Mid-October Already...

OK, only five blogposts in the last month and a half. I know, pathetic. Meh. Things are still mega-busy, so I'll be back among the bloggeratti one of these weeks, just not right now.

Items:

• Japanese legislator busted for too much Wikipedia editing: A Japanese bureaucrat has been reprimanded for shirking his duties to make hundreds of Wikipedia contributions about toy robots, officials said Friday. The agriculture ministry said the bureaucrat, whose name was not released, contributed 260 times to the Japanese-language Wikipedia entry on Gundam, a popular, long-running animated series about giant robots that has spun off intricate toys popular among children and adults who belong to the so-called "otaku culture" of fascination with comic books, animation and robots. "The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam," ministry official Tsutomu Shimomura said.
• Via 43 Folders, 41 Reasons Why Your Blog Probably Sucks. Number 13 (I know, I know): Not posting regularly. There are two primary reasons that not posting regularly is "bad". One is that readers lose patience when they don't your schedule. (Not everyone uses an RSS reader.) The other reason is that search engine spiders often index your pages on a frequency proportional to your posting. The more you post, the more frequently you might get indexed, thus increasing the chances of search engine traffic. (Note that in some niches such as politics, you need to post 10-20 times per day to get noticed.) At the least, if you can't post regularly, have a consistent schedule that's obvious to your most loyal readers.
• I've watched several films over the past few weeks. Two great thrillers from the 1970s: The Day of the Jackal and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three; A couple of Robert Altman's lesser known films, O.C. & Stiggs and Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or, Sitting Bull's History Lesson; and two very "different" films (I like 'em when they're different) -- Shortbus and Cube. More on these later
• I also read a book by a guy named Ian Ayres that I have to recommend for all you numbery people -- Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-by-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart. Lots of good stuff in here on statistics, data gathering, and practical applications of the analyses presented so as to be understood by the interested amateur.

Sudoku Godfather

From the Japan Times -- Sudoku Godfather Wants to Puzzle More:

"I want to seek out puzzle fans around the world and bring Nikoli puzzles to them," said Maki Kaji, president of Tokyo-based Nikoli Co.

Nikoli introduced sudoku to the world as an advanced version of the game that was invented by American Howard Garns and first published in the United States under the name Number Place in 1979.

Kaji runs the small firm, with about 20 employees. But for the Keio University dropout, it's all about fun and games. "My company's games bring you no merits," the 55-year-old said. "Our puzzles are not for educational purposes, nor are they aimed at developing the brain. They are just a way of killing time and enjoying recreation.

"Our readers are well aware of that and so they easily become creators of games."

Logic games are popular in Japan largely due to the work of Nikoli, which was founded 27 years ago, but sudoku is the only one known abroad.

That may change if Kaji gets his way.

Finally Finished Hirohito Book

I finally finished a book I started last fall, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, by Herbert Bix. Here's the Booknotes interview and transcript for that book. Lengthy (as it had to be) but very well-researched and thorough. I wanted to read this after I saw the film Japan's Longest Day, about the intrigues amongst members of the Japanese military and cabinet in the final days of WWII. Prof. Bix takes the Emperor to task for his leadership in military aggression towards China, Korea, Southeast Asia, The United States, Britain, and The Netherlands, and documents how it was in both Japan's and America's best interests after the war to portray him as a peace-loving figurehead so as to keep Japan as a buffer against Soviet and Chinese communism during the Cold War. Well worth reading, but make sure you either set aside a good chunk of time, or else be prepared to pick it up and put it down quite a bit before finishing.

What I've Been Reading/Listening to/Watching Lately

Here's some of my recent brain consumption:

• The Pulitzer-winning Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan by Herbert P. Bix. I'm about 80 pages into it (out of about 700). So far so good! Comments and/or excerpts to follow. Here's a paper drawn from the book; Reviews here and here. Post-Pulitzer NewsHour interview w/Prof. Bix here.
• During my commute this past week, I've been listening to a engrossing audiobook called The Zero by a guy named Jess Walter. The Zero refers to Ground Zero (as in the WTC-attack site). The protagonist of this (absurdist?) novel is a Yossarianesque NYPD officer during the days and weeks immediately following the attack. (The terms "World Trade Center," "Al Qaeda," "9/11," and maybe some others have not been uttered in the chunk of the book I have listened to so far.) Again, so far so good! Check it out in print or on audio if you get a chance.
• I watched all of Battlestar Galactica Season 2.5 last week. I have tentatively decided to forgo watching any of the third season shows (which started Friday) until they either come out on DVD or I can find some bootlegs on the Web. JMPP has a good roundup on the political themes from Friday's premiere. Frakking awesome!
• Right now we're sitting in bed watching What the Bleep Do We Know!?. At least I think we are. And I think this thing is a bed. And I think now is now. The MRQEers gave it some pretty crummy reviews. That's not necessarily bad, because maybe the reviewers don't exist. Anyhow, I didn't realize until partway through the DVD that one of the primary interviewees is actually 11,000 years old! Roger Ebert excerpt: Among the experts on the screen, only one seemed to make perfect sense to me. This was a pretty, plumpish blond woman with clear blue eyes, who looked the camera straight in the eye, seemed wise and sane, and said that although the questions might be physical, the answers were likely to be metaphysical. Since we can't by definition understand life and the world, we might as well choose a useful way of pretending to. Sounded good to me, especially compared to the cheerful evasions, paradoxes and conundrums of the other experts. Only after the movie was over did I learn from my wife, who is informed on such matters, that the sane woman who made perfect sense was in fact Ramtha -- or, more precisely Ramtha as channeled by the psychic JZ Knight, who would seem to be quite distinctive enough without leaving the periods out of her name. And who is Ramtha? From Cathleen Falsani, the religion writer of the Sun-Times, I learn that Ramtha is a 35,000-year-old mystical sage from the lost continent of Atlantis. Well, weirder authorities have surfaced. Or maybe not. As I continue to watch, I begin to see how the thing got some bad reviews. One of the talking heads is this nutjob named John Hagelin who ran for president a few years ago on the ticket of the Natural Law Party. (I only know this from years of C-Span viewing; none of the interviewees have been identified so far.) This movie is worth watching if you are interested in movies that are different (which I am), but let me leave you with this comment from the Toronto Star: The film with the year's most unfortunate title also happens to be a candidate for the year's worst film. What The Bleep Do We Know!? is little more than a clumsy infomercial for a New Age pursuit called Ramtha's School of Enlightenment, RSE for short, which follows the teachings of an 11,000-year-old warrior as channelled by a 58-year-old New Mexico woman. The sect apparently holds quantum mechanics, metaphysics and bafflegab in equal esteem.