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Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Guilty verdict in guitar maker's slaying

Tuesday, September 28, 2010
(09-28) 16:32 PDT ROHNERT PARK --
A Sonoma County man was convicted today of first-degree murder for fatally stabbing a well-known guitar maker during a burglary in Rohnert Park.

Joshua Rhea Begley, 28, of Windsor killed Taku Sakashta, 43, whose body was found shortly before 4 a.m. Feb. 12 outside his business on the 600 block of Martin Avenue. Sakashta had been stabbed numerous times in the head, neck, chest and hand.

Sakashta's blood and DNA were found in Begley's car and on his shoes, and a witness placed Begley near the scene at about the time of the slaying, prosecutors said.

A Sonoma County Superior Court jury convicted Begley today of first-degree murder, robbery, burglary, evading arrest, resisting a police officer and enhancements for using a knife and causing great bodily injury.

Sakashta had 25 years of experience designing and crafting guitars, according to his Web site. Police checked on his business after his wife called to report that he had failed to return home.

Four days before Sakashta's body was found, Begley was arrested in Petaluma on suspicion of being under the influence of drugs. He was released on bail the next day.

E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com.
taku imageTaku Sakashta played rock and roll guitars early in his life, starting in elementary schools. While reading about the guitar designer Rick Turner, he realized he would become a guitar builder. He began refinishing his own guitars, and later graduated from luthier engineering school at eighteen. He has worked in research, design, and development for a major guitar company in Japan and United States, making prototypes and endorsement projects.
In 1995 Taku independently began designing and crafting guitars for the general public in addition to professional musicians. He has recently built guitars for musicians including Tony Darren, Robben Ford, Tony Macus, Boz Scaggs, Ellen Stephenhorst, and Martin Simpson, and is designing a guitar for Tuck Andress and Pat Martino.
All his designs combine traditional and innovative elements for exceptional sound and playability, tempered for each individual musician. Craftsmanship is of the highest quality using the best materials available. Finish and appearance are recognized as superb.
Taku now has 25 years of professional experience (primarily with professional musicians) and has become well known for his special talents in all fields of the musical industry.
Taku Sakashta's philosophy on his guitars are that they are an extension of the musician's personality and soul. Each musician demands different instruments because each has different talents, motivations, and preferences --- from sonic, aesthetic, and tactile points of view. Taku realizes the importance of past traditions in guitar building, and has used this as a foundation to build his forward-looking instruments for the consummate performer looking for personalization without compromise. And he does this while still retaining the superior advantages of past, traditional designs and features.
Taku builds a range of instruments which fit different guitar styles. These models form the main product line. Many times, players like the features of one guitar, but strive for another because of different features -- each player trying to balance sonic, aesthetic, and tactile feelings with their own personality. Taku understands this, and it is reflected in the many options which fill the gap between his guitar lines. This allows the performer to choose the best features, and create a truly unique, personalized instrument.

TOP 10 MOOS ON JAPAN THIS WEEK

This list can also be read on the Humor-Us Guide to Japan Blog at
http://wp.me/pyTih-1gb

1. Japan Lite: The off-season and other things that go off @JapanLite
http://t.co/LFsJ6uj

2. Evolta mascot robot walking from Tokyo to Kyoto @Muzachan
http://ow.ly/2LlV1

3. In Japan: No Hope, No Dope. Paris Hilton's mistake @AsiaSociety
http://asiasociety.org/blog/reasia/asia-no-hope-dope
http://ow.ly/2Lm0T

4. Funny signs and notices in English from around the world @wordsteps_en
http://ow.ly/2Lm3g

5. Cool JAPAN!: Japanese Kimono Style Outfits for Dogs @japan_style
http://ow.ly/2Lm73

6. Video: The Most Awesome Dog House in Japan, a 2.5-meter-high replica of Matsumoto Castle @JapanPhotos
http://ow.ly/2Lm9c

7. Video: Crazy Japan Ad–-craziest roach killer commercial ever @copyranter
http://ow.ly/2Lmba

8. Video: Japanese farting Contest @shinpuren
http://ow.ly/2LmcI

9. Video: Time for the boobies to show off @wtfjapan
http://ow.ly/2Lmg1

INTERNATIONAL BOVINE NEWS

10. Cows take on the Japan Times, Cowmentary: The truth about Kobe Beef cows
http://t.co/4zwCvTo

To follow any of the people above, just click on the @____ and that will take you to their twitter page.

Thanks for reading Japan Lite!

Amy Chavez
amychavez2000@yahoo.com

Japanese scientists creates New Humanoid Walking Robot Unveiled


Description: Japanese scientists have unveiled a new humanoid walking robot, northeast of Tokyo. Demands are growing for socially useful robots, such as those for caring for the elderly and the sick.

Survey: Americans don't know much about religion

A new survey of Americans' knowledge of religion found that atheists, agnostics, Jews and Mormons outperformed Protestants and Roman Catholics in answering questions about major religions, while many respondents could not correctly give the most basic tenets of their own faiths.
Forty-five percent of Roman Catholics who participated in the study didn't know that, according to church teaching, the bread and wine used in Holy Communion is not just a symbol, but becomes the body and blood of Christ.
More than half of Protestants could not identify Martin Luther as the person who inspired the Protestant Reformation. And about four in 10 Jews did not know that Maimonides, one of the greatest rabbis and intellectuals in history, was Jewish.
The survey released Tuesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life aimed to test a broad range of religious knowledge, including understanding of the Bible, core teachings of different faiths and major figures in religious history. The U.S. is one of the most religious countries in the developed world, especially compared to largely secular Western Europe, but faith leaders and educators have long lamented that Americans still know relatively little about religion.
Respondents to the survey were asked 32 questions with a range of difficulty, including whether they could name the Islamic holy book and the first book of the Bible, or say what century the Mormon religion was founded. On average, participants in the survey answered correctly overall for half of the survey questions.
Atheists and agnostics scored highest, with an average of 21 correct answers, while Jews and Mormons followed with about 20 accurate responses. Protestants overall averaged 16 correct answers, while Catholics followed with a score of about 15.
Not surprisingly, those who said they attended worship at least once a week and considered religion important in their lives often performed better on the overall survey. However, level of education was the best predictor of religious knowledge. The top-performing groups on the survey still came out ahead even when controlling for how much schooling they had completed.
On questions about Christianity, Mormons scored the highest, with an average of about eight correct answers out of 12, followed by white evangelicals, with an average of just over seven correct answers. Jews, along with atheists and agnostics, knew the most about other faiths, such as Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism. Less than half of Americans know that the Dalai Lama is Buddhist, and less than four in 10 know that Vishnu and Shiva are part of Hinduism.
The study also found that many Americans don't understand constitutional restrictions on religion in public schools. While a majority know that public school teachers cannot lead classes in prayer, less than a quarter know that the U.S. Supreme Court has clearly stated that teachers can read from the Bible as an example of literature.
"Many Americans think the constitutional restrictions on religion in public schools are tighter than they really are," Pew researchers wrote.
The survey of 3,412 people, conducted between May and June of this year, had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points, while the margins of error for individual religious groups was higher.
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Online:

Saturday, September 25, 2010

CAJ PEOPLE CHANGING THE WORLD

Dear missionary friends in Asia:

CAJ ’67 classmates Daniel Reid and Daniel Westberg and I spent a week together this July in WA, during which time Dan shared from his reading Spurling’s new biography of Pearl S. Buck.  That motivated me to pick up her two biographies of her parents—Fighting Angel of her missionary father Absalom Sydenstricker (about whom she is none too complimentary), and her mother—The Exile, whom she depicts in much more heroic and almost victim colors.  Dan and I talked then about how disturbed I was by her negative portrait of her barnstorming church planting father (Absalom) as imperialistic, bombastic, arrogant, and an absent father.  All of you might value reading either or both of her biographies.  Dan responded to me then, and here in these two blogs, by reminding me that her perspective might not have captured the entire truth of the style or impact of the Southern Presbyterian missionaries in China in the late 1800s and early part of the 1900s. 

His own investigation into his missionary heritage surfaces in these two blogs, which he helpfully parallels to the task of biblical interpretation and historiography.  I think you will find both blogs very interesting.

She received the Pulitzer Prize for her story, The Good Earth, in about 1933, and the Nobel Prize for Literature, based on the strength of the two biographies of her parents in about 1934-6.  So, these stories are good reading. 

Here are Dan’s original blog posts: 



Warmly, Steve Hoke (CAJ ’67)
People Development and Strategic Life Coaching, CRM

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

More on the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands

SEPTEMBER 20, 2010, 2:05 PM

More on the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands

I blogged recently about the dust-up in Asia between China and Japan over the uninhabited islands known as the Senkakus in Japan and the Diaoyu islands in China. Both claim them, as does Taiwan for good measure. I argued that China appeared to have a slightly better claim to them, although they might also plausibly be terra nullis, not belonging to any nation. Here’s the latest on the tiff.
Japan, which doesn’t even acknowledge that there is a territorial dispute, protested my blog post and wrote me a letter outlining some of its arguments. I’m not persuaded — it seems silly to say that China didn’t protest the seizure of a few barren rocks, when it was so weak that it had lost the entire province of Taiwan — but Japan does have valid points to make. I wish it would seek referral of the issue to the International Court of Justice, setting a precedent for legal judgments rather than brute force to settle conflicting claims.
I’ve been following the ups and downs on the islands since the 1980’s and wrote about them with my wife in our 2000 book about Asia, “Thunder from the East.” Alas, I’ve never found a way to land on them, and I do worry that the U.S. could be drawn into the dispute. As I noted in my previous item, the U.S. in theory is required to defend Japan’s claim to the islands, based on the wording of the U.S./Japan Security Treaty. In practice, we wouldn’t, but our failure to do so would cause reverberations all over Asia. In any case, here are excerpts from the Japanese letter of protest, apparently written at the request of the Japanese Foreign Minister (who knows who reads this blog?). Since I suggested that the islands were more likely China’s, I want to give them a chance to respond:
1) Since 1885, surveys of the Senkaku Islands had thoroughly been made by the Government of Japan through the agencies of Okinawa Prefecture and by way of other methods. Through these surveys, it was confirmed that the Senkaku Islands had been uninhabited and showed no trace of having been under the control of China. Based on this confirmation, the Government of Japan made a Cabinet Decision on 14 January 1895 to erect a marker on the Islands to formally incorporate the Senkaku Islands into the territory of Japan.
2) Since then, the Senkaku Islands have continuously remained as an integral part of the Nansei Shoto Islands, which are the territory of Japan. These islands were neither part of Taiwan nor part of the Pescadores Islands which were ceded to Japan from the Qing Dynasty of China in accordance with Article II of the Treaty of Shimonoseki which came into effect in May of 1895.
3) Accordingly, the Senkaku Islands are not included in the territory which Japan renounced under Article II of the San Francisco Peace Treaty. The Senkaku Islands have been placed under the administration of the United States of America as part of the Nansei Shoto Islands, in accordance with Article III of the said treaty, and are included in the area, the administrative rights over which were reverted to Japan in accordance with the Agreement Between Japan and the United States of America Concerning the Ryukyu Islands and the Daito Islands signed on 17 June 1971. The facts outlined herein clearly indicate the status of the Senkaku Islands being part of the territory of Japan.
4) The fact that China expressed no objection to the status of the Islands being under the administration of the United States under Article III of the San Francisco Peace Treaty clearly indicates that China did not consider the Senkaku Islands as part of Taiwan. It was not until the latter half of 1970, when the question of the development of petroleum resources on the continental shelf of the East China Sea came to the surface, that the Government of China and Taiwan authorities began to raise questions regarding the Senkaku Islands.
5) Your column focuses on historical manuscripts such as “Chinese navigational records” and “a 1783 Japanese map” to make the point that China has a better claim to the Senkaku Islands. However, please note that none of the points raised by the Government of China as “historic, geographic or geological” evidence provide valid grounds, in light of international law, to support China’s arguments regarding the Senkaku Islands.
Your thoughts?

Friday, September 17, 2010

Steve Jobs: Amateur Ninja?

Steve Jobs is a visionary and a billionaire. But is he also a ninja on the side?

According to an extremely unreliable rumor that's been sweeping the Web this week, the Apple CEO was caught packing ninja throwing stars at a Japanese airport (you know, just in case he gets into a tussle while traveling abroad). The story, sparked by SPA!, a Japanese tabloid, is just about the most absurd thing one could imagine, and has been refuted by Apple. And yet... because of said absurdity, the story will not go gently into that good night.

The original story — which, again, Apple has refuted  — claimed that Mr. Jobs was caught trying to sneak shurikens (metal throwing stars) onto a plane. After being nabbed by authorities, Jobs supposedly became upset and vowed never to visit the country again. Web searches on "steve jobs" are up 99% over the past 24 hours, and related lookups on "steve jobs ninja" and "steve jobs ninja stars" are both comically high.
Rumors like this are nothing new, but what's interesting this time is that this particular tall tale refuses to go away. The story was reported recently, but the incident allegedly took place in July, when Jobs was visiting Japan. Already, blogs across the Web have chimed in with snarky commentary, and there are even a few doctored photos of Jobs posing with his alleged weapon of choice. Apple calls it "pure fiction."

How did the rumor start? According to Bloomberg, someone (nobody knows who) was "stopped at the end of July for carrying "shuriken." This person, who wasn't identified for privacy concerns, "threw away the blades." So, there may be a small speck of truth, but the Apple CEO's involvement is almost certainly bogus. But don't expect the story to die. Rumors can endure forever on the Web, thanks in part to the feverish spread of buzzy stories through social networks, emails, and blogs — and the way they can quickly morph into Internet memes.

Of course, this isn't the first time a wild tech rumor has captured the imagination of Web searchers. There are still, to this very day, jokes and email forwards that claim Al Gore once said that he invented the Internet. Wildly untrue, but the rumor lives on. And let us not forget Bill Gates.According to popular legend, if you receive a particular email from the billionaire and then forward it, the Microsoft co-founder will pay you a nice bit of cash. Once again not true, people. Sorry.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Japan can't find its 230,000 centenarians

TOKYO: More than 230,000 people listed as alive and at least 100 years old in Japan cannot be found, including 884 who would be 150 or older, officials said Friday.

Japan, famed for its longevity, launched a nationwide survey after a recent string of grisly discoveries — including a mummified man in his bed and an old woman's remains in a backpack — sparked alarm over the fate of many elderly.

The cases also triggered soul-searching over elderly people living in isolation, and public outrage at relatives of those missing who have kept their deaths secret in order to keep receiving their pension payments.

The Justice Ministry said that a search of family registries, which are updated based on residents' notifications, found that 234,354 people recorded as at least 100 years old could not be located at their listed address.

Many of those whose whereabouts were unknown may have died as long ago as World War II or in the post-war turmoil, or may have emigrated without their status being reported to local authorities, the ministry said.

The list included 77,118 people who would be 120 years or older today, and 884 who would be at least 150 years old, the ministry said.

The government has instructed regional legal offices to delete the names of people aged 120 or older if their whereabouts cannot be confirmed.

The ministry said the impact on Japan's life expectancy figures would likely be minimal since these are calculated from separate data gathered in home visits by field workers during national census campaigns.

Japan's health ministry reported in July that the average life expectancy was a world-record 86.44 years for women and 79.59 years for men.

Authorities rang the alarm bell over missing elderly when a birthday call by Tokyo officials to a man believed to be 111 years old instead led to a police search that found his three-decade-old mummified skeleton in his bed.

In another case the remains of a Tokyo woman believed to be 104 were found stuffed into her son's backpack, where they had been for more than a decade.

And earlier this month a 58-year-old woman living near Osaka admitted to keeping her father's corpse hidden at home for the past five years.
(indiatimes.com, Sep 10)

Saturday, September 04, 2010

The Just Bento Cookbook: Everyday Lunches to Go

Bento (box lunches), inspired by the Japanese tradition, are taking the West by storm. More than just cute and decorative, this economical, healthy approach to eating will revolutionize your lunchtimes.
Leading bento blogger Makiko Itoh has been spreading the bento word on her hugely popular website Just Bento, but now, for the first time, her bento expertise has been packaged in book form. “The Just Bento Cookbook” is a treasure trove of delicious recipes and practical tips, and shows you how a daily bento lunch is something you can easily incorporate into your lifestyle.
“The Just Bento Cookbook” contains 25 attractive bento menus and more than 150 recipes that have been specially created for the book. It is divided into two sections, Japanese, and Not-so Japanese. The Japanese section includes classic menus such as Sushi Roll Bento and Chicken Karaage Bento, while the Not-so-Japanese section shows how Western food can be adapted to the bento concept with delicious menus such as Summer Vegetable Casserole Bento and Everyone Loves A Pie Bento.
In addition to the recipes, there are sections on bento-making equipment, staples to make and stock, speed and safety tips, and a glossary. There are timelines to streamline your morning preparation. A planning-chart section is included, showing how you might organize your weekly bento making.
Whether you are just starting out on your bento journey, or already an aficionado, this book, with its wealth of recipes, tips, and practical guidelines, is sure to become an invaluable resource.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 128 pages
  • Publisher: Kodansha International (January 3, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 4770031246
  • ISBN-13: 978-4770031242
  • Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7.5 x 0.6 inches

Thursday, September 02, 2010

Shrek fish: Japan's aquatic ogre



By Alicia Pflaumer, Web staff
posted September 1, 2010 at 8:11 pm EDT
Boston
Is that Shrek? No.
The 'Shrek' fish was recently discovered by scuba divers and is actually called an Asian Sheepshead Wrasse, which is commonly seen off the Japanese coast.
According to MSNBC, the fish is common in Japan. But what is not so common is the fish's face, which seems to resemble a certain animated green ogre. The male fish is believed to be 30-years-old.
Pinkish-grey with large, swelling-like protrusions on its forehead and chin, the 'Shrek' fish may be unique, but perhaps not as scary as the blobfish.

Sidney Rittenberg on China

Mao's interpreter on the evolution of individual ambition and why Mao was the best listener he ever met.

Manga opus