Fabrication and publication

Some Universities in Japan hurt their reputation by research misconducts. In a laboratory, a certain researcher explained that a refrigerator in his laboratory had exploded together with his research products. In another laboratory, a researcher stated that the container with their research products had fallen into the sea. Thus, their data disappeared by such inexplicable accidents.
In the BMB2007 conference, a symposium was held for the scientific misconduct. In the symposium, some speakers made an appeal to us to recover our scientific conscience. But is the conscience sufficient to prevent research misconduct? I do not think so. I consider that the primary underlying cause is to put priority on publishing in high impact journals.
Of course, I wish to do good research work and report it in a good journal. But I do not like to do my research just to publish in high impact journals. Why do we have to quantify the worth of an article by the impact factor? That is ridiculous. As like impact factor, the citation frequency is not a good indicator for the worth. In addition, publication is not the patent system. We can share our knowledge with other scientists through our reports.
I would be rather a pioneer in the unexplored field than a follower in the garden. Be a pirate? OK. I do not wish to join the navy.

On the bridge

I saw a guy playing guitar on the bridge. Most strings of his guitar had broken. He played it eagerly with only one string, but there was no audience. I do not know whether he was playing some tunes, or making it scream.

I saw two white egrets under the bridge. They stared at the water surface and looked for fishes. I had seen a kingfisher there too. But here is no clear water, only a turbid stream.

Snail mail

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL2490042820080124
A Polish IT worker says that the speed of Polish post is slower than a snail. His priority mail took 2 weeks to deliver it for 11.1 km distance. He determined the velocities of the letter and a garden snail and reached the conclusion.
A few years ago, I saw a commercial with a Pentium on a snail. It was a metaphor that the Intel processor is as slow as a snail. Now, Mac OS is running on Intel processor. Possibly, certain snails would be faster than I guess.
If my research is slow as a snail, I would find such kind of snail.

Windows

I have not bought any Macintosh computer for a decade, whereas I bought a Windows computer last year. I replaced my old Vaio subnotebook with a Vista notebook. This Vaio used to be very useful for presentation and home use, but Microsoft and others ended support for Windows Me.
But I disappointed in Vista and Office 2007. First, they altered their interfaces completely. For this reason, Mari hates to work on it and using the old Vaio yet in her laboratory. She has been a Windows user for a long time, but she said never to buy any Windows computer again. Second, I did not even imagine that 1 GB memory is not sufficient to run an operation system. Also, 1.7 GHz processor is insufficient for Vista.
Why does computer frustrate us at any time? For personal use, I think it has already matured 5 years ago. After that, both software and hardware are unnecessarily enlarged more and more. I suppose that is a plot by software and hardware companies, to let us buy new computers continuously.

Macintosh

MacBook Air was released by Apple. I am using PowerMacintosh 9500 with 500 MHz XLR8 G3 card yet. I fully extended this computer with expansion cards, such as rage 128 graphic card, ultraSCSI card, and 100baseT LAN card, and storage devices. I used it for a decade. But it runs only old OS9, and OSX is out of support. I installed OSX by using XPostFacto but it was not usable at all. I have always wanted to buy a new computer.
I want a laptop for my presentation, but do not like to work on it. I intend to use it with external monitor and keyboard, so I am afraid that the MacBook air is not in my option due to the limited expandability. I expect to buy a black MacBook. But I hesitate to do that, because software cost as much as the computer itself. Most applications I have are only for old systems. Can I run the Office for Windows on OSX by using Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion? And more important, SheepShaver is workable for using my old CricketGraph data files? I have many concerns about buying a new Macintosh.
I have old Macintosh IIci and PowerBook 180c too, but they cannot boot up now. Their hard disks seem to be dead, but I have no plan to repair them.

Falsification of food products

In Japan, it has been an issue for the falsification of food products by some companies. They mislabeled the production or expiration date, and worse yet, some of them falsified the product ingredients or origins.
On the other hand, I tend to ignore the best before date or even the expiration date of foods. I dislike discarding any leftover food and so prepare a lunch box with a meal of leftovers every working day. This is the spirit of "mottai-nai". Mottai-nai means that one should not waste resources, and it represents three Rs: Recycle, Reuse, and Reduce. These food companies had also practiced these 3 Rs: they illegally recycled and reused their products, and reduced waste generation and their credibility.
I do not know whether such falsifications are common in other countries. I hear that Japanese consumers are extremely particular about the quality of food than any other countries. According to a newspaper, it seems that the Japanese Government organizes the National Food Administration.
By the way, I know that Mari wants a bigger refrigerator. But I will never accept her request while she is discarding many spoiled foods :)

Recycled paper

I heard the news that some paper mill companies in Japan falsified the ratio of post-consumer pulp in their products. They mislabeled the ratio more than the actual value. Although the recycled paper has become whiter year by year, I simply assumed that due to the advances in technology. Sure, it is unlikely that these papers have very high percentage of wastepaper with such high quality. I know that the recycling of wastepaper is not always good for environment.
First of all, it is wasteful to print worthless documents on high quality papers. Of course, I do not like to print my CV for application on a back of scrap paper.

Application

I got rejected by a University in Japan. My application was refused. In contrast, one of my friends got his position in a University. I felt sad for myself why I was not happy to hear his good news. My previous professor gave me an advice that I should be careful about my appearance.
Although I am currently applying to some other Universities, I am also seeking a position in a company. I must make a decision whether to give up academic work. I believe that this year will be a turning point for me.

My wife's birthday

During the first weekend of January, we visited both of our parents in Tochigi. They showered affection on Ken and we enjoyed our stay. Ken succeeded in his toilet there with his pride.
Jan 8 is the birthday of Mari. She suggested having a party next month in combination with my birthday. Nevertheless, we went to a diner that night. We ordered our usual set dinner but added a cake after the meal. Ken was very noisy and ran around in the restaurant. I forgot to celebrate her birthday in the restaurant.
When we came back home, she ran up the stairs and locked the door. She shut us out. She asked us, "Do you forget something?". "Happy birthday, mom!" we answered and obtained entrance.

Jan 2

I decided to do nothing today and I drunk off a bottle of sake. Mari told me that she and her little sister would go shopping and others stay home. But Ken insisted to go together with her, and I had to go too.
We went to "hatsu-uri", a New Year's bargain, in the shopping mall at the station. While they were shopping for clothes, I and Ken looked around for food. Four hours after that, I received an email from Mari, "Why don't we have dinner at the India restaurant tonight?" Here was an "all you can eat" buffet restaurant, and we ate all we could. I felt sick and had a nightmare.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year. I look forward to a productive and fruitful year.
I decided to do nothing on this New Year's Day and I drunk off a bottle of sake. But Mari told me that we should go to a shrine for "hatsu-moude" and so get ready now. We took a bus for "Takahata-Fudo", a famous temple for hatsu-moude. Suddenly she insisted that we go to other place. She told me that Takahata-Fudo seems to be no answer for the academic work. On the other hand, there was a large crowd in the nearest shrine. We returned and went to a shrine near my home.
This shrine is located on a hill with a view and enshrines the Kichijo-ten, Goddess of Beauty and Prosperity. There are some garden ornaments of Totoro (see photos) for unknown reason. We met few other people and thereby could strike and ring a big bell in this shrine. Then we had each omikuji, a fortune paper. We got Dai-kichi, which means excellent luck, except for Mari's little sister. She got Sho-kichi, small luck, and gave a disappointed look.
On the way to home, Ken said that he could not walk any further. Mari took his toys and ran away. He got angry and ran after her.

Dec 31

On the last day in 2007. We continued cleaning of our rooms. Mari took care of the kitchen range hood. Suddenly she screamed wildly. She found a dead sparrow in the hood.
Yesterday, Ken soiled his shorts. I told him that I will wash his hip with water if he shits in the shorts. He succeeded in his toilet training all day long today. At the night, however, he took off his pants and shorts and touched his hip with his hands. I led him to the bathroom immediately. It was too late, and he shitted on my hands. "No ! No cold water !" He cried and stamped his foot, but I washed his hip with water.
Mari's little sister will stay with my family for three days. She is going to make a promotional video for her working music shop. She recorded some performances in a concert using my HandiCAM, but could not make any DVD video. She recorded it as high definition format, AVCHD, and so she will edit it by using my PC during her holiday.
She arrived at my home while I was in my laboratory. Then we watched "Kou-haku", an year-end grand song festival, on the TV over "Toshi-koshi soba", buckwheat noodles for the end of this year.
I had felt many frustrations during this year with little progress. I would like to make a significant advance in the next year.

Dec 30

On last Sunday, I did the year-end cleaning of our rooms. As Ken spread out his toys on the floor, I ordered him to put them away. But he did not do it at all, so I said him that I would discard them unless he did it soon. "No, I'll do it now !" But he continued to play with them. I put all of his toys in a bag. "My doy, doys !" He cried and kicked me, but hid it in the closet. He cried out for a while, and then, we went to shopping for the New Year.
We need not the traditional "osechi", a Japanese foods for the New Year. But all prices of the foods for the New Year had suddenly risen. Ken brings a box of cookies and a bunch of bananas to the cash register. He held them tightly, never to lose anything by me.
It blew and was so cold on the way to home. We would like to eat ramen, but there was no ramen shop opened that time. We entered a beef bowl restaurant, Yoshinoya.

Dec 27

I was going out drinking with Dr. U on last thursday, and I asked Mari to take care of Ken after her working hours.
I promised Dr. U to meet him at 7:30 p.m. at the station. After he left our laboratory, I received an email from Mari that she could not take Ken due to her overtime work. Since Dr. U has no cell phone, I could not contact with him. So I went to the station with Ken. He did not mind it at all, and we went out together. After a while, Mari joined us, and said "You spoke ill of me, didn't you?". We had a dinner with drinking and come back home using night bus.
I know it is not good for children to sit up late at night. To create my ideal lifestyle with my family, I should make a lot of efforts.