In case you missed it, the May issue of Wired has an infographic I worked on showing the history of earthquakes in Japan, plus the legal, societal, and architectural reforms that followed each one.
I just discovered this lovely little clip of a Spanish rendition of Arale-chan. It's not the original and I have no idea what they're saying, but I enjoy the fact that it features a pink jumping poop.
A couple of years ago in my MangoBot column on io9.com, I wrote this little explanation of Arale-chan and the wonderful things I learned about being human from this funny little robot girl:
Arale Norimaki Birth year: 1980 Who she is: A purple-haired, near-sighted girl robot built by a kooky professor named Norimaki Senbei (seaweed-wrapped rice cracker) to resemble a real 13 year old human girl. She was created by Akira Toriyama, the same genius manga artist who wrote the Dragon Ball series. Lessons learned: 1. To be fun and spontaneous. 2. To be honest about your compulsions. 3. That you can be female + completely non-sexual + still be the most powerful humanoid in the entire world. 4. How to launch pumpkin cannons and split the earth in half with one punch. 5. The art of the Japanese poop joke. (Even today, my favorite way to pick up my dog's poop is by poking it with a stick and then chucking it into the bushes or a trash can.)
Read Four anime robots that made me more human on io9
TWiT (This Week in Tech)'s Fourcast Podcast had me on as a guest this week. I had to predict the short-term, long-term, and crazy-ass future. I kinda made it up on the fly and this is what I came up with.
For this weekend's hour of Studio360, I produced and narrated a segment on artist + CIA tracker Trevor Paglen. He and I went spy satellite hunting on his rooftop in West Oakland last month and took the picture below. Yes, that little streak in the sky is a CIA spy satellite. Pretty awesome huh? Listen to the full story below.
On TokyoMango, I rarely write about what I do other than find Japanese oddities to share with you. But today I want to share the story of Vinny, a man who lives at an AIDS hospice that I have been volunteering at for the last year and a half. Vinny is dying of cancer and AIDS and doesn't have that much time left in this world. I am honored that he chose to share a significant amount of time with me over the last few months. Every time I see him now, it's really sad because he is getting sicker and sicker. I'm watching him die. Please read his story, buy his book, or donate to Maitri. This means a lot to me.
I'm a volunteer at Maitri, the only remaining AIDS hospice in San Francisco. Once a week, I hang out with its 15 residents, run errands for them, and — sometimes — sit at their bedsides as they go through the process of dying. I do it because I like to face my fears, and death is the one thing that I fear the most.
The Last Hospice on Boing Boing
In 2008, Chronicle published my book: Urawaza: Secret Everyday Tips and Tricks from Japan.
I am also the founder of The Tofu Project, a boutique program that helps Japanese entrepreneurs and creators think deeper, tell better stories, and go out into the world in a much bigger way. We work with companies like Mixi, Japan Airlines, and Salesforce.com.
Sometimes I try to explain Japanese culture on CNN, BBC, CBC, WSJ, ABC (so many acronyms!) or in person at places like the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan, ETech, and Ignite!
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Send tips to mango [at] tokyomango [dot] com
