April 24, 2010 archive

Open Thread

STRANGE DAYS

The 70-year-old president of the metalworking company that built the roof of the Fukuoka Dome was found murdered in a container in his firm’s stockyard.

Police across the country are stymied by the growing number of incidents involving sewing needles found in food products. Reports have come in from Kitakyushu (cabbage), Kochi (bread), and Ibaraki (dorayaki).

The National Consumer Affairs Center of Japan says that it has seen a two-fold rise in the number of scams involving unlisted stocks during the past year.

The Central Disaster Management Council said that rising sea levels caused by global warming might lead to an additional 7,600 deaths in Tokyo in the event of a tsunami caused by a strong typhoon.

A scientist at the Tokyo-based Institute for Industrial Science has developed a unit of measurement called the water footprint, or WF, which takes into account how much H2O is used to produce everyday items like beer, cellphones and bicycles. The International Organization for Standardization is said to have “begun to work on the establishment of international standards for WF calculations.”

Sentence of the Week: “Ten countries, including eight in Africa, do not have embassies in Japan and have their embassies in China take charge of diplomatic operations involving Japan, a trend that likely reflects China’s increasing, and Japan’s dwindling, global presence, an upper house committee meeting revealed Thursday.” (via Kyodo)

1. The combined global land and ocean average surface temperature for March 2010 was the warmest on record at 13.5°C (56.3°F), which is 0.77°C (1.39°F) above the 20th century average of 12.7°C (54.9°F).
   
   
   
   This was also the 34th consecutive March with global land and ocean temperatures above the 20th century average.
2. The March worldwide land surface temperature was 1.36°C (2.45°F) above the 20th century average of 5.0°C (40.8°F) – the fourth warmest on record.
3. The worldwide ocean surface temperature was 0.56°C (1.01°F) above the 20th century average of 15.9°C (60.7°F) and the warmest March on record.
4. For the year-to-date, the global combined land and ocean surface temperature of 13.0°C (55.3°F) was the fourth warmest January-March period. This value is 0.66°C (1.19°F) above the 20th century average.

No, seriously!  He’s campaigning on that catchy slogan in Idaho.

Harley Brown eagerly wants to level a continent (the terrorist continent), without so much as breaking a sweat.

Trident…when you care enough to send the very best!

Harley Brown’s frisky desire to go beyond assorted pales, verges, and brinks,

The difficult we do immediately.  The impossible may take longer.

is reminiscent of Henry Kissinger, with less originality and wit, a cynicism apparently more appropriate for an audience of Idaho voters than the New York Times.

Now, because I haven’t given a fair sketch of this “real man for Congress,” you’ll have to hazard a guess about his views on immigration and Obama’s birth certificate.

Then again, once you’ve leveled a continent, what’s left to marvel at?

Via Charlie Davis.

This week’s selection first appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 charts in 1965, rising to a #3 ranking, and remains one of the most widely recognized songs by one of the most successful groups in history.  Many cover versions have been recorded, including a 1985 release that also reached the #3 ranking on the Billboard Hot 100. This song appears on The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll list, and in 2004 was ranked at #71 on Rolling Stone’s list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.  

This week’s selection also had international appeal, rising to the following rankings in other countries:  Canada – #2 in RPMs national chart; Rhodesia – #2; Sweden – #6; Australia – #8, and #1 in South Africa, remaining in the top slot for six weeks.  This song has reportedly received between four and five million radio plays in the United States alone, making it this group’s most lucrative source of royalties.

This song has been prominently referenced by other artists on multiple occasions. Most notably, the Beatles’ “Back in the U.S.S.R.” is considered an homage to the song.  This week’s selection is also included in the soundtracks of the 1985 James Bond movie, “A View to Kill”, and at the beginning of “Rush Hour 2”, during which Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker sing along with the song which is playing on the radio at the time.  This song also appears twice during “Rush Hour 3”, first as a ringtone, and later on a French singer performs the song.  In “Saved by the Bell”, Principal Belding tells Zack that this song is his all-time favorite and walks off the screen, humming the song.