Citadel of the Blogs The Inbox of the Internet (really)

For a refreshing look at <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3644990.stm">Al-Qaeda "three years later"</a>, check out this article. Unlike the torrent of news and abuse coming out of America's presidential spin-machine ("two-thirds of Al-Qaeda has been killed or captured"), this is a sober review of current world trends regarding the new, younger generation of militants that may only have tenuous - if any - links to the al-Qaeda core.

Can you say, <em>maelstrom</em>? I know you can.

Contradictions abound in Japan. For one, Japan is the micro-technology center of the world, at least when it comes to cell phones. It is simply impossible to purchase a cellular phone today without Japanese technology on the inside.

Such phones are all the rage in Japan. They are everywhere, of course, but more so here. And what is so contradictory about seeing nine year olds to eighty-nine years olds carting their precious <em>keitai</em> (lit. "mobile"), from teens on the subway, to businessmen in alleyways chatting on these ultraslim phones? For a country that prides itself on spearheading the micro-cellular world, this has got to be the least verbally communicative country in the world. Japan is renowned for its <em>unspoken</em> rules and communication. So I get a kick out of its cell phone bandwagon. It is just more <em>visually pronounced</em> here.

A rising problem involves telephone dating service abuses. Using e-mail and message boards, lots of young people are arranging to meet young folks over the phone. In a sad story a few years back, a young British girl working in a Tokyo hostess bar when she disappeared after telling a friend she was going for a drive to the ocean with a client. But no one knew exactly where she had gone — or with whom. Her <strong>dismembered</strong> body was found in a beachside cave in Misaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Feb. 9, 2001.

In this case, she didn't meet the man over the phone; she met him, presumably, in her bar. But here on the island where I live, other young women have died (though not dismembered) directly due to message boards available via one's telephone.

The British girl's father, Time Blackman, has recently started a service called SafetyText that he wish had been in place when his daughter was alive.

From the <a href="http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20040910f1.htm">article on Japan Times:</a>

<em>He reckoned that while young people are often reluctant to tell their parents who they are meeting, they may want someone to know some details in case something goes wrong and they don't return.

Their efforts resulted in the recent creation of SafetyText, which uses the Short Message Service facility on cell phones. Users send a message to SafetyText's main number, 63344, giving details of their meeting.

Once the user arrives home or at their destination, they then cancel the message so that no one receives it, thereby protecting their privacy.

However, should something untoward happen and they fail to cancel the alert, then the message is sent to the user's chosen buddy — usually a family member or close friend — at a time set in advance by the user.</em>

Went to the most popular zoo in Japan yesterday, Asahiyama Zoo in Asahikawa, center most city of the island we live on. Of course we went there mainly for Davy but I am glad to have gone as well. The zoo's design is original and is likely the future of zoo designs everywhere: the idea is to get the viewer (you and I) out of the traditional box of viewing and into the realm of the animals instead. So instead of just standing in front of cage bars, we can watch a polar bear swim in front of our eyes.

<img src="http://www.gravesnet.com/drop/IMG_0608.jpg" width="300" >

It was incredible–s/he was right in front of the window. That is one big animal.

<img src="http://www.gravesnet.com/drop/IMG_0611.jpg" width="300" >

The zoo uses Plexiglas "bubble windows" where you can "pop your head up" into the surrounding bear's environment. Basically, it is just a window in a novel position. But because it is rounded you really feel like a groundhog poking its head up out from the ground–only to bury it down again after gazing at the size of the polar bear!

To get an idea of some of the other novel ways this zoo presents animals, check out their "seal aquarium":

<img src="http://www.kkryoko.co.jp/english/products/aquarium/imege/asahiI01.jpg" width="300" >

<img src="http://www.kkryoko.co.jp/english/products/aquarium/imege/asahiI02.jpg" width="300" >

Really, it was a fantastic zoo: tigers lying <em>above</em> you on cages very close to your face:

<img src="http://www.zoo-net.org/info/trip/japan/asahiyama/reopard2.jpg" width="300" >
Save view from a different angle (you can see the cage above the man):
<img src="http://www.zoo-net.org/info/trip/japan/asahiyama/reopard3.jpg" width="300" >

Also check out the penguin tunnel you can walk through and witness penguins swim over you<a href="http://homepage.mac.com/ijunji/B-CubicVR/2003/penguin-zoo.html"> (the link is a 360-degree picture you can "drag" around to get an idea)</a>.

Here are a few highlights of the trip.
<img src="http://www.gravesnet.com/drop/IMG_0657.jpg" width="300" >
<img src="http://www.gravesnet.com/drop/IMG_0675.jpg" width="300" >
<img src="http://www.gravesnet.com/drop/IMG_0700.jpg" width="300" >

This one is just to show how the Asian idea turns the traditional "pirate boat" on its head here.

<img src="http://www.gravesnet.com/drop/IMG_0715.jpg" width="300" >

In case you don't already know it is a dragon boat!

And this final shot is just my artistic take on the day.

<img src="http://www.gravesnet.com/drop/IMG_0713.jpg" width="300" >

It was a good moment, that.

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Frances pounds the southeastern US coast. Love this shot:

<img src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40031000/jpg/_40031034_drivingnorth_ap220.jpg">

Traffic moving north prior to the storm in order to avoid the onslaught of wind and furious rain.

Study this, for it is a lesson in poor urban design. Love our crisis management!

So I recently posted a link to <a href="http://www.bugmenot.com/">Bug Me Not</a>, a site that will provide you with logins and passwords for many websites requiring useless registration to enter. "Useless" is of course subjective but so is "kiss my ass", eh.

Anyway, I had read their <a href="http://www.bugmenot.com/faq.php">FAQ</a> (which I recommend; "Q: Is it ethically justifiable to do this? A: You'll have to find your own way there my friend.") and I just read their terms of use (which I don't recommend). But this–this was unanticipated: they now have a <a href="http://www.bugmenot.com/register.php">registration page for people who require registration</a>!

The page begins with this preamble:

"If you are an employee, partner, affiliate or legal representative of <em>any site which enforces compulsory user registration</em> then we require you to complete our registration process. It costs nothing to register and will only take a moment."

Question gems include the following:

<em>Do you completely trust your personal information to all these sites?

Do you consider privacy a commodity?
If so, what worth (in US dollars) would you place on your own privacy

Explain how we can verify the information you enter in this form is correct

How many sexual partners have you had in your life

How many times per week do you masturbate

List the email addresses of three of your friends or family members most likely to buy Viagra over the internet:</em>

The page concludes with this request:

"Time to fight fire with fire- if you run a website then please consider placing the following snippet in your Terms Of Use:

<em>Any subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, agents, or employees of any site employing compulsory user registration mechanisms are not authorized to access the content or services of this site.</em>

Pass it on."

Now if that ain't part genius, I don't know what is.