Bad Etiquette in Japan

I guess it has ceased to surprise me that I see the same disturbing things in Japan, that I'd view as normal in other countries.
Shown here: A man filing his nails on the subway platform, allowing the nail dust to float into the air and into all's lungs.

Can somebody get Child Services on the phone?

Saturday night at Midas, a hiphop club in Roppongi (a party area in Tokyo). Besides the regular crowd of suspicious looking individuals, who do we see on the dance floor? A kid, probably 8 years old, dancing with his (I'm guessing) father! Kid's dressed up just like Daddy, with an over-size jersey and a sideways hat. Sure, just bring the kid for show-and-tell, or as cute bait for women...

Anyways, he's showing Daddy his dance moves 1-on-1, but after awhile gets tired and sits on the stage. Does Daddy take him home? No, of course not. He instead coaxes him off of the stage back into some more sets of Who Wants to be an Elementary Drop Out by going to Midas until 2AM on a Saturday night.

"This is Tokyo"

Annoying Travelers

Location: Limousine Bus, on way from Narita Airport into Tokyo.
Situation: Guy talking on cellphone in the bus, although no cell phones are allowed (clearly noted on the walls and announced with a multilingual recording.)

This was a bilingual Chinese guy who was apparently bringing a few friends or clients from the airport. They were laughing it up in (no offense) typical mainland Chinese levels of loudness in the bus, while everyone else is trying to sleep. This guy obviously knows the local culture (even if he doesn't "abide" by it), with respect to the general consideration given in public places to surrounding people, as far as noise goes. However, he talks on the cellphone while in the bus! One phone call's OK, if you keep it down... but multiple? I don't think so.

He did start to get up and go to the back of the bus for his last few calls and attempt to be quiet, but it's still audible, and quite annoying. Respect the rules! Embarassing to be Chinese...

Chinese restaurant without Chinese...

Japan is quite annoying in the way that no one speaks English. That might be...expected, but if you go to a well-known Chinese restaurant, based in Hong Kong, you would also expect that they would have somebody who actually spoke Cantonese or Mandarin.

Sweet Dynasty in Aoyama is such an example. It's been so long since I've had decent Cantonese food that I thought I'd try to ask them what else they served besides dessert. Unfortunately, they were so frightened when asked if they spoke English or Chinese. The reply was, "No, sorry we don't speak English or Chinese". What?...

Summary video of the (over) ambitious goals of Obama

Indecision	An Indecision Exclusive!
JibJab - Obama to the Rescue
http://www.indecisionforever.com/
Funny Political Video Political Games Joe Biden Jokes

In honor of Tiananmen, June 4th, 1989

In honor of the fallen, the jailed, and the forever-traumatized at the oppression by its own government, I'm posting just 2 photos of a DVD documentary on Chinese History I watched ("China, A Century of Revolution. The Definitive Six-Hour History of China”).
I wonder if this innocuous posting will be one of the 100's of 1000's which Beijing is currently blocking from its citizens?

A "Cool" idea that just wasn't...

As I ran out of contact lens solution late one evening in Tokyo, I was forced to settle for what the local Konbini (Convenience store) had. They actually carried a well-regarded lens care brand, "Rohto". I'd used their eye drops for a few years while I was in Hong Kong.

However, the only type of lens solution they had was called "Soft one Cool". I knew it was probably different than regular solution, but had no choice. After soaking the lenses for the night, putting them in my eyes was anything but Cool. It BURNED!!! Maybe my eyes weren't used to this sensation, but I'm a bit too paranoid to leave them in my eyes for a few minutes to "see how it goes". Therefore, I just wore glasses the whole day and bought my normal Renu/ Optifree solution later.

Motanaiyi!!
Here it is for sale online.

Dubai Signage

Here we have two non-PC signs in Dubai:


All I have to say is that this was taken in Dubai...

YouTube (STILL) has no business model

Two years and $1.65 Bn later (not including operating expenses for the last 2 years), YouTube and daddy Google still have not figured it out yet.

Spain's Basketball team of Bigots

I guess it's not all that surprising to read that the Spain's entire olympic basketball team posed for a photo while posing as Chinese, stretching their eyes to look "Chinky". What can you expect from a bunch of jocks? I'm glad it wasn't the US team, although this reminds me of how Shaq made "ching-chong" sounds when talking to Yao Ming years ago. But still, they are at the largest sporting event in the world, so they should have some sensibility. By the way, the Spanish women's bball team posed for a similar photo.

The Proof is in the Pudding: Google's YouTube ad revenue short of expectations

Google's $1.65 Billion-Dollar-Baby, named "YouTube", just disappointed investors with an unexpected revenue shortfall. They did bring in $200 Million in sales, but this was less than expected. Have they even earned a single cent for Google since the acquisition in October 2006? Who knows... doubtful, when you have a business model that's predicated on illegally-obtained web traffic. They themselves recently decided not to place ads within the videos of copyright-violating videos (that means that they are aware of and know exactly where copyright-violating videos are). This however does not mean that they will not sell site ads which run while illegal videos run on the site.

Nugget: Google's stock closed at 429 on 10/9/06, the day of the announcement, and now trades at about 540. 14% annualized return, which isn't bad given Nasdaq fell about 2% during the same period. But who knows what it would've been without having ingested that fat, illegal, baby.

Burn.

Another small win against copyright infringer YouTube

Another small victory in the fight against behemoth online video host YouTube, as the Law has ruled in favor of plaintiff Viacom (the lawsuit was combined with a similar case filed by a British soccer league and other parties) that parent company Google provide the data which will show whether YouTube viewers are viewing IP-protected videos disproportionately more than other videos. Viacom is seeking over $1 Billion in damages. This ruling will give Viacom full access to YouTube's non-personally identifiable viewer histories.

Fight the Power!

The Slimiest Creatures on Earth

This evening I found that I'd been walking around with a large, curved knife in my back for the last 12 hours. Who stabbed me? Oh, it was HR of course. Human Resources prides itself on pretending to be everyone's friend, but actually conspiring to shortchange you of what you deserve - your raise, your bonus, your health benefits. I was put in a difficult position recently, where I had to trust HR with critical information - against my instincts. Well, today I found out that this person did exactly what they promised not to. She explicitly said, "I will definitely not do xyz". Within one week mind you!

F*CK YOU HR - choke on pay stubs and burn in C&B hell.

(But please give me a raise and a big bonus, thanks.)

YouTube continues its folly in non-management of content

Apparently, YouTube serves as a great distribution channel for not just pirated content but also terrorist propaganda. Joe Lieberman on Monday asked YouTube to remove "video content produced by terrorist organizations that showed assasinations, deaths of U.S. soldiers and civilians, weapons training, "incendiary" speeches and other material intended to 'encourage violence against the West.'"

However, YouTube (in Google-like fashion) simply refused the request (see this PCWorld article). Instead, it seems to use an ad-hoc type of content monitoring, which leaves much IP and terrorist material online for all the world to see. And how do you prevent a minor from viewing terrorist material on YouTube's site? Oh, you can't. Even if they label it mature material, the minor can go through the motions and agree that they are over 18.

Excerpt from the PCWorld article:
Mark Hopkins, a blogger for Mashable, noted that YouTube has been "capricious and arbitrary" in deciding what content promotes hate speech or violence and should be removed. For example, he pointed out that YouTube took down a video showing victims of a Muslim terrorist attack, but allowed videos of homeless people who were paid to beat each other. A video of clothed females in Hong Kong with derogatory music towards women being played in the background was removed, while a video of a strip tease with nudity was allowed to remain on the site, he noted.

Good job YouTube, you continue to provide the masses with bootleg movies, tv shows, and terrorist-sponsored material, with no proper business model or profits. Kudos.

Where's the Coke?

Location: Wellcome Supermarket, Happy Valley, Hong Kong
Issue: Abnormally low levels of Coke in sealed bottles. It's about 2-3 inches from the top, vs. the normal 1.... Not to worry, it's probably just due to lack of QC at the Chinese factory it was bottled in.

Curry Ching Chong

In a recent visit to Las Vegas, I encountered a situation so uniquely racist yet amusing that I had to note it here. In the Caesar's mall, I inadvertently walked into a large group's photo, and immediately said, "Sorry".

I was quickly met with a snide, "Ching Chong". Ahhh, the classic "Ching Chong". I thought only caucasion or african american's said that. However, I was quite surprised that this came from the lips of an Indian!

I turned around and said, "WHAT?" One apologized, but another jokingly said, "Well, we're all Terrorists anyways".

They all laughed.

I let out an awkward laugh as well, as I had been responded to in such a surprisingly perverse manner, I had no other out. After the fact, I wondered if I had let them off too easily. It's a sad day when fellow asian minorities degrade each other with terms created by non-asians.

Alternative Views - The Don Imus firing shows Asian Americans' lack political clout

Don Imus was fired today over his racist remarks of the Rutgers womens bball team. I just want to note that this would have never happened if he'd made the remarks about Asians. Just look at the two New Jersey radio broadcasters, "Jersey Guys". Jersey Guys had an entire song dedicated to mocking a Korean mayoral candidate (Jun Choi) in 2005. (betraying their uneducated backgrounds, they used a Chinese accent to do this). They apologized, and lost some advertisers, but ultimately did not get suspended or fired. People did sign petitions at the time to request their resignations, but Asians just don't have the high profile activists like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson (who asked for Don Imus' resignation).

Sidenote:
Go here to read about the original Jersey Guys incident. Here are some choice quotes from the show:
“No specific minority group or foreign group should ever dictate the outcome of an American election. I don’t care if the Chinese population in Edison has quadrupled in the last year, Chinese should never dictate the outcome of an election, Americans should.”

Carton went on to call APAs “fringe people,” “Orientals” and illustrated his point of view by saying, “Ching, chong, ching, chong, ching, chong” in a stereotypical, high-pitched voice.

Viacom "takes it up a notch" against the devil YouTube

Viacom formalized its complaints against YouTube/Google by filing a $1 billion lawsuit. I particularly like this statement by Viacom, which echo's what I've been saying since Day 1 of the Google acquisition.

"Their business model, which is based on building traffic and selling advertising off of unlicensed content, is clearly illegal and is in obvious conflict with copyright laws."

On the flipside, in the same BBC article, it notes that they've done a legit deal with YouTube, which could be evidence of some potential for business dealings... (but it's really just a sign that the BBC has no backbone)

Separately, the BBC has struck a content deal with YouTube to showcase short clips of BBC content.
The BBC hopes that the deal will help it reach YouTube's monthly audience of more than 70 million users and drive extra traffic to its own website.
The corporation will also get a share of the advertising revenue generated by traffic to the new YouTube channels.

Further evidence that YouTube will fail

March 1's Financial Times ran an article titled, "Viacom hails fight against YouTube". This excerpt says it all:
"Viacom said on Thursday that traffic to its MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon websites rose sharply over the past month, validating its decision to force YouTube, the video sharing site bought by Google, to remove all Viacom video clips."

This supports what I've been saying since the announced Google acquisition - that YouTube's business model is flawed, and has no real value after video content with copyright protection is removed.

Burn baby burn.

No credit for Hong Kong directors

It's just great that Hollywood buys the rights to a Hong Kong movie (Infernal Affairs), copies the whole thing, and Martin Scorcese actually wins an Oscar for his "directing". Come on... the article doesn't even mention the fact that this was "based" on a HONG KONG movie.

It's just typical that during the Oscars someone referenced The Departed as being based on a JAPANESE film.

The Depa'ted (Bawston accent) was OK, but Infernal was much betta'. The Depa'ted was fun ta' watch cuz of all the townie accents from Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg. DiCaprio couldn't keep his accent during all scenes, and neither could his girlfriend in the movie.

Where I did find the word Hong Kong mentioned, it was kind of annoying and almost offensive:
The screenwriter for The Departed, named William Monahan, claims he never watched Infernal Affairs. In an interview:
"How did you end up turning the Hong Kong action thriller Infernal Affairs into The Departed? "
Response: "Brad Pitt's production company owned the remake rights, and I had a meeting with him. I said I would do it if I could set it in Boston. I made a point of not watching the original movie. Culturally, the films couldn't be more different. You couldn't do some of the stuff in a land where they have the Bill of Rights."
Anyone care to comment on this statement? Hong Kong has no rights at all, it's just like China right? NOT.

After I wrote this, I found this article which makes reference to some of what I'm feeling (but does it in a less biased way), - how the glory of a Hong Kong film was stolen and rebranded a Hollywood sensation with the namebrand cast and director to boot.