Tag Archive: Japan


It’s official: Japan is WEIRD AS FUCK.

Tokyo’s ‘oldest man’ had been dead for 30 years

He was thought to be the oldest man in Tokyo – but when officials went to congratulate Sogen Kato on his 111th birthday, they uncovered mummified skeletal remains lying in his bed.

Mr Kato may have been dead for 30 years according to Japanese authorities.

They grew suspicious when they went to honour Mr Kato at his address in Adachi ward, but his granddaughter told them he “doesn’t want to see anybody”.

Police are now investigating the family on possible fraud charges.

‘Living Buddha’

Welfare officials had tried to meet Mr Kato since early this year. But when they went to visit, family members repeatedly chased them away, according to Tomoko Iwamatsu, an Adachi ward official.

Authorities grew suspicious and sought an investigation by police, who forced their way into the house on Wednesday.

They discovered a mummified body, believed to be Kato, lying in his bed, wearing underwear and pyjamas, covered with a blanket.

Mr Kato’s relatives told police that he had “confined himself in his room more than 30 years ago and became a living Buddha,” according to a report by Jiji Press.

But the family had received 9.5 million yen ($109,000: £70,000) in widower’s pension payments via Mr Kato’s bank account since his wife died six years ago, and some of the money had recently been withdrawn.

The pension fund had long been unable to contact Mr Kato.

“His family must have known he has been dead all these years and acted as if nothing happened. It’s so eerie,” said Yutaka Muroi, a Tokyo metropolitan welfare official.

Original article here. And also, double ewe tea eff?

Cosmos

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An all girl Japanese synth trio? SIGN ME UP.

Photospeak

I don’t have an iPhone. I’m such a luddite. Today one my clients informed me of Photospeak which will take a photo of a face and then animate it according to an audio track. Then it uploads the video to Youtube. What the fuck. The Japanese are crazy.

Here’s a few of the weirdest ones I found.

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This is the first thing I’ve encountered that’s made me wish I had an iPhone. I have about 11 million ideas for this.

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Hahah! Excited to see you next weekend, Cha Cha!

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Gardner has been flying all over the world making quirky travel videos for the web. His most recent effort comes to the same conclusion I’ve made here on The Black Laser: JAPAN IS THE FUTURE.

Watch the video. It will make you laugh and possibly cry. I did a little of both.

One criticism though, Gardner, if you can afford to fly to Japan and make videos of it, and, indeed, intend to continue this series of short films, then surely you can afford a 150 dollar USB audio interface and a microphone for your computer? Make it happen. The record quality of your VO is atrocious. You’ve got Soundtrack on your computer. Use it. I love you.

…here’s a cool ass video. He’s applying electricity to his friends’s faces.

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Scientists extract images directly from brain

Researchers from Japan’s ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories have developed new brain analysis technology that can reconstruct the images inside a person’s mind and display them on a computer monitor, it was announced on December 11. According to the researchers, further development of the technology may soon make it possible to view other people’s dreams while they sleep.

The scientists were able to reconstruct various images viewed by a person by analyzing changes in their cerebral blood flow. Using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine, the researchers first mapped the blood flow changes that occurred in the cerebral visual cortex as subjects viewed various images held in front of their eyes. Subjects were shown 400 random 10 x 10 pixel black-and-white images for a period of 12 seconds each. While the fMRI machine monitored the changes in brain activity, a computer crunched the data and learned to associate the various changes in brain activity with the different image designs.

Then, when the test subjects were shown a completely new set of images, such as the letters N-E-U-R-O-N, the system was able to reconstruct and display what the test subjects were viewing based solely on their brain activity.

Seriously? That SHIT IS AWESOME. Computers used to read the visual data people’s eyes send to their brains? WHAT THE FUCK?!? Who told Japan that they could live inside a SF book? Do I actually need to say anything else? The answer is No.