Posts Tagged ‘japan’
Japan’s Richest Man Unveils Scheme for $26 Billion Renewable Energy Supergrid
Son, who's known in Japan for his ballsy, high-risk ventures--he acquired a floundering mobile network and became the exclusive Japanese carrier for the iPhone and iPad--has already created a foundation for the "supergrid," which he says will eventually cost about $26 billion to create. He's already put about $13 million of his own money into the pot, and is pushing for partners to help create a whopping 1,200-mile-long grid that, he hopes, will deliver 60% of the country's energy needs from renewable sources.
The plan, unveiled Monday, was short on specifics, but would rely on both on- and offshore plants, mostly wind and geothermal energy. "Globally, wind power in particular has very good cost performance," he said at the announcement. The plan would also involve shutting down many of , which he says are a risk due to the country's high likelihood of earthquakes and tsunamis like the one that caused so much havoc .
Son promised that Softbank would chip in as much as $260 million, and is even looking beyond just Japan for this sort of grid--he says it could eventually be expanded to connect to mainland Asia, incorporating grids that cover China, Russia, and even India. According to , with frankly outrageous construction, Japan could achieve something like this, but it would mean constructing thousands of wind turbines and installing solar panels on basically every available surface. Still, there's no better time than now to embark on a massive infrastructure rebuild.
[]
Japanese Domino’s Unveils Elaborate, Carefully Thought-Out Plans to Sling Pizza on the Moon
a guide to the new features of the Domino's on the moon.
So, obvious first questions first, is this actually going to get made? No, because a spokesman for Domino's estimates it'll cost about ¥1.67 trillion--about $21.74 billion--to build, with about $7.3 billion required just to get the materials out to the moon. Of course, Domino's does note that the plan calls for keeping costs down by making concrete out of "mineral deposits on the moon." (Might we suggest using Enrico Dini's ?) Another reason this won't actually get made: the moon has a permanent resident population of zero. A Domino's spokesperson says "we have not yet determined when the restaurant might open," although "never" seems like a pretty fair guess.
But the plans are pretty cool: it would be a two-story dome with a diameter of 26 meters, with a ton of storage space and places to grow pizza-making ingredients with LED lights, since they can't very well plant a garden out back and it'd get awfully expensive to rent a or rocket every time the kitchen needs a new bucket of sauce.
Theoretically, this is just a PR-friendly response to Pizza Hut's 2001 , but the Domino's spokesperson insists the company is actually just thinking ahead. "In the future," he said, "we anticipate there will be many people living on the moon, astronauts who are working there and, in the future, citizens of the moon."
[via ]
Japanese Domino’s Unveils Elaborate, Carefully Thought-Out Plans to Sling Pizza on the Moon
a guide to the new features of the Domino's on the moon.
So, obvious first questions first, is this actually going to get made? No, because a spokesman for Domino's estimates it'll cost about ¥1.67 trillion--about $21.74 billion--to build, with about $7.3 billion required just to get the materials out to the moon. Of course, Domino's does note that the plan calls for keeping costs down by making concrete out of "mineral deposits on the moon." (Might we suggest using Enrico Dini's ?) Another reason this won't actually get made: the moon has a permanent resident population of zero. A Domino's spokesperson says "we have not yet determined when the restaurant might open," although "never" seems like a pretty fair guess.
But the plans are pretty cool: it would be a two-story dome with a diameter of 26 meters, with a ton of storage space and places to grow pizza-making ingredients with LED lights, since they can't very well plant a garden out back and it'd get awfully expensive to rent a or rocket every time the kitchen needs a new bucket of sauce.
Theoretically, this is just a PR-friendly response to Pizza Hut's 2001 , but the Domino's spokesperson insists the company is actually just thinking ahead. "In the future," he said, "we anticipate there will be many people living on the moon, astronauts who are working there and, in the future, citizens of the moon."
[via ]
Japan’s Tsunami Rips Icebergs Double the Size of Manhattan From Antarctica
Icebergs have long been suspected to have a link with seismic activity, but the creation of icebergs is usually a sudden and mostly unpredictable event, the culmination of lots of pressure over decades or centuries. The Tohoku Tsunami, triggered by the earthquake off the coast of Japan this past March, was a tremendous enough seismic event that cryosphere specialists immediately knew that tracking the wave could provide the first visual proof that this connection exists.
Tohoku didn't disappoint. Eighteen hours after the tsunami struck Japan, the wave--now only about a foot high--met the Sulzberger ice shelf, a 260-feet-thick sheet of ice extending from Antarctica's land mass towards New Zealand. The Sulzberger ice shelf is no brittle sheet of ice, either, having not moved in nearly half a century. Despite the relatively short height, the continuous pressure was massive enough to snap off several huge pieces of ice, one of which is about four by six miles in surface area--roughly the same size as the other chunks combined, and close to Manhattan's 23-square-mile surface area.
Using satellite imagery (including some help from MODIS), the scientists were able to see the calving, or breaking off, in nearly real-time. (For a visualization of the worldwide earthquake's effect, .) It's definitive proof that a big enough tsunami can have huge effects, not just on the , but even a hemisphere away.
[]
Video: Japanese Robot Torso Hugs You Back
Meet the Sense-Roid
Created by a student at the aptly named University of Electro-Communications in Japan, the Sense-Roid is essentially a sewer's dress form--a mannequin torso, in other words--that wears a very particular jacket or vest. The user also wears a jacket, and when the two articles of clothing connect, they being to inflate with air and vibrate in ways meant to simulate a real hug.
In fact, the Sense-Roid mimics the pressure from the user's hug, so in a way, hugging it is like hugging yourself. It detects the precise nature of the hug with micro switch sensors, then reciprocates in real-time. There are no known plans to make the Sense-Roid any more than a prototype.
The videos that follow are...weird. They're safe for work, of course, as there's no nudity or foul language or anything like that. But we can't say that the image of somebody forcefully caressing a mannequin torso isn't a little bit disturbing in its own way.
[]
Celebrity Scandal Revealed: Last Week’s Hottest Japanese Pop Star Isn’t a Real Human
So which one is Aimi Eguchi? See if you can pick her out in the ad:
So maybe it’s not so difficult knowing what you know beforehand, since she’s kind of front and center. But you have to admit it’s difficult to tell. The skeptics apparently began to catch on when it turned out her name could be pieced together from the letters of the candy company in the ad, the specific candy being advertised, and the company’s theme song (though that itself requires a mental leap). Further, her bio listed her as a track and field competitor, and the company’s slogan is “Hitotsubu 300 meter” (no idea what that means, but it sounds like track-and-field-ey).
Then there’s the fact that you can piece Aimi’s face together from the faces of the other six girls in the video below. Take a look:
So a candy company made a fake 62nd member for a group already a bit crowded with real talent. That’s not so mind-blowing, particularly in Japan where and robots and have been embraced by audiences. The really interesting questions is: will fans of AKB 48 accept Aimi--even clamor for more of her--knowing that she’s not real? As Peter Murray asks on : is the world ready to embrace celebrity personalities that aren’t persons?
Those that do will have to learn to do without the embarrassing Weinerisms and Sheen-esque meltdowns that make celebrity-following so much fun (unless they are scripted, of course). And those that refuse to accept these kinds of unreal personas? Well, there’s still the other 60-plus members of AKB 48 to obsess over.
[]
Japanese Environment Ministry to Slash Energy With Hawaiian Shirt Initiative Dubbed "Super Cool Biz"
Pioneered by Masahiro Sato, the Environment Ministry's Super Cool Biz actually incorporates a few different tactics to lower energy consumption. Lights are dimmed if used at all, half of the elevators have been shut down, and instead of pumping notoriously energy-hungry air conditioning throughout the building, Super Cool Biz mandates open windows and an internal temperature kept at a balmy 82 degrees.
Of course, 82 degrees is pretty toasty, and so Super Cool Biz allows for a much looser set of dress guidelines for the employees following it. Polo shirts, Crocs, and Hawaiian shirts apparently make up the majority of the employees' outfits, which coincidentally would allow them to easily blend in at Disney World or any of the American east coast's more tourist-clogged beaches.
It sounds like a bit of an uphill battle for much of the country; interviewed a few other Japanese people about the prospect of wearing a pink-flamingo-emblazoned Hawaiian shirt at work and found some stiff opposition. One man was "horrified" (though through his horror he managed to "flash the label of his fancy Italian suit"), one claimed excess energy use is "propaganda" (?), and another noted that customers might not trust someone wearing such clothing. (We should add that we're no better over here; remember the ) But Masahiro Sato expects Super Cool Biz to lower his office's energy consumption by around 10 percent this year, which is nothing to scoff at. Maybe they could take a look at some of these , as well?
[]