Ponyo

"Ponyo on the cliff" is an animated film created by Hayao Miyazaki. I have not watched it yet, but I am interested in.
I do not know what is ponyo. It seems to be a fish kid, and "Ponyo" means a kind of swelled, soft and cuddly.
See the photo. This is "Ponyo on the cliff". Not an ugly duckling. Ken got them in the festival of Asaka city.

Scientific literacy

A few weeks ago, I watched a Japanese TV program "tameshite gatten". It introduced a phenomenon that hot water can freeze more quickly than cold one. The behavior, called "Mpemba effect", seems to be contrary to thermodynamics, and so it raised a debate and became a controversial topic. Some scientists questioned the experimental results and insisted that the effect is not scientific and is impossible.
Can hot water freeze faster than cold? I have not examined it yet, but it is likely to be observed in certain circumstances. I guess that this argument may help us cultivate our scientific literacy.

United States National Center for Education Statistics defines scientific literacy as "the knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts and processes required for personal decision making, participation in civic and cultural affairs, and economic productivity".
http://www.literacynet.org/science/scientificliteracy.html
It says, "A literate citizen should be able to evaluate the quality of scientific information on the basis of its source and the methods used to generate it".

To discriminate propaganda and bias from information, we also need media literacy, a potential analyzing it critically. Perhaps the Youtube videos "popping popcorn with cell phones" are another good model for evaluating the literacy.
(See my previous entry: http://shinkammy.blogspot.com/2008/06/popcorn.html)

Murphy's law

Murphy's law is an adage that means, "Everything that can possibly go wrong, it will." I know the law, but usually forget it. If I remember it, that is when I have done. And one more thing. If I have any way of making a mistake, I will.

On 2006, Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in Japan (MLHW) issued an instruction prohibiting sharing a capillary blood-sampling device with multiple patients. However, this information was not disseminated well across to medical institutions. Recently the incorrect use of a capillary blood-sampling device emerged as a major public health problem in Japan. Associated with this problem, MLHW, medical institutions, and medical-device manufacturers traded blame each other over the responsibility. It looks like a funny comedy.
Did they remember the Murphy's law? How about the Heinrich's one?

Incident of China-made dumpling

About half a year ago, several people in Japan suffered poisoning by eating China-made dumplings (chaoz) that contaminated with an organophosphate insecticide. With regard to this incident, there was a difference of opinion between the authorities of Japan and China. Both denied the possibility that the contamination had occurred in their country. Subsequently the investigation had stopped with little progress on clarifying the cause.
Recently, it was revealed that a poisoning incident by the same product had occurred in China. It is strong evidence that the insecticide was added to the dumplings in China but not in Japan.

By the way, I wonder why the recalled product was distributed in China market. Did the company resell the product ? It is also a mystery to me why the Chinese Government accepted the blame now. A secret agreement was made between the Governments of Japan and China ?

Gap issue

According to a survey by a newspaper, 80% of Japanese workers hope to be employed as lifetime employee.
Lifetime employment (permanent employment) is a system of long-term employment in Japan. The employers hire workers once a year and retain them until their mandatory retirement age. On the other hand, employment pattern has diversified in Japan. Non-permanent employees, such as part-timers, temporaries, and dispatched workers, account for one-third of labor force population. These non-permanent workers tend to work under adverse conditions: low-paying and high risk of layoff. Subsequently a gap issue between permanent and non-permanent employees became to be recognized.
Seniority-based system is a traditional practice in the Japanese businesses. In this system, salary and promotion are determined depending on the age and length of service. Recently, the pay for performance system was partially induced in Japan; however, it was only applied to the permanent employees but not to the non-permanent workers. They gain unreasonably low wage and have little chance of promotion.
Postdocs have similar underlying issues. They work under bad conditions and have little chance of promotion. They are required to yield results, but it seems not to be correctly assessed. They should publish, but they would perish.
After all, permanent employees never give up their vested interests. They are all out to keep their status on the sacrifices of non-permanent workers. To survive, we must overcome these disparities by ourselves.

Postdoc's issue

In 1990's, a strategic focus on graduate school was undertaken under the direction of Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) in Japan. Many Universities expanded their master and doctor programs in the graduate school along with the strategy. It markedly promoted scientific research in Japan, while excess Ph.D.s were produced more than required. They became postdoctoral fellows and are working on research, but the remainder lost their job and are out of employment. Thus, a problem called "postdoc's issue" is recognized in Japan.
Principal factors of the problem are as follows. First, Japanese businesses do not like to employ postdocs. Second, postdocs have little courage to leave academia. Third, academic positions are not always fairly offered to postdocs. Forth, overproduction of degrees resulted in a reduced quality of postdocs. Finally, it is difficult for postdocs to be successful entrepreneurs due to their insufficient knowledge in business management.
In response to this problem, Council for Science and Technology Policy (CSTP), one of the four councils of important policies of Cabinet Office, decided to forbid employing postdocs beyond five years. The council expects that this policy will encourage postdocs to move from academia to businesses.
Curiously enough, postdocs (including me) are blamed for this problem as that they do not fully recognize their self-responsibility. Of course we know it well, but we would not bear the responsibility for the strategy. I do not know whether the strategy succeeded or not, but I know that students in the graduate schools avoid to going on to the doctor course now. If the strategy has achieved at the cost of human resources, there is no future in science in Japan.

Troubles

Mari pulled out her wisdom tooth on July 22. The next day we went to her parents' house to give away our unneeded air conditioner. At the night, she told me that she had a pain and to help take her to a nearby hospital. I did as told, and she received antibiotics intravenously in the hospital at midnight. The next day we went to there again and got medicines including painkiller. We went to my parents' house too, but my father was absent. We need to go there again, or he will be disappointed for us.

My car had a trouble on the way. The engine was stopped during driving and did not start again. I called an auto insurer and had carry it to an auto factory. I asked to inspect and repair it there, but nothing wrong was found. Did she go on strike because I have not done well her maintenance recently?