese restaurants is now “one of the best nikkei (Japanese-Peruvian fusion) cooks in the world,” according to gastronomic critic José Carlos Capel.

Every day more palates know the pleasure of a traditional nigiri (literally “fistfuls”), the bite-sized combination of a piece of raw fish (or seafood) on a ball of rice (prepared with vinegar, sugar, and salt) which when eaten provokes an explosion of contrasts that forces a diner to close his eyes in pure delight. In Madrid, in addition to the widespread popularity of traditional sushi, which is at an all-time high, there is a second generation of creative chefs that would scandalize many Japanese. Recognized sushimen who were born far from Asia are reinventing the product here in their own fashion. “They don’t have any mental barriers; they are more free and adventurous,” says Roger Ortuño, publicist and author of the web site comerjapones.com (“Eat Japanese”), which receives more than 56,000 unique visitors per month.

In addition to restaurants where one can find sushi with touches of fusion, like the U.S.-inspired makis (rolls) at Miyama (5 Flor Baja and 45 Castellana), the temaki (hand-rolled sushi) with Mexican spice at Minabo (8 Caracas), one must add another group of restaurants that have converted the city into a paradise for diners who like to experiment: the two Kabuki (2 Presidente Carmona and 6 Velázquez), the two 99 Sushi Bars (4 Hermosilla and 99 Ponzano), Nikkei 225 (15 Castellana), and Soy (58 Viriato). They are first class restaurants at which, even if one shows great self-control, it’s difficult to spend less than 50 euros per head.

To understand this trend, one must return to 2003, to the Kabuki on Presidente Carmona Street. There, the sushiman Ricardo Sanz, who had already added touches of olive oil and Maldon salt to sashimi (raw fish), made a leap of faith. Inspired by the classic rusk canapé with butter and imitation caviar, he created a nigiri of Atlantic halibut with truffle pâté and scallion. “It was a bombshell,” recalls Chef David Arauz, who then worked for Kabuki, “a novel nigiri that has now gone worldwide.”

After this success, Sanz continued inventing. Inspired by the cojonudos of Burgos (a tapa with quail egg and chorizo) and the huevo roto with truffle which his friend Abraham García was serving in Viridiana, he created a nigiri with fried quail egg and truffle pâté. After that, in self-homage (he’d run a hamburger shop for 22 years), he invented a nigiri using wagyu (Japanese beef) hamburger with tomato and onion.

Eight years have passed, and the creations of this restaurant have been shamelessly copied in dozens of restaurants. Sanz, for his part, has not stopped innovating with his favorite dishes as reference. He has turned the grouper with suckling pig typical to Mallorca into a nigiri of grouper with Iberian bacon. Madrileño stew inspired gunkan (nigiri wrapped in seaweed) with bone marrow and huevos rotos with ham, bull tartar, quail egg, and Canary potato.

All this experimentation is not unanimously approved of. Pedro Espina of Soy, the only one of the aforementioned chefs to train in Japan, has a more traditional perspective. His story is worth telling. He hails from a town in Murcia and competed in martial arts in the smallest weight class, which obligated him to stay under 58 kilograms. “I suffered much – like anorexics, poor things – everywhere but Japan, where I ate and didn’t gain weight. That ended my depression. I was amazed, and I became an apprentice at a local restaurant.”

Espina does not consider himself a sushiman but rather an itamae. It’s something different. Each nigiri should have its reiki (spirit). You should live in an almost spiritual state,” he explained. “The ingredients have a cycle of life, and you take them in your hand and take them to the next cycle.” Espina tries to make the most of the best Spanish resources in order to realize his creations, but he is not in favor of certain mixes: “cooking is like music. Before composing, you must master the theory. A nigiri is a fusion of ingredients, a fiesta of feelings, but there had to be a harmony. I hope my companions forgive me, but I don’t agree with certain mixes which are bad for the body. We’ve run a lot.”

In addition to Ricardo Sanz of Kabuki, others who trained with him have put their own stamps on the nigiri: in addition to Arévalo, there is the Madrileño David Arauz (age 34), who began to create his own as manager of the 99 Sushi Bar in Hermosilla. Among other creations, he made a gunkan of salt cod brandade and kaffir lime on a wafer of yolk and sesame. “We all like to add our own personal touch, to make one more,” he says in defense of his desire to experiment. “Sushi is being reinvented everywhere, but for some reason not at the same pace as in Madrid. Here we’re more perseverant.”

Sanz’s latest creations (which netted the Kabuki Wellington the first Michelin star for a Spanish Japanese restaurant) give the lie to the impulsiveness of his mind: for example nigiris of barbecued organic vegetables and of bull with grated tomato and crunchy rice bathed in coffee and milk, an homage to the pa amb tomàquet which he likes to dip in his coffee cup at breakfast. Albert Raurich, a disciple of Ferran Adrià and the only Spaniard who runs a luxury Japanese restaurant in Barcelona (Dos Palillos), broke into laughter when he heard of Sanz’s latest invention: “Ricardo is going to the madhouse!” he says. “[But seriously,] he’s a great sushiman who’s very level-headed. If anyone else made it, it would be a catastrophe, but I trust his judgment,” he concedes. Sanz, for his part, struggles to theorize about his success: “When I spend a day behind the bar, it’s difficult to have a sense of perspective. The reality is that I’m basically alone,” he says. “There isn’t a road to tell me which way to go. I believe in my instinct. What I see is that Madrid is one of the European cities with the highest quality Japanese cuisine. It’s astonishing. And it’s such a curious touristic draw that I don’t understand why it hasn’t been exploited more.”

Grand Steward of Imperial Household Agency Says Need to Settle Rule of Succession “Becoming Urgent”

Grand Steward of Imperial Household Agency Says Need to Settle Rule of Succession “Becoming Urgent”
Yomiuri Shimbun: 皇位継承見直し「緊急性高まる」…宮内庁長官
October 27, 2011

The Grand Steward of the Imperial Household Agency, Shingo Haketa, said the following about the current succession system, under which women in the royal family must leave the imperial household if they marry, during a regular press conference on the 27th: “The princesses are approaching marriageable age. The succession laws regarding their ability to participate in the official activities of the royal family [after marriage] should be settled.”

As for taking another look at the Imperial Household Law, which holds that only male descendants of male heirs can be considered for the throne, he said “matters of state must be debated in the Diet, but the urgency of the issue is increasing. This isn’t something we can take our time on.” He has communicated the same message to the Noda Cabinet.

He also answered questions about imperial succession. Prince Akishino’s eldest daughter Mako turned 20 [the age of majority] on the 23rd, increasing the number of unmarried royal adults with official responsibilities to six, but if she married, she would become a commoner. In addition, if the current Imperial Household Law holds force, allowing only male descendants of male heirs to inherit could become problematic [the emperor has 8 granddaughters and 1 grandson].

Original/原稿:

Why Has the Thai Flood Lasted So Long?

NASA Image comparing the flood zones of Oct. 25, 2011 (top) and Nov. 11, 2008 (bottom). Bangkok and the Chao Phraya River are marked to the south.

Why Has the Thai Flood Lasted So Long?
Yomiuri Shimbun: タイ大洪水、なぜ長期化？
Mashi Arai reporting from Bangkok October 27, 2011

The submerged land area in Thailand is still expanding, and the flooding is becoming a long term problem, because the amount of rain is unprecedented and the affected area has gentle terrain.

According to the Thai Weather Bureau, this year’s rainy season (May to October) there was 50% more precipitation than usual in the area of the Chao Phraya River, which connects the north and south of the country. It was the most rain in 60 years.

According to Mr. Akira Terakawa’s analysis of the river environment for the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism, the industrial parks which host several Japanese businesses in the Ayutthaya Region and surrounding environs, now in the center of the flood zone, were designed to handle one big rainfall every ten years; this year’s mass precipitation was unexpected.

As opposed to Japan, whose steep terrain causes water to flow away quickly, Thailand has gentle terrain and slow-flowing rivers.

This weekend, a high tide is expected in the Gulf of Thailand, which will make it more difficult for river water to approach the sea.

If floodwater were to breach Bangkok for the first time, it would arrive in a calm flow, not a quick push.

Once the water arrived, however, removing it would take time. Rangsit University Associate Professor of Civil Engineering Seri Supharatid predicts that “if there were full-scale flooding in Bangkok, it would take more than a month to remove the water.”

Original/原稿:

National Personnel Authority Proposes 0.23% Pay Cut for Japanese National Public Servants; Government Proposes 7.8% Cut; NPA and LDP Call Gov’t Plan Unconstitutional

National Personnel Authority Proposes 0.23% Pay Cut for Japanese National Public Servants; Government Proposes 7.8% Cut; NPA and LDP Call Gov’t Plan Unconstitutional
Yomiuri Shimbun: 公務員給与削減に自民反発…人勧見送り「違憲」
October 26, 2011

On the 25th, the National Personnel Authority set its fiscal policy recomendations for 2011, which include decreasing public employees’ average salaries by 0.23%.

In order to secure funding for the Great Tōhoku Earthquake recovery effort, a proposal to cut the average national public servant’s salary by 7.8% has been given priority for the current Diet session, but the opposition Liberal Democratic Party sees the recommendation as problematic, so its passage is not expected.

On the night of the 25th, Prime Minister Noda met Chief Cabinet Secretary Fujimura, Minister of Internal Affairs and Comunications Minister Kawabata, and Democratic Party of Japan Policy Chief Maehara at Noda’s official residence. They agreed to pursue a swift ratification of the salary decrease plan.

According to this revision, by the end of fiscal 2013, national public servants’ monthly salaries would decrease by 10%, 8%, or 5% in comparison to the current plan. Including cuts in bonuses, ¥290 billion in personnel costs would be saved. The plan was proposed at the last Diet session and is still being deliberated in the Lower House.

Regardless, on the recommendation of the National Personnel Authority, the average national public servant’s salary would decrease 0.23%, saving an estimated ¥12 billion in fiscal 2011. Because the volume of salary reductions in the government plan is much greater than that, “passing the government plan would be in keeping with the spirit of the National Personal Authority’s recommendation” (in the words of the Internal Affairs and Comunications leadership) so it would be unnecessary to carry out the latter plan as well.

According to the National Personal Authority, however, since the goverment requests recommendations from the National Personnel Authority out of respect for labor and as a substitute for collective bargaining (Japan’s national public servants are restricted by law from bargaining with the government over their salaries), ignoring the NPA’s recommendations would be “constitutionally problematic.” Liberal Democratic Party Chief Secretary Ishihara is also critical, saying “in a sense, it’s unconstitutional. The argument that the salary reduction follows the NPA’s recommendation doesn’t hold up.”

Outline of Salary Reduction-Related Proposals for National Public Servants
Government Salary Reduction Plan
In order to secure funds for the Great Tōhoku Earthquake Recovery, decrease the monthly salary of national public servants by an average of 7.8%: 10% for department and office heads, 8% for assistants to department heads and subsection chiefs, and 5% for regular staff. Cut bonuses by 10%.

National Public Servant System
In order to establish a self-regulating relationship with labor, expand the rights in the basic labor law. This would include granting national public servants the right to conclude their own contracts, abolishing the National Personnel Authority and its recommendation system, and establishing a Public Servants’ Agency to lead collective bargaining over these servants’ wages. This proposal would be passed in tandem with the salary reduction above.

National Personnel Authority Recommendation
In order to correlate national public servants’ salaries with those of the general population, decrease the former’s salary by an average of 0.23%, or ¥15,000 ($200) per person, by reducing salaries for those in their 50s by 0.5% and for those in their 40s by 0.4%. Salaries for those in their 30s or below would not be changed. Bonuses would remain as they are. The government would have to carry this recommendation out.

Original/原稿:

Emperor Congratulates Women’s World Cup Team, Says He Was “Surprised” by Kaihori’s PK Save

Coach Sasaki (center) and Captain Sawa (right) of “Nadeshiko Japan”, the Women’s World Cup Champions, have a pleasant chat with the Emperor during a party at the Akasaka Imperial Garden the afternoon of the 13th. Photo by Hidetoshi Nakata.

Emperor Congratulates Women’s World Cup Team, Says He Was “Surprised” by Kaihori’s PK Save
Yomiuri Shimbun: 陛下「びっくりしました」…海堀のＰＫ足止め
October 13, 2011

The Emperor and Empress hosted an autumnal party at the Akasaka Imperial Gardens on the 13th. 1980 people attended, including Coach Sasaki and the rest of the Japanese women’s soccer team, nicknamed “Nadeshiko Japan”, which won the Women’s World Cup this summer.

The Emperor said to Coach Sasaki that when keeper Ayumi Kaihori blocked a penalty kick with her legs in the championship game, “I was surprised that such a thing was possible.” Coach Sasaki jokingly replied, “She was possessed by a spirit.“

Original/原稿:

A Magic Store

The store El Rei de la Màgia (The King of Magic) was opened in 1895 by Joaquim Partagàs. All photos by Pau Rigol.

One of the store’s most illustrious clients was the Catalonian poet Joan Brossa.

The local store maintains its original decoration and offers every kind of magical material.

In the premises of the Calle Princesa, one can acquire tickets for the shows.

The museum has a collection of photographs of the most impressive tricks.

Josep María Martínez y Rosa Llop have managed the store since 1984.

The theater has a capacity of 60 and perfect illumination.

If the magic show has more than 30 visitors, it is moved to the theater.

A Magic Store
El Rei de la Màgia (The King of Magic), the oldest establishment for stage magic goods in Europe, opens a theater museum in Barcelona
El País: Una tienda con mucha magia
Gorka Pérez reporting from Barcelona October 14, 2011

The magician takes a deck of cards out of a bag to begin the show, divides it into two stacks, and shuffles them an arm’s length away from a small group of people. With four aces in his left hand, he tells a story of gangsters in the streets of Chicago. Every ace represents the ringleader of a band of robbers. After they vanish into the streets of the city (different parts of the deck) to avoid capture, he dresses as a policeman and begins to investigate the evildoers’ whereabouts. Without touching the cards and only by saying the names of the fugitives, he makes them appear on the top of the deck. Applause.

The public’s ovation provokes a mocking smile from the cardsharp. Surrounded by a dozen people enjoying the show with a drink in hand, the magician Amilkar executes his act over the course of an hour at the Theater Museum of the King of Magic, a new space in Barcelona dedicated to spectaculars of prestidigitation opened this spring by the shop of the same name, the oldest in Europe dedicated to the sale of products for illusionism.

Since 1881, El Rei de la Màgia has sold all types of magical contraptions on the street Calle de la Princesa in Barcelona, first at #5, then at #11 ever since 1895. Funded by the prestidigitator Joaquim Partagàs, it was for years the only magic store in Spain and became a reference point. Its granite facade invites passers-by to go deeper into this small and dark space, an authentic magical journey which once captivated Joan Brossa, an aficionado of miracle workers who went on to say that “poetry, like sleight of hand, is the metamorphosis of reality, a surprise for every intelligent person.”

Since March, The King of Magic has had a Theater Museum on Jonqueres street in Barcelona in which it offers a select program of close-range magic shows and theatrical productions. In addition, the visitor can look around a small museum which shows a collection of objects used by different magicians during their shows along with photographs and posters of famous illusionists.

“The idea for the expansion came from Joaquim Partagàs and his dream of building a theater which only offered magic,” says Pau Martínez, manager of the new space. Although the offerings for magic shows have increased in the Catalonian capital (sessions are programmed by the lounges La Seca Espai Brossa and Teatreneu) the Theater Museum of the King of Magic is the only space uniquely dedicated to these kinds of shows. “Recently, magic and theater have fallen out a little. These days, dances and musicals draw better,” says Martínez.

His love for the world of illusionism was inherited from his parents, proprietors of the King of Magic since 1984 and forerunners of his new business venture. “What they did with this site deserves all my respect and recognition; it has incalculable value for magic,” says Amilkar in an emotional tone.

The program for the Teatro Museo del Rey de la Magia offers shows every week from Thursday to Sunday and prices that go from 10 to 20 euros depending on the time of the function and the places the guests want to visit. “We’re keeping it small because that’s all we wanted to do. People from New York and London have passed through here and thanked us for starting up a place like this,” says the director.

At the beginning of his session, a man of medium stature holds an old newspaper between his hands. In the first row, a group of American tourists are watching enthusiastically. After making his assistant levitate, transforming all kinds of objects, and divining the numbers of a dozen cards, the show ends as it began, witha wave of applause. “The truth is that the people are welcoming this new place very well, and although we’re just starting and the [effect of the economic] crisis is evident,” we’re optimistic,” says Josep Maria Martínez, magician and proprietor along with his wise, Rosa María Llop, who participates in shows with him.

Although the shows monopolize a great part of the family’s time, the shop on Princess Street continues to be the flagship of the El Rei de la Màgia. “I’m from Pontevedra, and this place is as I imagined it: lots of wood, faint light, and a mysterious air that envelopes you,” comments Pablo Correa, a magic aficionado visiting the locale for the first time. He didn’t know that in addition to having everything he was looking for, he could also see magic shows. “I’m going to come here often,” he confesses with a roar of laughter.

With the theater up and running, the shop has also planned classes for learning how to do tricks. In these, one can perfect the techniques of manipulating cards and small objects, acquire knowledge of the other branches of magic, and even take a complete course of classes which also offers the student a toolbox to use for his own show.

Amilkar, a professor of magic, finishes his show with a trick using cards and two crystal glasses. With a handkerchief and a suave movement, he provokes a shout that ricochets off the walls of the bar. After his number concludes, the theater bar closes its doors. The impression made on the spectators augurs well for the next show. The King of Magic abides on his throne.

The Secret of the Trick

Sometimes people come to the store to complain about all those magicians that teach the trick. Although we don’t like that they do it, it helps them create interest,” says Pau Martínez. Although the cardinal rule of any magician is that he never reveals his secrets, there are magicians dedicated to commercializing their shows.

During magic classes taught at El Rei de la Màgia, the assistants promise to never reveal what they learn to anyone. “Some obey more, some less,” confesses Martínez in an ironic tone.

The thing is the result of a trick has to provoke the curiosity of the aspirant as well as the feeling he could repeat it. “My parents have never explained to me how to do a trick, but I’ve learned by observing them. The keys are always in the books.”

My Facebook Wall: September 2011

9/15: Back on my island. Had a great trip. Can’t sum up China within the character limit. It’s more like ten countries than one.
9/16: Check out Naxi music if you get the chance. A minority tribe on the western edge of the Chinese Empire preserved the traditional imperial music better than anyone else because generals and officials sometimes retired there and taught classes in their spare time, and they were too far away for each century’s Cultural Revolutionaries to care about them. The music sounds is much more harmonious than Chinese opera.
9/16: Self-help article of the year?
9/18: I’m planning a one-week trip to Sichuan over Thanksgiving.
9/20: I was unhappy with how much time I was sedentary last year, but even so I have to use a computer to read, write, and communicate with friends and family. Youth hostels, of all places, showed me how to thread the needle. The public computers there were on top of bars without chairs, so I could only use them while standing. Now that I’m home, I’ve put a couple boxes between my desk and my laptop. I’m typing this from my feet.
9/20: Last fall, 7-11 Taiwan ran a promotion where if you bought enough products (like $50US worth), you could select a random vintage Hello Kitty keychain. It was so popular it almost broke the economy.
9/21: I wondered: if I were running a 30-minute news program the day the Japanese solar sailor IKAROS captured this event, at which minute would I run this story? It’s the biggest kinds of explosion in the universe! A galaxy only sees one every few hundred thousand years! …But it’s so far away it will never affect us. And there are so many galaxies that one of these star-shattering explosions happens somewhere every day. Or perhaps a hundred of them do, and we only see one.
9/22: Why am I so good-looking? For the glory of God.
9/25: When did we become afraid to do what is right? When we didn’t feel secure.
9/25: Tartle: A Scottish verb meaning to hesitate while introducing someone due to having forgotten his/her name. (Source: Altalang.com)
9/28: I could shoot at a clay pigeon blindfolded and still be more accurate than the average non-American describing gun ownership in the United States.  Everyone I’ve spoken with about this subject thinks that the sale and carrying of guns is completely unregulated (so anyone can buy anything and take it anywhere), and many have an image of firearms being drawn in saloons and schools with regularity like it’s the Wild West. They don’t understand that most firearms are owned by ordinary people and kept in the home for protection, where they collect dust (I always tell them our family has a gun but I’ve never seen it), and that the most active users are hunters and target shooters. As my cousin alluded to, if your image of America came from movies and TV news, and your own elites all thought letting citizens own guns would be madness, you’d be in the dark, too.

About Translation (9/21)
The second Wikipedia paragraph about translation is interesting: “Translators always risk inappropriate spill-over of source-language idiom and usage into the target-language translation. On the other hand, spill-overs have imported useful source-language calques and loanwords that have enriched the target languages. Indeed, translators have helped substantially to shape the languages into which they have translated.
‎”The translator of the Bible into German, Martin Luther, is credited with being the first European to posit that one translates satisfactorily only toward his own language. L.G. Kelly states that since Johann Gottfried Herder in the 18th century, “it has been axiomatic” that one translates only toward his own language.”
BTW, when I translate it’s annoying to go find the special vowels, so I keep them all saved on the bottom of the Notepad file like so:
¥ōū ÁÍŌ áéíóú ñç°€
Long vowels for Japanese, accented vowels and inflected consonants for Spanish, plus the degree sign and currency symbols.

Which Professional Sports Team Has the Most Wins Ever? (9/23)
Friend: On Aug. 13, the Giants became the first professional sports team in the world to win 10,500 games.

James: As great a franchise as the Giants are, every year for decades now they’ve fallen farther behind the true winningest professional sports team ever, the Harlem Globetrotters, who have over 22,000 victories on their ledger. The Trotters started 44 years after the Giants but have an incredible schedule: in the 1960s, they played 505 games per year!

Friend: I seriously dispute your designation of the Globetrotters as a “professional” sports team.

James: They’re professional in the literal sense, they make their livings exclusively by playing basketball, and in the figurative sense, they are highly skilled and take their jobs very seriously. I imagine they’re also more famous and have less margin for error from game to game than the Giants do. The results of their games may be decided in advance, so their wins aren’t equal in the competitive sense, but like professional wrestlers, they deserve respect and recognition. Ultimately, the Giants, just like the Globetrotters, are paid to entertain us. The concept of entertainment is just different.
Friend: “The results of their games may be decided in advance, so their wins aren’t equal in the competitive sense.” That means their wins mean nothing. It is, in a sense, like professional wrestling. You go more for the show and the tricks than for the sport.

James: And does the Giants’ win total signify they are the greatest sports franchise of all time? No other sport can be played 154-162 times a year. No other league is as old as the National League. Even the worst baseball teams win 40% of their games.

Friend: I’m not saying the Giants are necessarily the greatest sports franchise of all time. But I would much prefer that the team I root for reach this milestone first than some other team. And if cricket were reformed, that could be done as often as baseball.
James: Hahaha, okay. I’m happy you’re happy. Cricket fans would say a reformed cricket with 2-3 hour games wouldn’t be true cricket, right?

Friend: True dat. A rushed afternoon tea is to no one’s benefit – the players, the umpires, the fans, or the tea.

ETA Ends 43 Years of Terror

ETA Ends 43 Years of Terror
El País: ETA pone fin a 43 años de terror
Luis R. Aizpeolea reporting from Madrid October 21, 2011

This Thursday, ETA announced the end of 43 years of terrorism which claimed 829 lives. The band made the announcement in writing and on video and disseminated it in the digital editions of the newspapers Gara and Berria the unconditional and “definitive cessation of armed activity.” The communiqué, read by three hooded people, spoke only of requesting “a direct dialogue” with the government to resolve “the consequences of the conflict,” that is, the legal statuses of its imprisoned and fugitive members in order to move beyond “armed confrontation.” This message, disseminated exactly one month before the November 20 elections, is a response to petitions made Monday by six international personalities at a conference in San Sebastián and Tuesday by the abertzale left.

But ETA’s statement is more precise and clear than the one made Monday by the San Sebastián Confference. Suggestions were made in that text, like the creation of a political party roundtable and a consultation, which ETA did not pick up for its text. With that, ETA sent a clear message that it is not going to change into anyone’s political tutor. It is only going to occupy itself with the future of its imprisoned; hence it did not mention dissolution. This not only gives unprecedented value to ETA’s press release. It is also historic because it’s a response to what political parties have asked for since the creation of the Spanish democracy.

President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero ranked the end of ETA as a historic moment. So did ex-Minister of the Interior and current Socialist Presidential Candidate Alfredo Pérez Rubicalba. In a brief press conference at La Moncloa, Zapatero, in an emotive tone, attributed the end of ETA to the efforts of all democratic governments and security forces, to international collaboration, especially from the French, and to the unity of the parties and Spanish society, with special regards to the 829 ETA victims of the last 43 years.

Rubalcaba also pointed out that the next government will negotiate the settlements over the imprisoned and fugitives, and he appealed for unity between the democratic parties on the matter. The leader of the Popular Party, Mariano Rajoy, spoke positively about the end of ETA violence and attributed its end to political, judicial, and social pressure, which he judged as a triumph of the constitutional state. His stance is especially valuable considering the position of the right-wing media and the more radical sector of his party.

In its message, ETA said that the International Conference celebrated recently in Euskal Herria (The Basque Country) “is an initiative of great political transcendence” and that “the agreed-upon resolution gathers the ingredients for a comprehensive solution to the conflict and has the support of a wide range of groups in Basque society and the international community.”

ETA adds that “a new political era is beginning in Euskal Herria” and underlines that it faces “a historic opportunity to give a just and democratic solution to the secular political conflict.” In its characteristic language, it says: “as opposed to violence and repression, dialogue and agreement should characterize the new cycle. The recognition of Euskal Herria and respect for popular will should prevail over imposition. This is the desire of the majority of the Basque citizenry.”

But whatever ETA says, the people to which Zapatero, Rubalcaba, and Rajoy the ones who brought about the endgame of the long fight against terrorism. ETA’s previous political arm, the abertzale left, beset by political, judicial, and social pressure, turned against the terrorist band and accelerated the end of terrorism consummated by the announcement.

Last July 7, Otegi admitted in his statement to the National Court, which condemned him to 10 years in prison for collaboration with the armed band, that the the terrorist attack on Barajas Airport Terminal 4 on December 30, 2006, by which ETA broke the previous truce, marked the beginning of ETA’s political arm distancing itself from the group itself. The abertzale left’s separation from ETA as a consequence of this rupture to the peace process in 2006 was the determinant factor that accelerated the end of the terrorist organization, realized in the announcement of the definitive cessation of armed activity.

It was the final and definitive factor that contributed to ending more than 40 years of ETA terrorism, although by December 2006, ETA had already noticeably suffered from political, judicial, and social pressure. Otegi recounted in his declamation to the National Court last July that the abertzale left rejected terrorism because Basque society no longer tolerated it…

…President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero thought [in 2006] that the dialogue process would move forward because when ETA came to him, it hadn’t killed for three years; it had suffered from serious attacks by security forces who were more and more professional, the latest the arrest in October 2004 of its principal leader since the 90s, Mikel Antza; the abertzale left was made illegal by the Party Law which came into force in 2003, and it had already suffered considerable rejection from a united front of Basque democratic parties, nationalist and non-nationalist, and by a powerful movement of Basque social organizations against ETA.

This tide had been rising little by little since the Pact of Ajuria Enea in 1988, the first milestone in antiterrorist policy which initiated the social delegitimization of the terrorist group by a street movement in which nationalists and non-nationalists were unified.

In addition, at that moment in 2006, ETA already had a very unfavorable international environment, with al Qaeda terrorism in the spotlight and the IRA, the only European terrorist group besides ETA, in its last throes.

The government successfully assigned ETA responsibility for the failure of the dialogue and isolated the group internationally. After this lost opportunity for ETA, no country would ask the government to enter dialogue with the group again (as some had before). This resulted in greater international cooperation against ETA.

At the same time, the government, as opposed to its actions during previous truces, did not let down its guard in pursuing the terrorists: in 2008, the year in which ETA broke the truce during the summer, it took five cells who had been preparing to fight out of combat. The number of victims during the renewal of hostilities was one-fifth that of the casualty list the last time a truce was broken, in 1998… [abridged]

…After the rupture of the truce in June 2007, Otegi was incarcerated. From prison, he began a process of reflection, with numerous consultations with nationalist parties, and he began to sketch out a project for a sovereignist front uniting Basque independentists and using only peaceful and political means. His project was looked down upon by ETA, which reinitiated terrorist activity with a dozen murders from the breaking of the truce in June 2007 until the final killing in July 2009.

The price which ETA paid for its regression to terrorism was very high. In one year, all its active cells fell, and four leadership groups were arrested in a flash. The political pursuit was relentless.

Otegi, backed by Rufi Exteberria and Rafael Díez Usabiaga, bet decisively on his sovereignist front project. In November 2009, which Otegi incarcerated again, the abertzale left presented in Alsasua and Venice the document Zutik Euskalherria, a strategy depending exclusively on political and peaceful means. They brought it to a debate with their base, and in February 2010, the abertzale left approved 80% to 20% to reject violence. [abridged]