Japan to abolish rules that still require submission of floppy disks: digital minister
The move, announced at a news conference following a Cabinet meeting the same day, is part of a government drive to update older technologies, led by Japan’s Digital Agency. The minister had pledged to abolish the use of “analog” technologies including floppy disks in administrative procedures soon after assuming his position in August 2022. The issue has gained attention overseas, with Britain’s BBC reporting, “Japan is notorious for clinging to outmoded technology through its office culture.”
Whistleblower alleges Japan city lowered exam scores of aspiring female employees
According to sources close to the matter, the report alleges that in some recruitment exams conducted around 2013-2014, there was manipulation to lower the scores of female applicants and those residing outside the city. The local government has set up an investigative committee to probe the report.
Multiple city employees were apparently involved in the manipulation. A senior city official identified as one of the employees involved told the Mainichi Shimbun, “I cannot comment from my position. It happened 10 years ago, and my memory is fading.”
The report also accuses then Gamagori Mayor Shokichi Inaba of instructing officials to prioritize hiring local men, due to concerns about vacancies arising from female employees taking maternity leave. In response, Inaba told the Mainichi, “The city can’t really afford to hire many workers, and it becomes an issue when there are staff vacancies. During disasters, we need staff who can assemble immediately, and I believe officials had a desire to hire such individuals. However, exams must always be fair.”
Four US instructors stabbed in northeast China, apparently in random attack
Four American instructors from a small Iowa university were wounded in a stabbing attack in a public park in northeast China’s Jilin province on Monday, prompting an investigation into the attacker’s motive, Chinese officials said.
The alleged assaults occurred shortly before noon on Monday at a park in Jilin City, police said. A 55-year-old local man, identified only by his surname Cui, was detained the same day.
“Cui collided into a foreigner while walking in Beishan Park, and then stabbed the foreigner and three fellow foreigners with a knife, as well as a Chinese tourist who tried to stop him,” Jilin City police said on social media, adding the victims’ injuries were not life-threatening.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Lin Jian, said on Tuesday that police believed it was a random attack but authorities were still investigating.
“All the injured individuals were immediately taken to the hospital and were given appropriate critical care,” Lin said.
Within hours of the attack on Matthias Ecke – before the police had even identified any suspects – the entire German political establishment felt confident in blaming the incident on ‘the right,’ while Die Zeit as late as this morning claimed that Sulaiman’s motives were “unknown” and that police were still investigating the possible “political background” of his attack.
As events were still unfolding yesterday, German Police Union Chairman Rainer Wendt gave an interview to Welt, in which he characterised the assault as a “clash” between “extremists” and appeared to blame the attack on Stürzenberger’s anti-Islamic views
What are the real world consequences? For one thing, it means we should be a lot more worried about losing a potential conflict between the west and the Iran/China/Russia axis. If we look at the graphs on this page, the west does much better on GDP, somewhat better on PPP, and then about even on manufacturing output. If PPP underadjusts, then the last graph is probably the most correct one – it probably wouldn’t be affected by cost of labour adjustments, and it’s what we would expect the underlying “true measure” to look like if it’s a further directional adjustment from PPP in the GDP→PPP direction.
(Note that this is just in terms of manufacturing – if there’s ever a military conflict, we have to worry about whether China does a better job recruiting talented people to military roles. The US military is a somewhat more prestigious career than other government jobs, so it’s not as certain, but it is a concern.)
How exam scandals threaten the future of India’s young people
India’s examination system is in chaos. To be sure, cheating and paper leaks have long plagued exams. But now, major exams managed by the state-run National Testing Agency (NTA), including those taken by Kavya and Archit, appear compromised. In the past month, alleged paper leaks and manipulated marks in these exams have put the futures of 3.5 million aspirants at risk. Last week, three other public exams conducted by the government were either cancelled or postponed, affecting another 1.3 million candidates.
“Things have gotten worse. There’s a mafia-like nexus of teachers, touts and people who run exam centres which is creating this situation,” says Maheshwer Peri, an educationist who has been tracking paper leaks.
Sajjan instructed special forces to rescue Afghan Sikhs during fall of Kabul
Then-defence minister Harjit Sajjan instructed Canadian special forces to rescue about 225 Afghan Sikhs after the Taliban takeover in August, 2021, in an operation that three military sources say took resources away from getting Canadian citizens and Afghans linked to Canada on final evacuation flights out of Kabul.
Mr. Sajjan also relayed location information and other details about the Sikhs to the military as special operation forces worked to meet up with the group. The information was passed to him from a Canadian Sikh group that was in contact with these Afghan Sikhs.
Military sources who were in Ottawa and on the ground in Kabul painted a picture of the final chaotic, dangerous and desperate hours as evacuation flights were ending and Canada and other Western countries scrambled to get their citizens safely out of Afghanistan by the U.S. withdrawal deadline at the end of August.
The sources said Afghan Sikhs were not considered an operational priority for the Canadian military as they had no link to Canada. Mr. Sajjan’s intervention, the sources say, impacted the rescue of Canadians and other Afghans on Canada’s priority list.
Hedy Lamarr (/ˈhɛdi/; born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler; November 9, 1914 – January 19, 2000) was an Austrian-born American actress and inventor. After a brief early film career in Czechoslovakia, including the controversial erotic romantic drama Ecstasy (1933), she fled from her first husband, Friedrich Mandl, and secretly moved to Paris. Traveling to London, she met Louis B. Mayer, who offered her a film contract in Hollywood. Lamarr became a film star with her performance in the romantic drama Algiers (1938). She achieved further success with the Western Boom Town (1940) and the drama White Cargo (1942). Lamarr’s most successful film was the religious epic Samson and Delilah (1949). She also acted on television before the release of her final film in 1958. She was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.
At the beginning of World War II, along with George Antheil, Lamarr co-invented a radio guidance system for Allied torpedoes that used spread spectrum and frequency hopping technology to defeat the threat of radio jamming by the Axis powers. However, the technology was never adopted.
Some time ago I published a post on the truth behind mysterious disappearances.
I mentioned that some disappearances in the Victorian high country really did seem suspicious, as opposed to many other disappearances better explained by hypothermia or mental breaks.
One of those mysteries in the high country is now solved, and it was suspicious:
I was once on a solo motorbike camping tour but checked into a cheap youth hostel because I was soaked through with rain and needed to warm up properly.
The next morning I went to the toilet and was horrified to discover that, quite painlessly, all my intestines had come out.
Then I remembered I’d finished off two large, red dragonfruit before I left. They have an effect like beetroot if you eat a lot.
Which takes us to:
THEY ARE USING LAB-GROWN HUMAN BRAINS CALLED “ORGANOIDS” TO RUN COMPUTERS
Researchers do this by training the organoids through a reward system. The organoids are rewarded with dopamine, the neurotransmitter responsible for pleasure (and addiction).
Meanwhile, as “punishment,” the organoids are exposed to chaotic stimuli, such as irregular electrical activity.
You should know to check for yourselves, but let me point that the article is from ZeroHedge.
That’s it.
On Wednesday there will be an article on Japanese idol groups that will conclude by explaining the meaning of life.
SovietMen 