TOPIC: Pizza vending machine
Japan is the land of the rising sun and the land of 5,400,000 vending machines, the most anywhere on the Earth. Most of these are beverage machines. Now, a new vending machine is set to be introduced that will make and bake a pizza in 3 minutes. You won't find this vending machine in Japan, a country that prides itself on gadgets. Rather, this machine was created in the land of pizza: Italy.
QUESTIONS
Why do you think this machine was developed?
Aren't there many places to buy pizza in Italy?
What possible problems do you see with this machine?
Do you think that a sushi or onigiri vending machine might succeed in Japan?
Read the story and watch the video here:
VIDEO:YouTube video clip
STORY: The Independent - Pizza vending machine
Tuesday, 31 March 2009
Wide Girls - Japanese stocks - The Economist
TOPIC: Japanese stocks
Wide girls
Mar 26th 2009 | TOKYO
"Mrs Watanabe is tiptoeing back into Japan’s stockmarket"
“NOT trusted” is how Japan’s Prime Minister Taro Aso described stockbrokers this month, before calling them kabuya, or “wide boys”. And with the Tokyo stock market scraping 26-year-lows in mid-March before soaring 20% in the past fortnight, the reputation of equities as an investment is shoddy at best. Yet some Japanese investors are throwing caution to the wind and beginning to buy.
QUESTIONS
Do you invest in equities (the stock market)?
Is it a good time to invest? Has the market bottomed out or do you think that the markets will get worse before they get better? In Japan, individual investors are rushing in to the market. Why are they doing this now? Do they know something the rest of the world doesn't?
LANGUAGE
wide boys / wide girls
tiptoeing
scraping
fortnight
shoddy at best
throwing caution to the wind
net buyers
tip the trend
A lot rests on Mrs Watanabe, the fabled retail punter who plays the markets
wade in
she and her kind
a big fillip
it elicited only cynicism from seasoned hands
Wide girls
Mar 26th 2009 | TOKYO
"Mrs Watanabe is tiptoeing back into Japan’s stockmarket"
“NOT trusted” is how Japan’s Prime Minister Taro Aso described stockbrokers this month, before calling them kabuya, or “wide boys”. And with the Tokyo stock market scraping 26-year-lows in mid-March before soaring 20% in the past fortnight, the reputation of equities as an investment is shoddy at best. Yet some Japanese investors are throwing caution to the wind and beginning to buy.
QUESTIONS
Do you invest in equities (the stock market)?
Is it a good time to invest? Has the market bottomed out or do you think that the markets will get worse before they get better? In Japan, individual investors are rushing in to the market. Why are they doing this now? Do they know something the rest of the world doesn't?
LANGUAGE
wide boys / wide girls
tiptoeing
scraping
fortnight
shoddy at best
throwing caution to the wind
net buyers
tip the trend
A lot rests on Mrs Watanabe, the fabled retail punter who plays the markets
wade in
she and her kind
a big fillip
it elicited only cynicism from seasoned hands
Friday, 27 March 2009
Bullish on Japan? Nonsense
Why I am bullish on Japan
I want to thank Mr. Koll for writing as his view highlights a way of thinking that is no longer effective.
It is clear to me that Mr.Koll has the wrong perspective on Japan and on the world going forward. As a former economic analyst with a major investment house, he is seeing the world in ways that no longer apply. He is looking at the world through the rear view mirror.
The R&D argument is easy to refute. As is the case with the education system in the US where more money is spent per child than in any other country. You would expect the results to be stellar. Far from it. It is not how much you spend, it's how you spend it.
If patents are a measure of economic success, does it really help the wealth of the nation if these patents pertain to some functionality of a vending or pachinko slot machine? sheer numbers of patents indicate nothing nor do patents on a vast array of technologies that may never be adopted. The number of patents in relation to economic output over the past 10+ years tells me that their systems are misaligned. They are out of focus. If,however, they are continually dominating patent awards and clipping along at 3-5% growth in GDP, then I'd say, yeah, they are really onto something and all countries would be rushing to Japan to study their success. They are not.
"The future will be designed and invented in Japan" Should read: "The future will be designed and invented in by a few companies in Japan for a little while longer until the Indians and Chinese have fully ramped up."
Creativity has been bred out of Japanese. That is no great revelation. The ability to get things done is clearly here, but those steering the ships are largely inept and inbred - in politics and in business - large and small. Ability, profit motives, efficiency and effectiveness are clearly absent from Japanese business. If the Japanese economy comes back it will take another 20 years. That's the amount to time it will likely take for all the deadwood to retire from the system.
Japan has been coasting for years on an explosion of wealth, savings blanketed in protectionism. Now that wealth is dwindling, the savings are going fast, and the population is ageing.
Japanese are not any more "hard working" than anyone else. They work long hours. Are they any more productive? Look at all the overtime, no holidays, no layoffs and economic growth that's been sliding for years. This is a very ineffective economy. Look at the other G7 countries where overtime is much less, people have holidays and there has been economic growth.
Japan today is the rich, spoiled child, now fully grown with no career, smokes, drinks, gambles and is living off a trust fund that's soon to run out.
All the "wa" in the land will not help Japan, the nation, regain it's former position.
At best, Japan will find its position in the world as the ageing engineer uncle who used to be wealthy, still knows a few things, but who no one takes seriously as the world has moved on while he still talks about the old days.
There is no vision in japan, no inherent spirit or drive like post-war Japan.
India and China will soon regain their positions as world leaders that they held a few hundred years ago.
Sadly, Mr.Koll is analysing the wrong things. The world has changed. Governments are and will continue to fall, banking systems are and will continue to collapse. Riots - have started and will continue. what we see now with bailouts is a necessary but short term window dressing. The media uses the word: recovery. This, too, is a misnomer. It's a whole new world emerging and we have to see it in a different way. The way that it is and not the way we think it is (or was) or the way we think it ought to be.
I want to thank Mr. Koll for writing as his view highlights a way of thinking that is no longer effective.
It is clear to me that Mr.Koll has the wrong perspective on Japan and on the world going forward. As a former economic analyst with a major investment house, he is seeing the world in ways that no longer apply. He is looking at the world through the rear view mirror.
The R&D argument is easy to refute. As is the case with the education system in the US where more money is spent per child than in any other country. You would expect the results to be stellar. Far from it. It is not how much you spend, it's how you spend it.
If patents are a measure of economic success, does it really help the wealth of the nation if these patents pertain to some functionality of a vending or pachinko slot machine? sheer numbers of patents indicate nothing nor do patents on a vast array of technologies that may never be adopted. The number of patents in relation to economic output over the past 10+ years tells me that their systems are misaligned. They are out of focus. If,however, they are continually dominating patent awards and clipping along at 3-5% growth in GDP, then I'd say, yeah, they are really onto something and all countries would be rushing to Japan to study their success. They are not.
"The future will be designed and invented in Japan" Should read: "The future will be designed and invented in by a few companies in Japan for a little while longer until the Indians and Chinese have fully ramped up."
Creativity has been bred out of Japanese. That is no great revelation. The ability to get things done is clearly here, but those steering the ships are largely inept and inbred - in politics and in business - large and small. Ability, profit motives, efficiency and effectiveness are clearly absent from Japanese business. If the Japanese economy comes back it will take another 20 years. That's the amount to time it will likely take for all the deadwood to retire from the system.
Japan has been coasting for years on an explosion of wealth, savings blanketed in protectionism. Now that wealth is dwindling, the savings are going fast, and the population is ageing.
Japanese are not any more "hard working" than anyone else. They work long hours. Are they any more productive? Look at all the overtime, no holidays, no layoffs and economic growth that's been sliding for years. This is a very ineffective economy. Look at the other G7 countries where overtime is much less, people have holidays and there has been economic growth.
Japan today is the rich, spoiled child, now fully grown with no career, smokes, drinks, gambles and is living off a trust fund that's soon to run out.
All the "wa" in the land will not help Japan, the nation, regain it's former position.
At best, Japan will find its position in the world as the ageing engineer uncle who used to be wealthy, still knows a few things, but who no one takes seriously as the world has moved on while he still talks about the old days.
There is no vision in japan, no inherent spirit or drive like post-war Japan.
India and China will soon regain their positions as world leaders that they held a few hundred years ago.
Sadly, Mr.Koll is analysing the wrong things. The world has changed. Governments are and will continue to fall, banking systems are and will continue to collapse. Riots - have started and will continue. what we see now with bailouts is a necessary but short term window dressing. The media uses the word: recovery. This, too, is a misnomer. It's a whole new world emerging and we have to see it in a different way. The way that it is and not the way we think it is (or was) or the way we think it ought to be.
Tuesday, 24 March 2009
The Incredible Shrinking Polar Bear
Read the article here:
The Incredible Shrinking Polar Bear
I have long known about the fate of the noble Polar Bear. I learned years ago that the polar ice cap is shrinking, that the annual ice floes do not last as long as they used to and as a result, polar bears can not feed long enough. They are getting thinner and female bears cannot sustain enough fat to bear (excuse the pun) as many cubs as they used to - three became, two and two has become one.
I have been know, for years, to refer to SUVs as "polar bear killers".
Vocabulary and Phrases
turning to cannibalism
to draw up an action plan
to subsist
to congregate
to recede
a vital fattening-up time
to see them through
a long summer fast
chair (a person and a verb)
delegates
desperation
deliberately
denning (den - noun, to den - verb, denning)
over-optimistic
The Incredible Shrinking Polar Bear
I have long known about the fate of the noble Polar Bear. I learned years ago that the polar ice cap is shrinking, that the annual ice floes do not last as long as they used to and as a result, polar bears can not feed long enough. They are getting thinner and female bears cannot sustain enough fat to bear (excuse the pun) as many cubs as they used to - three became, two and two has become one.
I have been know, for years, to refer to SUVs as "polar bear killers".
Vocabulary and Phrases
turning to cannibalism
to draw up an action plan
to subsist
to congregate
to recede
a vital fattening-up time
to see them through
a long summer fast
chair (a person and a verb)
delegates
desperation
deliberately
denning (den - noun, to den - verb, denning)
over-optimistic
A Lender
Today I became a lender.
Today I lent money to person I've never met.
Her name is Tagi.
She is 49 years old, has six children and lives in Samoa.
Read about Tagi and why I am lending her money.
Today I lent money to person I've never met.
Her name is Tagi.
She is 49 years old, has six children and lives in Samoa.
Read about Tagi and why I am lending her money.
Tuesday, 10 March 2009
What to read - March 2009
From the BBC
Dalai Lama renews autonomy call
The Dalai Lama has repeated his demand for "legitimate and meaningful autonomy" for Tibet.
Your ability to discuss this issue is very good practice.
Some good language here:
"legitimate and meaningful autonomy"
a climate of fear
a bloody uprising
feudal society
serf
emancipation
"mutual benefit"
legitimate and meaningful autonomy
enable
within the framework
exile
prevail
On a lighter note...
Short article. Key terms are emboldened.
Love letters from Prince Charles to Canadian woman listed on EBay
Friday, March 6, 2009 Canadian Press
You, too, can own love letters apparently written by Prince Charles to a Canadian woman - if you have a minimum of $30,000 to spare.
The six letters are up for grabs on the online auction site EBay with a starting bid of $30,000. So far, there are no bids. The letters are written to a Montreal woman named Janet and most were written in 1976. But the latest letter is dated June 8, 1980 and in it, Prince Charles discusses how he was under tremendous pressure to get married, but assured Janet he would give her fair warning before that happened.
He married Lady Diana Spencer in July 1981.
Looking for a new career? How about as a Bee Inspector? :-)
From The Guardian
Bee parasite devastates colonies as hives go unregistered and uninspected
Millions of insects could be wiped out because thinly staffed inspectorate does not know where half the country's beekeepers are.
Dalai Lama renews autonomy call
The Dalai Lama has repeated his demand for "legitimate and meaningful autonomy" for Tibet.
Your ability to discuss this issue is very good practice.
Some good language here:
"legitimate and meaningful autonomy"
a climate of fear
a bloody uprising
feudal society
serf
emancipation
"mutual benefit"
legitimate and meaningful autonomy
enable
within the framework
exile
prevail
On a lighter note...
Short article. Key terms are emboldened.
Love letters from Prince Charles to Canadian woman listed on EBay
Friday, March 6, 2009 Canadian Press
You, too, can own love letters apparently written by Prince Charles to a Canadian woman - if you have a minimum of $30,000 to spare.
The six letters are up for grabs on the online auction site EBay with a starting bid of $30,000. So far, there are no bids. The letters are written to a Montreal woman named Janet and most were written in 1976. But the latest letter is dated June 8, 1980 and in it, Prince Charles discusses how he was under tremendous pressure to get married, but assured Janet he would give her fair warning before that happened.
He married Lady Diana Spencer in July 1981.
Looking for a new career? How about as a Bee Inspector? :-)
From The Guardian
Bee parasite devastates colonies as hives go unregistered and uninspected
Millions of insects could be wiped out because thinly staffed inspectorate does not know where half the country's beekeepers are.
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