``We've had two resignations so far with more pending,'' said Jeff Kingston, a professor of political science at Temple University in Tokyo. ``Given that Abe's already losing his popularity, Yanagisawa's comment doesn't help. It was stupid.''

Abe's approval rating fell six percentage points from last month to 40 percent, the Mainichi newspaper said today. The Nikkei newspaper's poll showed his support at 48 percent, down 3 percent from December. Neither paper provided a margin of error. Abe's approval rating, according to the Mainichi, was 67 percent after he took office in September.

Abe's having a rough time of it, somewhat predictably, though not for the reasons I expected.

As for Yanagisawa, yeah, it was a retarded thing to say, but at the same time, i believe Japan is facing a pretty serious demographic crisis in the coming years, largely based on the fact that they're not really having kids anymore. He chose the stupidest possible way to phrase it, but the idea is probably right, unless the nation would rather enter population decline.

Bloomberg.com: Japan

Let me get this right...

They remade The Money Pit.

But with Ice Cube.

Is that right?

Apple - Trailers - Are We Done Yet? - Small

If you haven't seen Pan's Labyrinth you should catch it while its in theaters. A positively creepy film in which a little girl intertwines her fantasies with the tragic reality around her. Very well done. (Do not bring children.)

[ Agreed. This is quite simply a beautiful film. It's brilliantly filmed and lush without being an orgy of special effects. The effects serve the story as opposed to the all-too-common reverse. The acting is universally excellent but Ivana Baquero's Ofelia is, i think, just unbelievably fine. She captures a complex balance of innocence and maturity with intelligence and love and courage just perfectly. The movie is alternately heartbreaking and wonderful and moving.

Anyway, I agree too that the theatre is the way to see this one... not that your 52 inch HD plasma won't do a good job, but really, you shouldn't wait.

I've been looking forward to this for some time and was not disappointed. If anything, my expectations were exceeded.

Go see it. See it now. -k]

Pan's Labyrinth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

How to build a sword-wielding, tennis-playing, WiiMote-controlled, friendly robot

Damn!

[ That's fucking ill. I want one!

Of course, I'd settle for the damn wii, or even ONE WIIMOTE to be in stores too. alas. -k]

WiiBot

Portable gizmos such as phones, handheld computers and mp3 players can easily get scuffed, dirty and sticky.

Bulky covers are one option, but Nokia in Finland has been experimenting with plastic casings coated with a diamond-like material made from coal. The material is more protective and grime resistant, as well as cheap and bio-degradable.

To make the material electric current is fed through coal graphite. This creates plasma, which is directed towards a plastic casing by high-voltage

electrodes. The coal ions penetrate the surface and bond to form an amorphous, diamond-like coating less than 100 nanometres thick. The process works at room temperature, meaning even cheap plastics can be coated this way.

The coating is very tough, but also smooth to the touch. It is also conductive and therefore antistatic, so does not attract dirt easily. Furthermore, the surface reflects and diffracts light in a similar way to shiny metal. And, when the owner has grown tired of the gismo and binned it, the thin layer of coal will eventually degrade naturally.

Very cool... I'm all for anything that keeps my devices looking and working better for a longer period of time...

Invention: 'Diamond'-coated gadgets - Yahoo! News UK

Fascinating, and encouraging.

Cheap, safe drug kills most cancers - health - 17 January 2007 - New Scientist

Modafinil is just the first of a wave of new lifestyle drugs that promise to do for sleep what the contraceptive pill did for sex - unshackle it from nature. Since time immemorial, humans have structured their lives around sleep. In the near future, we will, for the first time, be able to significantly structure the way we sleep to suit our lifestyles.

"The more we understand about the body's 24-hour clock the more we will be able to override it," says Russell Foster, a circadian biologist at Imperial College London. "In 10 to 20 years we'll be able to pharmacologically turn sleep off.

Interesting article...don't know whether to be horrified or excited about the prospects of working on my thesis 24 hours a day:)

[ I'm horrified. As much excitement I feel for the prospect of having the time to do all the various personal projects on my mind, the reality is that the 40 hour work week would probably begin to expand naturally. Pretty soon, not sleeping would be the way you get ahead of the competition, and people would be expected (socially i mean) to put in that effort. I already chafe under the existing US system of 40 hour work weeks and 2 weeks off per year... if i had to work more hours, I'd be pretty unhappy.

On top of which, I'm skeptical. Sleep seems pretty fundamental. I'm not in any way convinced that we can ever really do away with it and not face very serious repercussions. -k]

Get ready for 24-hour living

Just a little late night humor...

Diddy's expression is just perfect here...

pdiddy-jessica-biel-stare.jpg (JPEG Image, 400x450 pixels)

Awesome.

Le Grand Content

One of the best tourism marketing sites I've seen... I found it pretty funny.

Bahamavention.com - the web's most powerful Bahamavention website.