Best of My Blog 2004

These are my pick for Best of My Blog 2004.

Bose-Einstein Condensation
Flores Man
Public Domain
Reuters TV
LED House
Sonic Vision
Space Elevator
Ocean Biogeographic Information System
If Ignorance is a Source of Crime
Many Japanese indies Video
Global Platform Japan

Spice and Herb: French Tarragon

French Tarragon is my herb of the day.
Today I use it with chicken thigh fried with olive oil.
This spice has very sweet aroma, so result is very noticeable.
Very easy but taste professional!

In the other pan, I put garlic, onion, Oregano (herb), and whole tomato.
Oregano matches with tomato.

And in the another pan is boiling water for spagetti to be cooked.

Spagetti to a plate, then layout the chicken, and on top of that is the tomato sauce!

It was a good and nice meal for the night. I drunk two cups of Kenya coffee after that.

Good night!

Coffee: KENYA (from Starbucks)

KENYA is one of the most popular coffee.
This is by far the most normal coffee I've ever tasted. I mean it is great for night and day. Great with meal or desart. I love it very much.
It is not as dark and bitter as Smatra, and not as uniquely aromaed as Sulawesi, but it is not really a normal coffee. It has a nice flavour to it, but not too strong.

Kenya - Starbucks

Indian Melody

I am into Indian food. Every supper I cook with a lot of spice right now.

Now I found great place to learn Indian music.

Indian Melody
Here you find and listen to songs from 1940's 50's 60's and more.

Christmas: Free Holiday Songs for Download

You can download them free in music.download.com'sHoliday Music.

More free music in
Amazon Free Music Download

iPod Lounge has links to free music.

Clean Fish: Pacific Saury (サンマ） , jack mackerel（シマアジ), Calamary(ヤリイカ）

Because I care about fleshness of food I eat, I decide to clean fish by myself.
The first atempt was Pacific Saury. This fish is long but small kind of fish.
It was surprisingly easy. I fried it with olive oil and basil. Because it was not very big fish, also the bone is small enough and can be eaten after fried.

It was not grotesque as I expected.

I tried bigger fish next, and it was jack mackerel(? I think.)
It was bigger and tougher to clean fish. The final result was not very beautiful.

The third attempt was Calamary (squid). It was very easy, and I use it for last night meal.

Next attempt? maybe Pacific Saury again. I am going to cook it with newly learned spices. I cannot wait!

I am using Comprehensive Ocean Dictionary to translate name of fish in Japanese to English.

My Own Masala

Masala means mixture of spices. In India, each house has their special taste of food, because of difference in kind and amount of spice they mix. There are more than 20 spices you can add, so the number of resulting taste is uncountable. This fascinated me and I decide to create my own Masala.

Yesterday I made curry rice. This was my first experiment of creating curry rice without using products on the market.

This is the recipe:
Tomato Souce(AGNESI's Polpa di Pomodora) - About 350g
Onion - 1
Garlic - 3 pieces

Spices
------------------------------
Black Pepper (Malabar) - N/A
Laurel - 1 leaf
Cardamon Powder - N/A
Cumin Seed - N/A
Clove - 3 pieces
Basil (whole) - N/A
Coriander Powder - N/A
Nutmeg Powder - N/A
Turmeric Powder - N/A

Tomato souse and minced garlic and onion all in the pot, then heated till boiled.
Other spices mixed and grinded, and add water to make paste.
Put the spice paste to the pot.

This time I put squid in the curry.

It was delicious. I feel my stomach warm because of the black pepper.

Coffee: Mandeline G1 (GIN-NO-MAME COFFEE)

What I am enjoying right now is Mandeline G1 from GIN NO MAME COFFEE in Tokyo where you can select green coffee beans and they will roast for you. (No website yet.)

Mandeline G1 was my first bean not from Starbucks. It tasted little bit more acidic than the previouses. I don't know if it because just roasted and fresh, I tasted little raw and green.
I prefer previous 2 than this one.

Price: 350yen (100g)
Roast: French Roast (4/5)

Top 10 Breakthoroughs of the Year 2004 Anncouced

Science Magazine has annouced top 10 breakthroughs of the year 2004.

These are the top 10. (Red colored are my interests, and will be studied)

# Winner: Water on Mars. Nasa's Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity discovered compelling evidence for the prolonged existence of salty, acidic water on the surface of the Red Planet.

# Runner up: Indonesian "hobbit". A team of archaeologists made the mind-blowing discovery of a new species of human that stood only one metre tall and lived on the Indonesian island of Flores.

# Human cloning. South Korean researchers made headlines across the world after announcing they had cloned human embryos, the first published and "peer reviewed" evidence this technique could work with human cells.

# Understanding condensates. In 2004, scientists made giant leaps in understanding ultra-cold gases called condensates, shedding light on some key problems in physics.

# Hidden DNA treasures. Stretches of "junk DNA" proved to be far more important than previously thought. They turned out to be essential for helping genes turn on at the right time and in the right place.

# Pulsar pair. Astrophysicists discovered the first known pair of pulsars, spinning neutron stars that shoot out jets of radiation.

# Declining plant and animal diversity. There was disturbing news this year about the decline of species diversity from large studies that surveyed amphibians, butterflies, plants and birds.

# Water on tap. New results on the structure and chemical behaviour of water could reshape fields from chemistry to atmospheric science.

# Medicines for the World's Poor. "Public-private partnerships" emerged as a force in 2004, according to Science magazine, affecting the way medicines are developed and delivered to emerging nations.

# Genes in a Drop of Water. This year, researchers hit on a new way to identify lifeforms too small and too remote to see. They collected water from diverse environments and sequenced the genes floating in it.

If ignorance is a source of crime

If ignorance is a source of crime, we should know the history of human violence. This site show you the world crime with pictures and videos. What I disgust the most is when people smile and laugh on other's death and sadness.

History of violence... In 21st Century, we are adding. When will we stop killing others?

http://www.thenausea.com

Rumor: Flash memory iPod with Bluetooth!?

If this story is true, it will be a great product.
It says Apple's new product is Flash iPod w/ Bluetooth. iPod would not have display, so how do you control? Use cell phone everyone has. It will be wireless. Comunication between cell phone and iPod is by Bluetooth Technology. I don't know if your cell phone has to be Bluetooth ready or not.
If they sell under $100 product for this (probably with only 256MB - about 50 songs) , then it will change the world once again. If under $200 (probably with 512MB? - about 100 songs), it will be still a big seller. But if over $200 (maybe with 1GB? - about 200 songs), it will be a disappointment, because I don't know if I want have one.

Browser, Mailer, Calender

These are what I am currently using in my work.

Browser: Firefox 1.0 [website]


Mailer: Thunderbird 1.0 [website]


Calender: Sunbird 0.2b [website]


...yes, they are all from Mozilla.

I highly recommend Firefox and Thunderbird if you are on Windows machine.
If you are using Mac, then use Safari and Mail and iCal (They are standard application on Mac).

Apple provides iCal Library which is very useful place to find free calenders to be downloaded.

And better is iCalShare where people create many kinds of calenders to be downloaded.

iCal format is standard calender format, and I think it will be very popular in near future.

iTunes Radio

I found out that you can add your favourite radio station to iTunes.
What I did was go to http://www.shoutcast.com and search for text "india" (because I wanted india radio station to match with today's meal), then open it with iTunes. You can create your play list called "India Radio Station" and add the radio station to it.

Up next, I am going to transform my room like indian house.

http://www.itunes.com

BitTorrent - Ultimate File Sharing Software

BitTorrent is the ultimate file Sharing Software, and almost 50% of the file sharing traffic is generated by this. People use this to transfer large files like movies and games because of its efficiency. Below is quotes from Yahoo! news.

"It is unusual, perhaps unique, in that the moment you start downloading you are also uploading," he added. "It's what makes it so efficient."

"Bandwidth has been a big barrier,' he said. 'BitTorrent solved that."

" The files on the Web sites are not songs or movies but serve as markers that point the way to other users sharing a given file. BitTorrent then assembles complete files from multiple chunks of data obtained from everyone who is sharing the file."

If you want to know in detail, read this news.

Official Site

Coffee: Sulawesi (from Starbucks)

Sulawesi is what I am enjoying after Sumatra. This is also straight (not blend).
Comparing Sumatra, the aroma of Sulawesi is more unique. There is little acidity also.
I like it. I bought 100g this time.

Starbucks - Sulawesi

Ocean Biogeographic Information System

This is Database for marine life. Currently it contains 5.2 million records.
You can click on world picture and find kinds of fish in there.

OBIS Website.

The article about OBIS is found here

LED HOUSE - VOS SOLUTION

Look this! This is crazy! But so beautiful! This is definitely the future of the house! Are they using The Enlux LED light or what???

Check more picture at
VOS SOLUTION GALLERY

Sonic Vision

This is old article from Wired, but it looks so cool.

SonicVision is one of the world's biggest virtual reality simulator.

"SonicVison, a new show by the American Museum of Natural History and MTV2, blends technology, music and animations displayed on a 6,550-square-foot digital dome into a brain-melting fiesta of sounds and sights."

My favourite band Zwan's Honesty was played. I really want to lose myself in the music and the vision!

Marijuana Research - An Article on Scientific America

"Current restrictions on marijuana research are absurd"

This science magazine talks about marijuana research in America from the scientist point of view.

Check it out.

I think there should be more and more research on marijuana to find out the good and bad side of it. It should be easily researched by scientist, and should not be restricted too hard.

Coffee: Sumatra (from Starbucks)

Sumatra is what I am enjoying right now. It matches well with milk.
It has almost no acidity, which I didn't want when I get this.
I bought 200g of beans. They say I should drink in one week after open it, so I am drinking like mad.

Starbucks - Sumatra

Jimmy Chamberlin Complex

He was the drummer of The Smashing Pumpkins and Zwan.
Now after the breakup of Zwan, he is creating solo album called "Life Begins Again".
It is announced that release day of the album is January 25th, 2005! Very soon!
I love Jimmy; the man who reborn after the tragic moment in 1995(?).
Go Jimmy Go!

"Ok, so what is The Complex? Well the Complex is my new band. I'll tell you how it happened. About a year ago, a dear friend of mine (and yours) asked me what I thought about doing a solo record. I said, well I think it's a great idea but I'm not so sure anyone else does. He said, “I think you'd be surprised". Well it turns out He was right and after a couple of phone calls the next thing I knew I was on a jet to NY to meet with my friend Merck (who also happens to be the president of Sanctuary Records Group). After about ten minutes of me telling him I had no Idea what I was going to do but I knew it was going to be cool, He agreed to give me a record deal. Now I was screwed! The next thing I remember is walking down Lexington Ave. wondering what the hell had just happened. Did you just agree to do a solo record? Ah, well, yes, I think you did........ That day started a new chapter in my life that has been nothing short of miraculous!"

Go to Jimmy Chamberlin Complex Website!

The Enlux LED light

This light looks wonderful and beautiful. Just awarded by Popular Science in Home Tech section. $79.95 is still little bit expensive, but not too expensive?

I just bought halogen light, like the one used in starbucks. Halogen light emits very nice relaxing color of light. I love it!

But these light are LED Light! I never seen in front of my eye. I look foward to see it somewhere someday soon.

[Red Light]

"Roughly two times more Red light is emitted, at 1/5 of the power of a 100W red incandescent floodlight."

[Blue Light]

"Twice as much light while using only 1/5 of the power of a 100W blue filtered incandescent floodlight."

[Green Light]

"at ten times higher efficacy than a 100W filtered green incandescent floodlight. "

[Amber Light]

"Rich amber light is emitted from this highly stylish LED Floodlight. Great for wall-washing and accent lighting."

And there are three different tone of white color light too.
Go to see it in their homepage!

http://www.enluxled.com/

Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a search engine for finding scholarly literatures.

You need to pay to read some of the literatures... But this is a great way to find knowledge you cannnot find in websites.

I want to go to space!

Space Elevator could be the answer to make my dream come true.
Carbon Nanotechnologies is the answer to create this wonderful elevator.
And many research is underway including MIT lab.

Conceptual Images:
http://www.liftport.com/gcimages.php

Prototypes:
http://www.liftport.com/MIT_demo/
http://www.liftport.com/gplimages2.php

Programming: Koders

http://www.koders.com/ is great search engine.
It is not an ordinary search engine because it finds programming source code around the world. Programmers usually look at someone else's code to learn techniques, but it was hard to find what you are looking for. But now there is a source code finder!
Thank you Koders!

Half of American Say Sorry to the World.

Go to Gallary to see pictures posted by Americans with signs.

http://www.sorryeverybody.com/

The Polar Express (2004) [Expectation 4/4]

“It doesn't matter where the train is going.
What matters is deciding to get on.”

Is coming to theater near you tomorrow, but not in Japan yet.
One of my favourite director, Robert Zemekis' new film is all in CG.
I'm a fan of him since Forrest Gump and Contact (especially Contact), and I cannot wait to see this film. My expectation rating is 4/4!

Official Site
Greg's Preview

See Trailers

Laptop: VAIO type E (VGN-E71B/G)

This one is nice one too. Too bad this wasn't released from Apple.
I love to see similar color apple note book to be coming out.

http://www.jp.sonystyle.com/Style-a/Product/E/index.html

iPod mini - Green

I think it is nice looking one.
I really want to have it.

But rumor about flash memory version of iPod coming very soon. Maybe after christmas.

Cell Phone: Talby

This phone is very very nice looking. I'm really consider buying one, since my cellphone sucks right now.

http://www.talby.jp/
AU Design Project

By the way, the cell phone I loved, because very thin, but washed with clothes was

Science Channel

Here you can watch many science tv program in Japanese.

サイエンスチャンネル

Enjoy!

Bose-Einstein Condensation Video (Japanese)

You can watch it here

原子の波が見えてきた 〜ボース・アインシュタイン凝縮の世界〜

Physics: Bose-Einstein Condensation

Recently I saw on NHK(Japanese TV channel) about this topic.
Bose-Einstein Condensation or BEC is a state of many atoms become as one big atom (Not exactly).
In the small world (Quantum world), an atom, an electron, a photon(light), or any small thing looks as a particle or a wave. In quantum world, things can not be exist or not exist. we cannot say it is there or not, UNTIL we observe. It is very strange, but it is true in quantum world.

I was thinking "It is strange, but it is small world. That is why it is strange." But now with this Bose-Einstein Condensation, we created about 1mm size quantum state. Bunch of atoms in very very cold temperture become as one becoming a "large particle". It acts as a wave.

It is hard to put in the words. So please check this site below.
You can experiment and see it happen.

http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/bec/

Quantum Theory fascinates me a lot.

Flores Man

This news was the most surprising one this year so far. There were drawfs (or hobbit like creature) living in the Earth just 18,000 years ago! Nature.com has great site for Flores Man HERE.

Bush Won the Election 2004

This link has Kerry with Apple's Powerbook.
It says there will be 4 more years of dark days.
I feel the same... But I hope not.

Elliott Smith

When I was still in Vancouver, Canada, I went to his live by myself.
Because his album "Figure 8" was so good. Because his songs has his soul and power, I had to see him in live. I remember it was a great night. And last year, he killed himself in front of his girlfriend, stubbing himself on his chest.

And this year, his last album "From a Basement On The Hill" was released.

I haven't listened to them, but I surely buy very soon.

http://www.elliottsmith.com/

Why so many great musician die so young?

Hikaru Utada

Debut in U.S.
Her new album "Exodus" is not doing well in U.S.
I hope her success.

Website

Yelena Yemchuck and Billy Corgan

Who is Yelena Yemchuck?
If you are a fan of Smashing Pumpkins and Billy Corgan, you might know.
Yes, she is Billy Corgan's girlfriend.
What is she doing?
She is an artist. She takes photo, and she also paint.
Here are some links to her pictures.

http://yemchuk.free.fr/truth.htm

http://www.dactyl.org/art/artists/yemchuk/yemchuk.html

http://www.ikcor.com/yelena/

http://homepage.mac.com/dactyl.org/PhotoAlbum66.html

Another things,
Billy Corgan recently released his first poetry book called "Blinking with Fists"

Amazon Link

Cover art is done by Yelena Yemchuck too.

Check them out! They are both so talented!

I love both of them!

Movie Review: Kill Bill Vol1 and Vol2 (3.5/4)

I enjoyed very much. I did not see them on Theater, so I recently rented them and watched continuously. It was a Quantin Tarantino magic. Simply exciting fun movie like Japanese comics and cartoons. There aren't many film maker who can make this kind of movie.

PearPC and CherryOS and Mac OS X

I recently installed PearPC (http://pearpc.sourceforge.net/)and successfully run Mac OS X Panther on Pentium 4 1.6GHz Machine.It was not very difficult, but took me more than 10 Hrs to install it.
Still Networking and Sound are not working.

By the way, Is CherryOS real? Is their claim real?
http://www.cherryos.com is down now.

Apple (http://www.apple.com) annouced PowerMac G5 1.8GHz single processor ($1499). With same price iMac G5 1.8GHz single processor with 17inch wide screeen is selling. This new PowerMac is for user who likes to upgrade. I am considering buying Mac, and they are my two choises right now.

Subservient Chicken

Subservient Chicken

Check this out!
Very interesting. Very Funny.

Public Domain: Open-Media.org

Going to be great!

News about Open-media.org (only in Japanese)

Official Site

Future Watch

------ Applele.com ------

Future Watch

Apple Design Prototype - The Apple Collection

Future Watch

NEC %3A Design Activity %3A Future Design%23tag

Movie: The Hours (2002) **1/2

Good film. Directed by Stephen Daldry
of Billy Elliot(2000). Billy Elliot was a better film. Nicole Kidman was nominated for Oscar for her role in this film, and she is really good. Must-See acting.

The story is about 3 women in 3 different time. The book "Mrs. Dalloway" is the connection between them. There are more connections between them, and it is fun to discover them as story goes.

If I understand more, I would have appreciated more, I guess. Maybe second viewing is better than first, but I do not have time for that unfortunately.

After I watched this film, I get very interested in who the Virginia Woolf is, and what "Mrs. Dalloway" 's story is about. I may watch Mrs. Dalloway (1997) soon.

**1/2 out of 4

*IMDb
*Trailer

Music: TSUTAYA DISCOVERY

I rent
*NICK DRAKE - BRYTER LAYTER
*HOWLIN' WOLF - MOANIN' IN THE MOONLIGHT
*TAJ MAHAL - MUSIC FUH YA'
*JEFF BUCKLEY - LIVE A L'OLYMPIA

Nick Drake is very good. He died very young. He has only 3 albums, and "Bryter Layter" is the second album for him. This is the first one I listened. Very excited to listen other 2 albums.

Jeff Buckley died very young too. He has special ability to sing. Amazing. "LIVE A L'OLYMPIA" is live album. He didn't release too many albums, so these live albums are only way to discover who he was.

Howlin' Wolf has his way to howl. In different songs, he howl in similar way, but I love it. I'm getting very into BLUES recently, because of its simplicity. Maybe I am very simple man in some way, I really connect to BLUES, I guess.

TAJ MAHAL; I haven't listened much, so I have nothing to say.

Great Japanese: GUTS ISHIMATSU

Here I select GUTS ISHIMATSU for the Yasu's Great Japanese Award (YGJA).
He was boxing world champion, he is an actor, a director, a writer. He is popular Japanese celebrity right now. He has good heart and thought. He is often unintentionally funny.

*Official Site
*His Boxing Records
*IMDb (He is also Actor, director, writer)
*Recent News

Athens: Fukuhara Ai (Japanese Ping Pong player)

Fukuhara Ai is the Japanese Ping Pong player, who is only 15-year-old. She started ping-pong at age of 3, won 3 straight years for Japanese tournament (8-year-old or younger), won 7 straight year for same tournament (12-year-old or younger). Won Japanese Junior tournament at the age of 13. She was selected for 2002 Pusan Asia Tournament; youngest player to be selected all time. She has been Japanese heroine since she was very young. I hope she will win a medal. She just won second round, advancing to third round.

*Ai Fukuhara's ranking
*Japanese Official site
*Japanese News
*Playstation 2 Game

Video: SSP-TV.com (Many Japanese Indies Videos)

This site lists many films from Japanese indies film makers. Many are very bad quality, but some of them are interesting. Only in Japanese.

Video: Steam Locomotive

This site is made by a steam locomotive lover. There are videos and photos of old time.

FUNNY: Video "Negima"

Watch a guy eats japanese daifuku

Streaming Video: Global Platform Japan

Global Platform Japan has many streaming videos about Japan. Very informative site!

iVillage FeedRoom

iVillage FeedRoom is streaming video about Entertainment News.

Pentagon Channel

Pentagon Channel is streaming video from Pentagon.

Movies: Road to Perdition (2002) *** out of 4

This movie is about father and son. In different relationships of father and son. Because something happens, a father and a son know and become closer to each other. Everyone has a father. May not have met one, but you have your own father, and he is a very special person. Sometimes something need to happen for people to get to know more? Get to close? Like 9/11 brought American people closer? It can be good, not bad like life and death situation, special situation to bring people closer right? Maybe people need to create some dramatic thing to happen. We have to try to make life dramatic.

Directed by Sam Mendes of American Beauty. It did not come close to what American Beauty did. Tom Hanks was good as usual.

The film *** out of 4.

*IMDb
*Trailer
*Reviews

Movies: Solaris (2002) ***1/2 out of 4

I love this kind of movie. What I love the most about this movie is the music. And there aren't too much screaming involved. I love this kind of "background movie", which I use it to create an atmosphere for creativity. This movie is about not only the music. Cinematography is good. Maybe not like Kubrick, but pretty good. Story is also good; good love story. Acting is unbelievable I know this movie is not for everyone, but I love it so much. Kind of I was waiting for this kind of movie to apear.

Steven Soderbergh did another good job. Maybe people recall "Traffic" and "Erin Brockovich" as his movie right now, but in 20 years, people will remember "Solaris" as his work, because this movie is so different from other films. He has done something very special, very unique, and that is why I love this film.

Actors note;Natascha McElhone was eye catching. I was very attracted to her in this film.
And maybe the most remarkable acting in this film is from Jeremy Davies. Watch him out!

This film is ***1/2 out of 4

*IMDb
*Trailers
*Other's Reviews

Fox Searchlight Short Film: Strangers

*Strangers
Another good short film from Fox Searchlight Short Film.
After watching it, left me with some good feeling.
I give it *** out of 4

"Strangers tells the compelling tale of two young men, one Arab and one Jewish who are motivated by fear to overcome their racial prejudice and hatred when suddenly confronted with a menacing gang of skinheads.
Erez Tadmor and Guy Nattiv are graduates from the Tel Aviv school Camera Obscura School of Art.  The pair are currently developing their first feature film about a holocaust survivor. All Searchlab Shorts are unrated."

Movies: Prozac Nation (2001)

Good movie.
Based on Elizabeth Wurtzel's book "Prozac Nation", and it is about depression. Casting is good, including Christina Ricci, Anne Heche, Jason Biggs, Jessica Lang.
Cristina Ricci's acting is wonderful; acting very emotional character. I give her **** out of 4.
The movie is *** out of 4.

Everyone has depression, and I have one once in a while. People should not think everyone has same solution. Sometimes it takes time. Sometimes it needs medication. What causes depression? Many variables. It is chemical balance in your body and brain, so drugs has effects. What you eat has effects. How you sleep and wakes has effects. How you excerise has effects. These are things you can do to control your body and brain. Then ofcause people around you have effects. Weather has effects. And many many things you have little control have effects too.

If you have depression, this movie is one good starting point for cure the depression.

*Trailer
*IMDb
*Based on this book
*Greg's Preview - Yahoo!Movies
*Other's Reviews

Education

You can educate yourself online for free!
These are another great place for you to learn.
FREE is so awesome!

*Connexions - Content - Browse modules by title
"Rice University's course material available for distribution and reuse"

*Barklee Shares.com
"Welcome to the Berklee Shares Web site. Here you will find free music lessons that you can download, share and trade with your friends and fellow musicians."

Public Domain: Creative Commons

This is great introduction to Creative Common.
Watch this Flash Movie!

Flash Movie:
Get Creative
Reticulum Rex

I'm still studying.
But it is exciting!

Public Domain

Wired News: Fencing Off the Public Domain
著作物は誰のため？ 作品の再利用をめぐる米国の現状

These articles are little bit old, but it talks about "copywright".

"Today, corporations receive 95 years of protection, while individuals get protection for their lifetime plus another 70 years."

This means there are a lot of, arts, music, movies, can be used for free. You can even use them in your piece of works, and even sell them.

"The way our culture works is not through inventing something truly new, but by recycling a few themes in ways that are insightful, given changing times and the ways we relate to each other,"

You can find many many Public Domain Materials! Lots of movies!



More about it later.

MOVIES: TEAM AMERICA

TEAM AMERICA(expectation ****)
Looks very funny!

Athens Olympic 2004 - Blogs

This Athens Olympic Games Blog has many information and links about Athens Olympic.

VIDEO: NBCOlympics.com

NBC's Tonight Show

These are U.S. Athletes Videos.
Marion Jones, Allyson Felix, Shawn Crawford, Maurice Greene, in 2004 U.S. TRIALS.
Also videos of Olympic 2000 and 1996 too.
There are also many US Olympian interviewed by Jey Reno. Check this out!

Athen Olympic 2004: Ryoko TANI & Yoshitomo TANI

They are husband and wife, and they both going to the Olympic.
Ryoko TANI (wife) is Olympic judo gold medallist. Yoshitomo TANI is one of the best Japanese baseball player, and going to play for Japan's Olympic Baseball Team. In 2003, he has hitted .350 hitting average with 20 home runs. Impressive! I'm going to cheer for both of them!



LATEST NEWS:
TANI's (JPN) hopes improve

ANOTHER LINKS:
Yawara-chan is one bride with reason to blush
Yoshitomo's Records

Vancouver Watch / Athen Olympic 2004: Jeff Francis

I hope he will be playing in the Olympic game. I am going to check him out.

"He is currently part of the Canadian Olympic Team."

"Yesterday, the 23-year-old Vancouver native was named the top prospect on Baseball America's Prospect Hot Sheet,"

Source: Canada's FRANCIS Tops Prospect List

Picture:
Jeff Francis - No. 3 - Baseball's Best Minor League Players

Planetarium - MEGASTAR-II cosmos

MEGASTAR-II cosmos is maybe the best planetarium in the World, and I can see it in Tokyo. It can projects 5,000,000 stars. Probably I am going to see it soon.

Athen Olympic 2004 Cities

Let's look at how the cities look like.

Thessaloniki



Heraklio


Patras


Sources:http://www.athens2004.com/en/

Athen Olympic 2004 Designs

Let's first examine the design of this year's Olympic.

Medals


Mascots


Poster


Torches and Cauldron and Torchbearer's Uniforms







Videos
Mascots in Action!
Emblem video

Sources: http://www.athens2004.com/en/

AMERICA (1968) -Paul Simon

"Let us be lovers,
We'll marry our fortunes together.
I've got some real estate
Here in my bag."
So we bought a pack of cigarettes,
And Mrs. Wagner's pies,
And walked off
To look for America.
"kathy," I said,
As we boarded a Greyhound in Pittsburgh,
"Michigan seems like a dream to me now.
It took me four days
To hichhike from Saginaw.
I've come to look for America."

Laughing on the bus,
Playing games with the faces,
She said the man in the gabardine suit
Was a spy.
I said, "Be careful,
His bow tie is really a camera."

"Toss me a cigarette,
I think there's one in my raincoat."
"We smoked the last one
An hour ago."
So I looked at the scenery,
She read her magazine;
And the moon rose over an open field.

"Kathy, I'm lost," I said,
Though I knew she was lsleeping,
"I'm empty and aching and
I don't know why."
Counting the cars
On the New Jersey Turnpike.
They've all come
To look for America,
All come to look for America,
All come to look for America.

AMERICA (1968) -Paul Simon

TSUTAYA MUSIC DISCOVERY

Today I rent SIMON & GARFUNKEL's Album called BOOKENDS, because this album cover and a song was on my favourite movie 'Almost Famous'. I love the song 'America' soooo much. And I LOVE the movie very very much. Like someone said, "I want to hug" the movie. Here they are; what I rent today.

SIMON & GARFUNKEL - BOOKENDS
JACK JOHNSON - BRUSHFIRE FAIRY TALES
SMASH MOUTH - FUSH YU MANG
THE WHO - TOMMY
THE FLAMING LIPS - YOSHIMI BATTLES THE PINK ROBOTS
TRAIN - TRAIN
SEAN LENNON - INTO THE SUN
ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN - PORCUPINE
JONI MICHELL - BLUE

Music: Israel Kamakawiwo'ole (Hawaiian Singer)

This Hawaiian singer, died in 1997, is No. 73 on iTunes Music Store. He is so huge. The article says he is 1000 pounds. I'm going to check him out for sure, because this kind of undiscovered great singers are all around the world. Right now, maybe Radiohead and Maroon 5 and Alicia Keys are popular, but unheard singers living right now maybe discovered in the future. I want these songs. Recently, I am listening all the kind of songs, but prefer more and more kinder, quieter, more matured songs. I hope to find more and more like him in the future.

Links:
Wired News: Bruddah Iz Gets Belated Buzz
『iTunesミュージックストア』で脚光を浴びる伝説的ハワイ人歌手
iTMS Link

ATHENS OLYMPIC 2004 -- 12 days to go!

THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF THE OLYMPIC MOVEMENT . Let's get excited. Let's get prepared for the games. 12 days left. I will going to research for Olympic games and players and history, so I will be able to enjoy and get most out of it.

About CD Rental in Japan

TSUTAYA (only in Japanese) is CD/DVD rental shop in Japan (And only country which has CD rental shop). "In Japan CD rental is legal and it is approved by RIAJ. The catch is there is a 6-month waiting period for new CDs. "

I have not realize the greatness of this service until today.
I work in Shinjuku, and there is one of the biggest TSUTAYA shop in Japan, so you can find so many categories of CDs there. I rent 6 CDs for a week, and copies all into my iTunes. It will costs me about $20 in America. Since I came back here 3 years ago, I have not done a lot of copying, since Copying CD is little bit of effort; Copying to a computer, wait few minutes, replace with CD-R, wait few more minutes, label the CD-R with pen (results sometimes not pretty), and how about CD jacket? If you want one, you must first scan, which takes about another few minutes, print, and cutting. This is a lot of work. But since the introduction of iTunes, you can just put a CD in CD tray, hit Import, wait about few minutes, it's done. Find CD jacket from Amazon.com.

Today I am discovering...
STEELY DAN - two against nature
NICKELBACK - SILVER SIDE UP
BECK - SEA CHANGE
STING - BRAND NEW DAY
Simon & Garfunkel - Sound of Silence
SMASH MOUTH - WALKIN' ON THE SUN (single)

Oh, I can't stop doing it!
It is a life in Japanese way!

Another Links:
*About Japanese CD Rental (in Japan)

Feedroom and Reuters TV

Sites like feedroom.com and reuters tv are so important for people like me living in a country where doesn't have English news, or people who are too busy watching TV. I really treasure these sites. I hope there will be more and more streaming videos available.

Japanese Celebrity Blogs

Japanese Celeb Blog

Blog is getting very popular around the world. In Japan, even celebs are doing blogs. Eventhough I'm not really interested in most of them, I add them to my RSS Agregator. What is interesting is that you can search word like "Iraq", and you can find blog entries which talks about Iraq in those celebs. Searching in blogs is, I think, is going to be very popular near future, because people are most interested in what other thinks.

Other links
*Apple's Safari RSS (coming next year)

ANSARI X PRIZE and Planetariums

ANSARI X PRIZE

X PRIZE THING GETTING HEATING UP!

CUMMON CANADA!

I want to see stars from space ship in the future! Imagine... Turn off the light, and in the very dark, you see the uncountable stars in front of you... All I can do right now is to go see stars in planetariums in Japan. I want to go here and here.

Other links
*Scaled Composite's Photo Gallery.
*News 2004/07/28 (Japanese)

MIT OpenCourseWare | OCW Home

MIT OpenCourseWare | OCW Home

FREE ONLINE LEARNING

Fox Searchlab : Farm Sluts

Fox Searchlab : Farm SlutsFarm Sluts

RSS Aggregator I use

RSS Aggregator is a useful program. It is useful because you can read news and blogs without going through all the websites and blogsites. It is like news and posts come to you when it happens. If you read a lot of news and posts on the web, this will be very useful tool for you.

I use SharpReader RSS Aggregator. This is, in my opinion, the best RSS aggregator. I recommend to use this to read RSS News Feeds. I like the popup function. When new items arrive, small popup window shows news title.


Sharp Reader