XYDO.COM: Japan

'Men in Black 3' takes down 'Avengers' to top weekend box office with $55 million

The suits have knocked off the superheroes at the box office.

Japan tsunami debris hitting West Coast

More than a year after the catastrophe in Japan, beachcombers up and down the West Coast are awaiting the flotsam that was set on a eastward course by the destructive surge of water. Fishing floats, soccer balls, fuel tanks and crewless fishing vessels set adrift by the tsunami and pushed thousands of miles across the ocean by currents and winds are already arriving on American shores. But this is not just driftwood. These fragments of people's lives are floating reminders of a great tragedy: The March 11, 2011, earthquake that unleashed tsunami waves more than 100 feet high killed more than 16,000 people, obliterated coastal communities and swept tons of material out to sea. So as scientists track the debris, the government prepares for its arrival and expeditions sail to the middle of the ocean to meet it, Jeff Larson will patrol his adopted beach with a 5-gallon bucket and a grab stick, the tsunami on his mind. "I'll be looking for any signs of foreign material," the volunteer with beach cleanup group Save Our Shores said, "and reporting it to anyone who cares." From Alaska to Northern California, beachcombers are reporting a growing influx of aerosol cans, fishing floats and plastic fuel cans swept from Japan. There was a soccer ball with Japanese writing on it discovered in March on a remote Alaskan island and traced to a 16-year-old boy in Japan. In early April, the U.S. Coast Guard had to use explosives to sink a so-called ghost ship — a 164-foot Japanese fishing vessel drifting through the Gulf of Alaska. A corroded Harley-Davidson motorcycle packed in a container washed up on a Canadian island. The owner, located through the bike's license plate number, had lost three family members in the tsunami, Japanese media reported. Although currents along the California coast may deflect much of the debris toward Hawaii, environmental groups as far south as San Diego are monitoring their shores just in case. --Tony Barboza Photo: The unmanned Japanese fishing vessel Ryou-un Maru drifts in the Gulf of Alaska after it broke loose in the tsunami following Japan's 2011 earthquake. It later was sunk by the U.S. Coast Guard. (U.S. Coast Guard / April 4, 2012)

Safety fears grow at Japan nuclear plant

A fresh wave of safety concerns has put the government and operators of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster site back on the highest alert

U.S. men arrested in Tokyo after student's death

Two American men have been arrested in Tokyo in connection with the death of a female Irish exchange student, who was found dead in a hotel room early Thursday after attending a Nicki Minaj concert.

Hosono visits Fukushima plant to quell fears over No. 4's pool

Japan's environment and nuclear minister visited the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant Saturday to inspect a spent fuel pool at the centre of safety concerns.

Edano alleges Tepco planned No. 1 pullout

Trade minister Yukio Edano, the government's top spokesman during the March 11 disasters, testified Sunday at the Diet that Tokyo Electric Power Co. considered withdrawing all its workers and abandoning the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant amid the meltdown crisis. Tepco has claimed it always planned to keep key workers at the plant and never considered abandoning it.

Mirai Suenaga Cosplay

Ladies around the world like to cosplay as Mirai Suenaga and if I was a lady too then I would probably do so - but wait - I *can* cosplay as Mirai during the evenings. If you have cosplayed as Mirai (or any of the Mirai Millennium characters) then post a link in the comments with a photo to your work and I'll post it here! If you are attending any anime event that I'm attending, then come to my panel and I'll film you for Culture Japan just like we have done in the past.The lovely Alodia from the Philippines as Mirai in Winter school uniform.From the US hails "Real Saber" Maridah who does a lovely Mirai in Summer uniform.One of Japan's most popular cosplayers Kipi does our Mirai-chan!Awesome cosplay of Mirai in her Solar Marine uniform by Jan from the US.Sweetie Cela Krissel in Mirai Summer uniform. Photo by kazereivolt.Mirai-chan Summer uniform cosplay by Kawon from Japan.Sweetsome Mirai cosplay by mkxxx from Japan.Some beautiful Mirai Summer uniform cosplay by Lucy from Mexico.More Mirai Summer uniform cosplay from the Philippines by SupahGal.Alodia also does Mirai in Summer uniform too!Mari Tan and Peach Hime from the US cosplay as Mirai and Kanata in Summer uniform.LittleYuki from Malaysia in Mirai Maid cosplay.Another one of Jan this time in Summer uniform.Utaco from Japan tries her dab hand at Mirai's Summer uniform.Lucy from Mexico does Mirai in Winter uniform.Mirai Summer uniform by Esther from Singapore.Jessica from Canada does a great Mirai Summer uniform cosplay, and she even made a video!Edelyn from Indonesia does Mirai Summer uniform too.Sweet Mirai in Summer uniform cosplay by Hion from Japan.Jessie from the US does a great Solar Marine uniform cosplay of Mirai.Azhuri from Indonesia does a sweet Mirai Summer uniform cosplay too.Another great cosplay of Mirai in Solar Marine uniform by Hammi from Malaysia!And here's another Summer uniform cosplay by Reyna Toledo from Manila!Winter uniform cosplay by Hime from Indonesia!Great Summer uniform cosplay by AnsaMao from Canada!Summer uniform cosplay by Ai-chan from Japan at NicoNico Chokaigi!Summer uniform cosplay by Asanon from Japan, next to the new Mirai Suenaga Itasha!Summer uniform cosplay by Sachie from Canada - and a video too!Winter uniform cosplay by Shanna Palileo from the Philippines!Kigurumi cosplay by Haru from the US!Check out my lovely daughters who also like to cosplay as mirai-chan! Here we have Karin in Mirai-chan's Summer School Uniform.Yuki in Mirai-chan's Winter School Uniform.Yuki wearing Mirai's Pichi Pichi Bikini.Ryomo in Mirai's Solar Marine Uniform.Saber in Mirai-chan's Maid outfit.And for folks who need Mirai’s Summer Uniform in a rush - its available for purchase at Lucy Pop!These illustrations for your reference if you plan to cosplay as Mirai-chan too! Mirai in her Summer uniform.Mirai in her Winter uniform. Mirai in her Solar Marine uniform.Mirai's weapon of choice - Millennium Blade.The Solar Marine Biostream Boots.Mirai in her Maid outfit.Mirai in her cute bikini!

Worried about security, Lady Gaga cancels Indonesia's 'Born This Way Ball' show

It's final: Lady Gaga's show in Indonesia won't go on. Islamic hard-liners have threatened violence if the pop diva holds her "Born This Way Ball" concert in the world's most populous Muslim country, saying her sexy clothes and provocative dance moves could corrupt youth. Police refused to issue the necessary permits unless she agreed to tone things down. Concert promotion lawyer Minola Sebayang confirmed Sunday that the June 3 show had been canceled. He said, "With threats if the concert goes ahead, Lady Gaga's side is calling off the concert. This is not only about Lady Gaga's security, but extends to those who will be watching her." Indonesia, a nation of 240 million people, was supposed to be the biggest performance on Lady Gaga's Asian tour.

Racing Miku Giveaway

Recently had a giveaway to win this Racing Miku from Good Smile Company over at Facebook - winner announced this morning. But the nice folks at Hobby Search are offering another Racing Miku as a giveaway! This time we'll run the giveaway here at dannychoo.com.To win, all you have to do is leave a comment below with your feedback on what sort of improvements you would like to see around here - it can be anything from "more posts about Japan, figures, dolls or wot not" to "site needs speeding up" or "I want to earn points when I comment so that I can use those points for getting discounts when buying figures online" - leave any feedback that would help me improve the community and content. If you are already content with everything, just leave a comment to let me know what you already like.I'm asking because we are nearing the completion of the Ruby version of Mirai Gaia. As many of you know, Mirai Gaia is the web platform that runs this and all of my client sites too.Ruby will run on Amazon EC2 and will be able to scale as traffic increases. I'm also thinking of merging figure.fm back to this site and include proper comrades functionality so that you can follow the posts belonging to just your comrades. There will be a single Culture Japan account which you can use across a variety of networks too.The main reason why we lost the community was because I could not afford to maintain it - server costs are obscene! Now that my company is making a wee bit of a profit, I can afford to invest into scaling my web properties. All your data is safe and will be available on the new platform too.The new Mirai Gaia will provide you with a bunch of tools to pull and push your content to and from networks such as Flickr, Tumblr, Twitter, Wordpress etc. I want to provide you with tools that make content creation as easy as doing a bottom burp.As I have a large amount of Japanese users too - I want to connect you with them through the new platform which will help you absorb the culture much quicker though making new Japanese friends.If you think that the otaku/Japan content community is missing something and you would like to see it then mention that in your comment too. If you are a dab hand at photoshop, have a good sense of design, can translate from Japanese to English and would like to do some part time work to help out on the up n coming stuff then leave a comment too!Will choose a winner this time next week - the winner will be notified by me replying to your comment below. I'll need your snail mail which I will pass onto Hobby Search - they will send you your Racing Miku when she's out later this year.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries: A "Must Win" Corporate Turnaround for Japan

Will MHI achieve their restructuring goals? We cannot say. What we can say is that substantial failure would imperil not just the company, but Japan and, perhaps, the world. We should all hope they succeed.

M 4.4, off the east coast of Honshu, Japan

May 27, 2012 01:49:52 GMT

M 5.0, Bonin Islands, Japan region

May 26, 2012 17:18:02 GMT

Japan: Fukushima nuclear pool not unstable

Amid concerns of a new disaster should a quake destroy the pool cooling off radioactive nuclear fuel rods at Fukushima's Reactor No. 4, Japan arranged a tour for journalists and declared the situation manageable -- but also very long term.

Japan says Fukushima spent-fuel risk contained

FUKUSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) - Japanese officials said on Saturday the unprecedented effort to remove spent fuel rods from one of the crippled Fukushima nuclear reactors was on track despite lingering concerns about the structure's vulnerability to another earthquake.

Japan says Fukushima spent-fuel risk contained

Japan 'eager' to join trilateral FTA

Japan is becoming increasingly "eager" to join a free trade agreement with China and South Korea while it is unable to join a broader Asian trade pact, and as Beijing and Seoul began negotiations on an agreement, said the Ministry of Commerce. (AsiaOne)

Renesas Electronics could shed up to 14,000 workers

Struggling semiconductor maker Renesas Electronics Corp. is thinking of axing around 14,000 jobs, or about 30 percent of its workforce, as it negotiates the sale of a domestic factory to a Taiwanese company, sources said Saturday. The new job reduction target would be a sharp increase from the 6,000 job cuts previously stated in its restructuring plan, and the company is thinking of achieving the target through voluntary retirements, the sources said.

Irish Woman Found Dead in Tokyo Hotel Room / Two Americans Arrested

An Irish exchange student has been found dead in Tokyo: “Nicola Furlong (21), a Dublin City University student, travelled to Tokyo on an exchange programme last October and was studying in the city. However, she was found dead in a hotel room yesterday after attending a concert.” The Tokyo Shimbun reports that two American citizens, a 23-year-old dancer named James Blackston (ジェイムス・ブラックストン) and an unnamed 19-year-old, have been arrested. Police believe that the men sexually assaulted Furlong and another woman. Marks found on her neck indicate that she was strangled. According to the article, witnesses say that Furlong had been drinking alcohol with another female exchange student in Shibuya on the night of the 24th. They became so drunk that she could not walk, and the two men were seen pushing them into a taxi. Inside the taxi, they allegedly fondled the girls. The taxi took them to a hotel in Shinjuku, where Furlong was found dead the next morning. Japanese netizens have googled around and posted this link (cached) on 2channel, which seems to advertise a professional dancer named James “Kingtight” Blackston (pictured above) who supposedly appeared in music videos for the Black Eyed Peas, Chris Brown, and J. Lo. Another website lists a James Blackston as a dancer for a Omarion & Marques Houston performance in Osaka. — Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe) Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

More Korean Ultra-Nationalism: Dokdo Wine in California / Territorial Dispute Propaganda Ad Appears at Sydney Airport

The Christian Science Monitor reports on yet another episode in the ongoing tale of Korean ultra-nationalists who want the rest of the world to care about the Liancourt Rocks (Takeshima/Dokdo) : “The latest ploy: a Napa Valley wine produced by Korean-American dentist Ahn Jae-hyun at his Dokdo Winery that uses the island post code as its moniker. Illustrating the fervor with which such attempts to garner attention for Korea’s sovereign claims over the outcrop, when the wine debuted on the Korean market the local distributor pledged to donate all proceeds to nonprofit groups promoting Korean sovereign claims in other countries.” Meanwhile, in Australia, Sydney International Airport has suspended a Korean ultra-nationalist ad campaign after receiving a complaint from the local Japanese consulate. The campaign was displaying large images of the Liancourt Rocks declaring them to be Korean territory in the “East Sea.” To the uninformed, it might look like a normal tourism ad. Airport authorities probably accepted the ad campaign without realizing that it was actually the work of anti-Japanese organizations that are obsessed with territorial disputes. — Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe) Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

Japanese economic policy: Aiming for least ugly

From inside Japan, economic policymaking looks like a mess. Six prime ministers in six years. A ruling party that can barely rule. Outstanding government debt worth more than twice the country's economy. (Wall Street Journal)

EU says China, U.S., Japan also have economic work to do

BRUSSELS, May 26 (Reuters) - The United States and Japan must tackle their tax issues and China must relax restrictions on the yuan, as they share responsibility with Europe for restoring global

Dragon makes history with space station docking

The private company SpaceX made history Friday with the docking of its Dragon capsule to the International Space Station, the most impressive feat yet in turning routine spaceflight over to the commercial sector.

NYPD: Person implicated in Etan Patz death

NEW YORK (AP) — A man in custody who has implicated himself in the death of 6-year-old Etan Patz has been tied to the case in the past, a law enforcement official said Thursday. The boy's disappearance 33 years ago on his way to school helped launch a missing children's movement that put kids' faces on milk cartons. The man was picked up late Wednesday in Camden, N.J., and was being questioned Thursday by the Manhattan district attorney's office, which is heading the probe by the FBI and police. The man's emergence as a person of interest was not related to the search of a Manhattan basement in April, according to a person familiar with the investigation. Both the person familiar with the probe and the official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the ongoing probe into the boy's disappearance in 1979. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the man made statements implicating himself in the boy's disappearance, and expected to provide further details Thursday. At the time of the boy's disappearance, the man in custody lived in the same Manhattan neighborhood as Patz. He had been known to detectives for years, but it was unclear what brought them back to him this week. Investigators were still going over details of his story. The development came one day before the anniversary of the boy's disappearance, when detectives traditionally receive a landslide of hoaxes and false leads related to the case. Wearing a backpack, the boy with sandy hair and a toothy grin vanished May 25, 1979, while walking alone to his school bus stop for the first time, two blocks from his home in New York's SoHo neighborhood. There was an exhaustive search by the police and a crush of media attention. The boy's photo was one of the first of a missing child on a milk carton. Thousands of fliers were plastered around the city, buildings canvassed, hundreds of people interviewed. SoHo was not a neighborhood of swank boutiques and galleries as now, but of working-class New Yorkers rattled by the news. Etan's parents, Stan and Julie Patz, were reluctant to move or even change their phone number in case their son tried to reach out. They still live in the same apartment, down the street from the building that was examined in April. They have endured decades of false leads, and a lack of hard evidence. The Patzes are among the residential holdouts in what has become a chic and artsy shopping district. At one point Thursday morning, the actress Meg Ryan — wearing dark glasses despite a drizzle — walked briskly past the scene, ignoring photographers who trailed her. The April excavation of a Manhattan basement yielded no obvious human remains and little forensic evidence that would help solve the decades-long mystery of what happened to the boy. The Patz family did not immediately return a message requesting comment. "I hope this is the end of it," said Roz Radd, who lives a couple of blocks from the Patz family's home and knows Etan's mother casually from walking dogs in the neighborhood. "There's going to be hopefully closure to her, to know what happened to her son." Etan's disappearance touched off a massive search that has ebbed and flowed over the years. It also ushered in an era of anxiety about leaving children unsupervised. In 2010, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. announced he was reinvestigating the case. In the past, the case seemed to have been largely focused on Jose Ramos, a convicted child molester, now serving time in Pennsylvania, who had been dating Etan's baby sitter at the time the boy disappeared. In 2000, authorities dug up Ramos' former basement on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, but nothing turned up. Stan Patz had his son declared legally dead in 2001 so he could sue Ramos, who has never been charged criminally and denies harming the boy. A civil judge in 2004 found him to be responsible for Etan's death. More recently, the focus had shifted to a 75-year-old Brooklyn resident, though he was not named a suspect and denied any involvement. In 1979, he was a handyman who had a workspace in the basement where the April excavation occurred. Associated Press Writers Tom Hays and Karen Matthews contributed to this report.

Grown Woman Watches ‘Star Wars’ for the First Time [LIVE BLOG]

Against all odds, there are people on Earth who haven’t seen Star Wars. And I’m not talking about hunter-gatherers in the Amazon rainforest. I’m talking about people who enjoy indoor plumbing, like my colleague Christine Erickson. For 24 years, she’s been bombarded with quotes, jokes, memes, toys, commercials, sequels, prequels, parodies, marketing and countless cultural references that fly right over her ignorant little head like the Millenium Falcon making the Kessel Run. (She has no idea what I’m talking about there.) Today is auspicious. Thirty-five years ago, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope debuted in theaters, blowing the sideburns off countless ’70s sci-fi nerds. George Lucas created an institution — dare I say, a cultural prerequisite — upon which all subsequent sci-fi owes a debt. How dare you, Christine Erickson, work at a nerd emporium like Mashable having never seen this seminal space opera. Do you think you’re better than us or something? Well, do you? To remedy this affront on humankind, we’ve locked Christine in a windowless storeroom asked Christine to watch Episode IV for the very first time and share her experience live on the web. At 2:00 p.m. ET, we launch her into a galaxy far, far away, and you can follow her journey right here in this very post. You can also play along on social media: Follow Christine’s tweets: @christerickson. Follow the official hashtag: #StarWarsVirgin. Lots of awesome people will be chiming in! Follow the plot of the movie in real time as it unfolds: @StarWarsPlot. Lots of people have RSVPed for the event on Facebook. See what they’re talking about! Check in to Star Wars and follow along with Mashable on GetGlue. Be sure to use the hashtag #StarWarsVirgin when you share your updates. We want to hear from you! Are you shocked that someone has never seen this movie before? Are you a Star Wars virgin yourself? Every tweet with the hashtag #StarWarsVirgin will be seen by our team, and the funniest, nerdiest, craziest ones will be included in our live blog, right here on Mashable. So, fire up your hyperdrive and join us for this special, social experiment. A huge thanks to Nick McKaig for providing the soundtrack to our video above. If you haven’t checked out his amazing acapella arrangement of the Star Wars theme, you’re really missing out. You can also download the track from iTunes. What better way to geek out on this holiest of holidays? More About: Entertainment, features, Film, humor, live blog, Movies, Sci-Fi, Social Media, Star Wars, trending, TwitterFor more Entertainment coverage:Follow Mashable Entertainment on TwitterBecome a Fan on FacebookSubscribe to the Entertainment channelDownload our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

Japanese Girl-Band Wants You (To Buy Japanese Government Bonds)

Whether it was Captain America's roadshow or Uncle-Sam 'wanting' your help, the US always seemed to maintain some semblance of class when propagandizing its citizens into buying its government bonds. Whether for patriotic or xenophobic reasons, it appeared to work. Japan, though, with its increasingly desperate demographic situation, deficits, downgrades, and well, general malaise of Koo/Keynesian-stuffed economic stagnation has turned to the next best thing - the all-girl band AKB48. As The Telegraph notes today, the all-female pop group will headline a summer campaign for "reconstruction bonds" aimed at financing projects in regions hammered by last year's quake-tsunami disaster. The debt campaign will see AKB48 - comprising about 90 performers, ranging in age from early teens to mid-20s - joined by sumo wrestling's champion Hakuho and female football star Homare Sawa, Japan's Jiji press agency reported. The group's bubblegum pop and synchronized dancing has proved a huge hit with young girls. Perhaps more disturbingly (and why Japan chose them maybe?) - running the gamut from girl-next-door to sultry temptress, the band also has a substantial male following - many of whom are older - who support a vast merchandising industry. Japan has the industrialized world's worst public debt, amounting to more than twice its gross domestic product - topping hard-hit eurozone countries including Greece, which have drawn fire from foreign investors over their fiscal management. On the bright side, AKB48 have also promoted the government's suicide prevention program and appeared in a farm ministry rice campaign. All of this makes us wonder - Forget AKB48, how long until AK47 in musical, or primarily otherwise, format is used to encourage lending to sovereigns all around the "developed" world?

Flesh-Eating Disease Lands Man in Same Hospital as Aimee Copeland

A Georgia landscaper is battling flesh-eating disease at the same Augusta hospital as Aimee Copeland, the 24-year-old student who lost her leg to the deadly infection. Robert Vaughn, 32, contracted necrotizing fasciitis after cutting on his thigh while trimming weeds May 4, three days after Aimee Copeland sliced open her calf falling from a homemade zip line near the Little Tallapoosa River. Vaughn went to a hospital in Cartersville, Ga., where doctors gave him a prescription for antibiotics and recommended he stay for observation, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. But Vaughn, "being the man that I am," went home and watched the painful gash swell from the size of a peanut to that of a grapefruit. He returned the next day and underwent emergency surgery. "It was that bad," he told the newspaper, describing how doctors removed some of the infected flesh and sent him to Doctor's Hospital in Augusta for more surgeries. "They told me I was close to death." It took five surgeries to remove more than two pounds of tissue infected by bacteria that burrowed deep into Vaughn's wound. "The bacteria produce enzymes that can dissolve muscle deep down," said Dr. William Schaffner, chair of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., and president of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. "And because it's so deep, it can be a sneaky infection that's not immediately appreciated by the patient." The symptom that should ring alarm bells, according to Schaffner, is "serious, unremitting pain." "An otherwise healthy individual with a seemingly superficial injury who has severe pain should have a much more thorough evaluation," he said. Indeed Vaughn said the pain was so bad he "could hardly move," the AJC reported. Vaughn is expected to undergo skin grafts today to replace some of the tissue removed during surgery. "They have to rebuild my groin area," he told the AJC. "But I'm feeling much better now." Vaughn was at one point next door to Copeland, who is slowly recovering from the infection that claimed her left leg and threatens to take her right foot and both hands. The two cases occurred 54 miles apart. "Ironic? I don't know what the right word is," Jeff Buzhardt, Vaughn's brother-in-law, told ABC News. Copeland's infection was the work of Aeromonas hydrophila, a bacteria that thrives in warm climates and fresh water like the river where Copeland was zip lining with friends. Doctor's Hospital spokeswoman Barclay Bishop said she couldn't comment on the cause of Vaughn's infection, stating only that he was in good condition. She added that 8.5 percent of the hospital's intensive care patients in 2011 were admitted for necrotizing fasciitis. "It's not uncommon for us to have these kinds of patients," she said. "[Aimee Copeland's] obviously a more extreme case than what we're used to seeing, but it's not uncommon for a hospital to have this." Vaughn is the third person to contract flesh-eating disease in Georgia in three weeks. Lana Kuykendall, 36, developed necrotizing fasciitis May 11 after giving birth to twins at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. She is reportedly in critical but stable condition. Doctors say the cases are rare and unrelated. To reduce the risk of necrotizing fasciitis, all wounds big and small should be immediately cleaned, treated with antimicrobial ointment and covered with sterile bandages, according to the National Necrotizing Fasciitis Foundation.

The agony of Japan Inc.

Companies like Apple, IBM and Microsoft once stood in the shadow of much larger and more powerful Japanese electronics giants. Those days are long gone -- and, lately, it looks like they may never come back. By Kevin Kelleher, contributor "This country is in a war and some people understand it and some people are siding with the enemy."FORTUNE -- Believe it or not, someone once wrote those paranoid words about Japanese corporations. It was only two decades ago, when people fretted – wrongly, if profitably – about the awful and certain specter of Japan eating America's economic lunch. I found that paranoid quote in Rising Sun, the forgettably terrible 1992 airport novel about American cops foiling Japan Inc. with videotapes (consumer goods almost certainly manufactured by Japan Inc.). But it wasn't only Michael Crichton profiting from such cultural hypochondria. Nonfiction bestsellers in that bygone era included Karel van Wolferen's Enigma of Japanese Power, Clyde Prestowitz's Trading Places, and Pat Choate's Agents of Influence. They were all bad books, and the only reason to remember them now is to measure the high watermark of innovative power that Japan's electronic giants once touched, albeit briefly, before falling again. And falling hard. There was a time when companies like Apple (AAPL), IBM (IBM) and Microsoft (MSFT) stood in the shadow of Japanese electronic giants like Sony (SNE), Panasonic (PC), Sharp (SHCAY) and Nintendo (NTDOY). But no more. MORE: Why LinkedIn fiddles as Facebook burns What happened? In the U.S., investments by venture capital in emerging Internet technology fostered startups like Google and Facebook into giants. IBM and Apple took bold steps to find new markets – and Microsoft is in the midst of doing the same. It wasn't U.S. trade policy that silenced the Japanophobes, it was the rise of the Internet in general, and the web in particular Japan's electronics conglomerates never really understood the web, no matter how they tried. They could follow the web, but never for a moment did they ever show that they could lead it into new territory. And the web is all about exploring new territory. So while there were a number of bestsellers that tried to warn of the rise of Japan Inc., there were few if any that explained what went wrong. There was the bust of the Japanese stock bubble, and the subsequent two decades of deflation. There was the sclerotic tendency of Japanese companies to stubbornly cling – long after they made economic sense - to practices that led to its rise: cross-shareholding, an obscure intimacy with government bureaucrats and a sense that the corporation knew better than the consumer what was best. Japanese electronics companies thrived in the 80s and early 90s because of a mix of high quality and low prices. Their domestic consumers subsidized the low prices of Japanese electronics goods abroad. But once the Japanese stock bubble burst, it took only a few years for Sony, Panasonic and others to cut back on the R&D budgets that were their lifebood. MORE: So, is there a tech bubble or not? So the first iPod disrupted the Sony Walkman as the must-have portable audio player (the brief, wondrous life of the Sony Discman notwithstanding). Nintendo and Sega (SGAMY) yielded video-game dominance to Electronic Arts (EA) and Activision (ATVI), and later Zynga (ZNGA) and Rubio. Stereos and TVs made bearing the Sony and Panasonic names were supplanted by obscure brands like Vizio, Sonos and Roku. The damage can be measured in the stocks of these electronics mammoths. Sony, once the most prestigious brand in consumer electronics, has seen its ADRs lose 72% of its value in the past five years. Sharp's has lost 76% of its value, Panasonic's 66% and Nintendo 60%. Olympus (OCPNY), which has been mired in one of the worst financial scandals since Enron, has oddly fared relatively better. Its ADRs are down only 59% in the past five years. So what does that say about its worse-performing peers? The damage can be explained in the markets that these once-dominant companies have focused on – and avoided. What were Kodak moments are now captured on smartphones, and the standalone camera has become a high-end device for hard-core shutterbugs. Stereo systems have become similarly bifurcated: Either they're portable enough for anywhere-anytime music playing, or they're complex enough to satisfy the extreme audiophile. And television sets, long the bread and butter of Japan's electronics giants? They are becoming ancillary devices, the hi-def screens for movies and TV programming streamed across the Internet. Yes, the Internet, that Achilles heel of Japanese electronics manufacturers. Consumers are satisfied to watch a ball game on their laptops, or a movie on their phone in the airport. MORE: How Yahoo can get its mojo back The traditional TV set that Japan once specialized in has to get bigger, fancier and more extreme to compete with the smaller, yet more mobile screens. But the real threat is that video is going handheld. And Japan has never had a stronghold in smartphones and laptops. Those markets belong to Apple and Samsung. And even the Internet-connected TV appears ready to defect to Apple. Then there's the terminology. Sony, Sharp, etc., have always been called electronics companies. If electronics was a sexy name for an industry 30 or 40 years ago, it sounds archaic now: Electricity is a utility, not a novelty. Even the Internet or the web sounds a little dated now, which is why we reach for new terms like the social web or the semantic web. Or even fret over the demise of Silicon Valley. And Japan's electronics makers? They're even further behind. But it's not because of any revenge of American ingenuity. As the paranoid cop in Crichton's Rising Sun noted, Japan has indeed been in a war. But over the past decade or so, it's been clear Japan's worst enemy is itself. Kevin Kelleher is a writer in the San Francisco Bay Area. You are always welcome to sit at hiscafeteria table on Twitter. Filed under: Contributors

Japan hires top girlband AKB48 to sell government bonds

AKB48 sold more than $200m-worth of CDs and DVDs last year.

Egypt to pick Islamist or military man as president

CAIRO (Reuters) - The Muslim Brotherhood said on Friday its candidate in Egypt's first free presidential vote had won through to a run-off next month against ex-air force chief Ahmed Shafiq, who was deposed leader Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister. This week's first-round vote has polarised Egyptians between those determined to avoid handing the presidency back to a man from Mubarak's era and those fearing an Islamist monopoly of ruling institutions. The run-off is planned for June 16 and 17. The election marks a crucial step in a messy and often bloody transition to democracy, overseen by a military council that has pledged to hand power to a new president by July 1. The second round threatens further turbulence. Opponents of Shafiq have vowed to take to the streets if he is elected. But to supporters, Shafiq's military background offers reassurance that he can restore order on the streets, a major demand of the population 15 months after Mubarak's ouster. A Shafiq presidency would also mean smoother relations between the head of state and the powerful military. "It is clear that the run-off will be between (the Brotherhood's) Mohamed Mursi and Ahmed Shafiq," a Brotherhood election official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters. The Brotherhood's Guidance Office, its top body, was meeting to mull a campaign "to galvanise Islamists and Egyptian voters to face the bloc of the 'feloul'," he said, using a scornful Arabic term for "remnants" of Mubarak's order. Official results are not due to be announced until next week, but representatives of the candidates are allowed to watch the count, enabling them to compile their own tally. The Brotherhood official said that with votes counted from about 12,800 of the roughly 13,100 polling stations, Mursi had 25 percent, Shafiq 23 percent, a rival Islamist Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh 20 percent and leftist Hamdeen Sabahy 19 percent. No comments from any of the dozen candidates or state election officials were immediately available. Election committee officials had said late on Thursday as counting began that turnout was about 50 percent of Egypt's 50 million eligible voters. The Brotherhood official, however, said about 20 million votes were cast, or about 40 percent. The Brotherhood, Egypt's most organised political group, has already secured the biggest bloc for its party in parliament after an earlier vote. Long repressed and banned under Mubarak, the 84-year-old Islamist group has a broad grassroots base. Many Egyptians, including those who saw the revolt against Mubarak as a matter of national pride not religion, fret about Islamist gains since his fall. Christians, who form a tenth of the population and who already complain of discrimination, worry that Islamists in power could marginalise them further. "We are confident that the next president of Egypt is Mohamed Mursi," said Essam el-Erian, a senior official in the Muslim Brotherhood's party, said after early counting. If Mursi becomes president, Islamists will control most ruling institutions - but not the military - in Egypt, the most populous Arab nation, consolidating electoral gains made by fellow-Islamists in other Arab countries in the past year. The powers of Egypt's next president remain undefined because of a tussle over who will write the new constitution. He could be restricted by generals determined to retain their privileges and influence, even after the promised handover. First-round voting was held in a calm atmosphere over two days with polls closing late on Thursday. Monitors did not report any major infringements that would invalidate the vote, although some candidates grumbled about their rivals' conduct. A page on Facebook, a medium used to devastating effect in the revolt against Mubarak, was launched on Thursday and threatened a "revolution" if Shafiq or another former minister under Mubarak, Amr Moussa, was elected.

Apple's Cook takes pass on stock dividend

Apple Inc. Chief Executive Tim Cook will not be earning dividend income on the more than 1 million shares to which he is entitled, which will cost him about $75 million.Apple said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday that Cook had asked to be excluded from a recently instituted company program through which employees can accumulate dividends on their restricted stock units that are still vesting. Asked why Cook was doing this, Apple declined to comment beyond the filing.Cook, who took over as chief executive from late co-founder Steve Jobs in August, has 1.125 million outstanding restricted Apple shares that are vesting over the next 10 years.In January, Apple's board granted Cook 1 million restricted stock units (RSUs) for running the company during Jobs' medical leaves and as a retention tool. Half of those are due to vest in 2016 and the rest in 2021.Apple said in March that it would pay a cash dividend of $2.65 per share to its shareholders.

Senate rejects GOP, Dem plans on student loans

WASHINGTON, DC - The Senate has rejected Democratic and Republican plans for averting a doubling of interest rates on federal college loans for 7.4 million students.The election-season standoff means efforts to resolve the dispute will be delayed until next month. Beginning July 1, interest rates for subsidized Stafford loans for undergraduates would double to 6.8 percent without congressional action.Preventing that increase has been a priority for President Barack Obama.Senators voted 62-34 against the GOP proposal and 51-43 for the Democratic bill on Thursday, with each falling well-shy of the 60 votes needed for approval of the $6 billion measures.The Republican measure was paid for by eliminating a preventive health program created by Obama. Democrats would boost payroll taxes on owners of some private companies. WASHINGTON, DC - The Senate has rejected Democratic and Republican plans for averting a doubling of interest rates on federal college loans for 7.4 million students.The election-season standoff means efforts to resolve the dispute will be delayed until next month. Beginning July 1, interest rates for subsidized Stafford loans for undergraduates would double to 6.8 percent without congressional action.Preventing that increase has been a priority for President Barack Obama.Senators voted 62-34 against the GOP proposal and 51-43 for the Democratic bill on Thursday, with each falling well-shy of the 60 votes needed for approval of the $6 billion measures.The Republican measure was paid for by eliminating a preventive health program created by Obama. Democrats would boost payroll taxes on owners of some private companies.

Alaskan crews gear up to tackle Japan tsunami debris

* Japan estimates 1.5 million tons of debris still afloat

Harvard alumni group apologizes for Unabomber entry in directory

Kaczynski is escorted into the federal courthouse in Helena, Mont., April 4, 1996. (AP/File) Harvard University's alumni association has issued an apology for references made by Ted Kaczynski, a graduate of Harvard's Class of 1962, in the school's latest directory. A spokesman for Harvard told Boston.com that Kaczynski, the so-called "Unabomber," submitted the entry for the directory himself. "While all members of the class who submit entries are included, we regret publishing Kaczynski's references to his convictions and apologize for any distress that it may have caused others," the Harvard Alumni Association said in a statement on Wednesday. Kaczynski was convicted in 1998 of killing three and injuring 23 in a mail-bombing spree spanning three decades. The alumni report issued before the class' 50th reunion listed Kaczynski's occupation as "prisoner," "8 life sentences" under the "Awards" section and home address as his Colorado prison cell: "No. 04475-046, US Penitentiary—Max, P.O. Box 8500, Florence, CO 8126-8500." "It's funny," Gary Peterson, a fellow graduate of the Class of '62, told the Harvard Crimson. "He's more famous than anyone else in our class." While other Harvard alums, like Peterson, were amused by the listing, Kaczynski's victims were not. "It's very chilling," David Gelernter, a Yale professor who lost a hand and eye to one of a Kaczynski's mail bombs, told the Boston Herald. "He's an unrepentant terrorist murderer who cut people, and slashed people to death in their kitchens, leaving them to bleed, while he hid in a shack somewhere in the West. For some institution to lend authority to him, well, I can't believe such things happen in the United States." Gelernter added: "The new criminals here are the publishers of this 'Red Book,' for their passive collusion with this murderer." • iFound you: Woman posts pictures from her stolen iPhone on Facebook

Senate committee cuts Pakistan aid over conviction - The Associated Press

A Senate panel expressed its outrage over Pakistan's conviction of a doctor who helped the U.S. track down Osama bin Laden, cutting aid to Islamabad by $33 million—$1 million for every year of the physician's sentence.

Presidential vote polarizes Egyptians

CAIRO (Reuters) - Millions of Egyptians, choosing their leader freely for the first time in their history, voted on Thursday in a fraught contest between Islamists and former officials of President Hosni Mubarak who was toppled in a popular uprising last year. After six decades under authoritarian, military-backed rule, Egypt's 50 million eligible voters may entrust the most populous Arab nation to an Islamist president for the next four years, alongside the Islamist-led parliament they elected earlier. But secular figures like ex-Arab League chief Amr Moussa, 75, and Mubarak's last premier Ahmed Shafiq, 70, are in with a chance, appealing to Egyptians wary of radical change. If no one wins more than half the votes needed for outright victory in Wednesday and Thursday's first round, the top two candidates will contest a June 16 and 17 run-off. Initial results may emerge well before Tuesday's official announcement. With two days of voting in the first round almost over, Egyptians seemed increasingly polarized between those determined to avoid handing the presidency back a man from Mubarak's era and those fearing an Islamist monopoly of ruling institutions. Some voiced fears of a backlash on the streets, particularly if Shafiq, who like Mubarak was air force commander, triumphs. Protesters hurled stones and shoes at Shafiq when he voted in Cairo on Wednesday. "If Shafiq or Moussa wins, they will create a revolution. Everyone will go down to Tahrir again," said one voter, Sherif Abdelaziz, 30, who backs the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Mursi. Shafiq and Mursi supporters clashed in a village north of Cairo on Thursday, wounding five people, police sources said. A page on Facebook, a medium used to devastating effect against Mubarak, was launched on Thursday entitled: "I am the first martyr of the revolution if Moussa or Shafiq wins." The mother of Khaled Said, the activist whose death in 2010 at the hands of police helped galvanize anti-Mubarak protests, also derided "feloul", or remnants of the old order. "Khaled died for his country. Youth like him are entitled to a better future. If any of the feloul win, it would be because the vote was rigged. Egyptians will never retreat from their revolution," Said's mother Leila told Reuters by telephone. The strongest Islamist candidates are Mohamed Mursi, 60, of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's most influential political group, and ex-Brotherhood member Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh, 60. Leftist Hamdeen Sabahy, 57, is a dark horse in the race. As evening fell, Moussa made an 11th-hour appeal for Egyptians to head to the polls. "Grab the chance of the last few hours to go down. It is vital that they vote ... Go down, take part in building the new Egypt," he told reporters, walking near his campaign office. He stopped to shake hands with motorists stuck in the jam created by the scene. "It's the president," shouted one woman. Some voters voice disappointment with the performance of parliament, where the Brotherhood's party has the biggest bloc. The assembly has been unable to assert itself over the government appointed by the generals who took over from Mubarak. Alarmed by rising crime, disorder and a failing economy, some Egyptians favor a man with government or military experience, even if he harks back to the Mubarak era. In an angry exchange as voting drew to a close, Moussa accused Shafiq of underhand methods and spreading "lies" that he had quit the race, saying Shafiq should withdraw himself. Shafiq responded: "How can I pull out if all the voting centers say Amr Moussa is finished and ... has no chance?" Voters queued patiently, determined not to miss their chance to influence the first round. The government declared Thursday a public holiday to allow state employees to cast their vote. According to election consultant Ossama Kamel, fewer abuses have occurred in this vote than in the parliamentary poll that ended in January, partly because of lessons learned then. "We have seen a lot better control of campaigning on election day than during the parliamentary vote when there were lots of violations, with candidates and their supporters hustling people outside polling stations," he told Reuters. The vote marks a crucial stage in a turbulent army-led transition racked by protests, violence and political disputes. The generals who took charge when Mubarak was ousted on February 11, 2011, have pledged to hand over to the new president by July 1. Even then the army, whose grip reaches deep into government and the economy, is likely to wield influence for years to come. A tussle over who should write the constitution also means the new president will not know his own powers when he is elected. Egyptians accustomed to the routinely forged votes of Mubarak's era have relished the uncertainty of the election. "This is the first time we can really choose our president and no one will mess with the result," said Ahmed Shaltout, a 36-year-old lawyer who said he would vote for Mursi. Explaining why he favored Moussa, Mohamed Salem, a shopkeeper near the Pyramids, said: "I want security and prosperity like before. We in the tourism sector were the most hurt. We could not count the number of tourists coming into our shops every day. Now we hardly need our fingers to count them." The next president will face huge tasks in reviving Egypt's wilting economy and restoring security. The sprawling police force, which virtually collapsed during the anti-Mubarak revolt, is only a shadow of its once-feared presence. Security is Shafiq's strongest card. A former aviation minister, he was appointed prime minister days before Mubarak fell and quit soon afterwards in response to popular protests. He is also favored by many of Egypt's 10 percent Christian minority, fearful of the rising power of Islamists. "We all need a president who will curb the Islamist or any other non-moderate current in society. Shafiq can do this because he will be a powerful president," said Samuel George, a Christian in Alexandria, Egypt's second city. Mubarak, 84, is contemplating the spectacle of a free election from the upscale Cairo hospital where he is confined while on trial for ordering the killing of protesters and for corruption. A verdict is due on June 2, two weeks before any presidential run-off. A death sentence is possible but unlikely. (Additional reporting by Tom Perry, Edmund Blair and Marwa Awad; Writing by Samia Nakhoul; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

Quebec Students Protesting Tuition Hikes Organize on Twitter

The hundreds of protesters that were arrested on Wednesday evening in the Canadian province of Quebec for rallying against university tuition hikes have been organizing their efforts on social media for months. The tuition hikes, which would raise university costs in Quebec by $300 each year for seven years, were first proposed in February. Students and their supporters immediately began rallies to bring attention to the issue, while some argued that the hike is needed for budgetary reasons. Talks between students and government officials to come to an agreement on the tuition increase have fallen apart several times. The tipping point came Wednesday evening when the rallies intensified and ended in hundreds of arrests. Thousands of students and their supporters poured into the streets of Quebec’s two biggest cities, Montreal and Quebec City, banging pots and pans in a protest that was organized on Twitter with the hashtags #manifencours (French for “manifestation en cours,” or “protest happening now”) and #casserole (French for “pan”). By Thursday morning, almost 700 protesters were arrested by Quebec police, according to the BBC. The increased protesting came after the Quebec government passed a controversial rule, Bill 78, which outlawed protesting without prior approval from the police. Mashable has collected a sampling of tweets, twitpics and videos from this week’s heavy protests and arrests throughout Quebec. Check them out below. Is organizing over Twitter the “new normal” for protestors? Sound off in the comments below. [View the story "Quebec Student Protests on Social Media" on Storify] Thumbnail image courtesy of Flickr, Tina Mailhot-Roberge More About: Canada, quebec, Social Media, Twitter, World

Fukushima Radiation Higher Than Estimates

The amount of radiation released from last year's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant accident in Japan was higher than previous government figures have shown, plant operator Tepco said.

Hewlett Packard Slashes Jobs: Can Meg Whitman Save H-P? - Yahoo Finance

The former eBay executive who was hired as H-P chief last September announced the company would lay off about eight percent of its 300,000 workforce over the next two years, one of many changes that are coming to the troubled personal computer maker. Wall Street responded positively to the news, pushing H-P stock (HPQ) up more than five percent early Thursday morning. The layoffs, which are expected to save H-P $3 billion to $3.5 billion annually, are just one phase of a restructuring designed to deemphasize the relatively low-margin PC and printer business and instead focus on the more promising cloud computing services. H-P said its profit in the last quarter fell 31 percent from the same period a year ago and revenue declined three percent. The company reported net income of 80 cents a share in the second quarter compared with $2.3 billion, or $1.05 a share a year ago, above analysts' expectations. H-P also raised its full-year earnings-per-share outlook largely due to the expected savings in personnel cuts. With the stock having dropped 40 percent over the last 12 months, the Street's positive response to the earnings release had less to do with the numbers and more to do with H-P trying something else. Whitman addressed the layoffs in a conference call with reporters, saying they "adversely impact people's lives, but in this case, they are absolutely critical to the long-term health of the company." In a note to clients, research firm Ovum wrote "HP's restructuring is painful but necessary in order to restore market and customer confidence after two years of turmoil. What's somewhat encouraging is HP's indication that most restructuring savings will be directed toward R&D — a part of HP's legacy and history which the company has sorely undervalued in the past few years, but which will be a critical component of HP's recovery in new product and service development…the key missing piece is [Whitman's] long-term company vision and strategy, which hopefully will be revealed to an anxious customer base soon. Even with this restructuring, the question still remains: Just what kind of company does HP want to be next year, three years, five years from now?" Analysts and industry insiders have noticed the new direction Whitman has taken the company in the few months since she took over at H-P. She jettisoned the company's plan to spin off its PC business, an idea heavily promoted by her predecessor, former CEO Leo Apotheker. The ultimate question centers on whether she can stabilize the company and steer it from a staid computer maker back into the technology behemoth that it was. As Aaron Task and Jeff Macke point out in the accompanying video, H-P has been in a 10-year slump. Earnings are shrinking, margins are down and the company is positioned poorly compared to its competitors. Whitman may be the last chance for H-P to reverse its downward trajectory. "They're moving forward as opposed to trying to maintain this dominance," Macke says. "We've gotten rid of all the legacy on the board. We have grown up management now."

Cops: Man claims role in Patz disappearance

New York City police said today a person in custody has implicated himself in the death of Etan Patz, the 6-year-old boy whose disappearance 33 years ago helped launch a missing children's movement that put kids' faces on milk cartons.

Fukushima gets mixed radiation report from WHO

Agency says radiation exposure from nuclear power plant's meltdown was below levels thought to increase risk of cancer, but infants in one town could be at greater risk of thyroid cancerRadiation exposure caused by last year's accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was below levels thought to increase the risk of cancer in almost all parts of Japan, according to a World Health Organisation report.But in its preliminary estimate[pdf] released on Wednesday, the WHO said infants in one town near the plant could be at a greater risk of developing thyroid cancer after exposure to radioactive iodine-131.The study is the first by a UN agency since the Fukushima plant was hit by a 14-metre tsunami following a magnitude-9.0 earthquake on 11 March last year. The wave knocked out the facility's back-up power supply, causing three of its six reactors to suffer meltdown.The independent experts who compiled the report said that people in the towns of Namie, located inside the 12-mile nuclear evacuation zone, and Iitate, which lies 25 miles north-west of Fukushima Daiichi, may have received the highest doses, of between 10 millisieverts a year and 50mSv in the wake of the accident.Infants in Namie were thought to have received thyroid radiation doses of between 100 and 200mSv a year. "That would be one area because of the estimated high dose that we would have to keep an eye on," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl told Reuters. "Below 100mSv, the studies have not been conclusive."Radioactive iodine-131 accumulates in the thyroid gland, and children are known to be particularly at risk of developing cancer.In a separate interim report, the UN's scientific committee on the effects of radiation (Unscear) said that none of the deaths of six plant workers since last March was related to radiation. It added that several workers had been "irradiated after contamination of their skin", but that no clinically observable health effects had been reported.A Unscear spokesman in Vienna said the six workers' deaths had been caused by accidents and health problems that preceded their time at the plant. They included a man in his 40s who died from acute leukaemia, and another who fell from a ladder. Two men are thought to have drowned in the basement of a reactor turbine building when the tsunami struck the plant.While little is known about the possible health effects of long-term exposure to radiation below 100mSv a year, UN experts say people exposed to higher levels are at a slightly greater risk of developing cancer. The threshold for acute radiation syndrome is about 1Sv (1000mSv).Japan's government hopes to keep public exposure from the accident below 20mSv a year, but eventually wants to bring levels in areas contaminated by the accident to 1mSv a year or below. Natural background radiation around the world is about 2.4mSv a year.The 124-page WHO report, compiled using data provided by Japanese authorities, found that doses in other parts of Fukushima prefecture were within the typical 1-10mSv range, while those in the rest of Japan stood at just 0.1-1 mSv.Despite fears in other countries that they have been exposed to dangerous radiation leaks, the report said levels were below 0.01mSv – or about half the dose received during a chest X-ray – in other parts of the world, including in neighbouring South Korea.The experts based their assessments on data on the amount of radioactivity in the air, soil, water and food supplies after the disaster. "In these most affected locations, external exposure is the major contributor to the effective dose," the WHO said.The experts conceded they had made assumptions based on limited information – including the composition and dispersion of radioactive clouds – but insisted that every effort had been made "to avoid any underestimation of doses".The WHO report said that the lifetime dose in Fukushima was expected to be lower than that among people exposed after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986."The experience of the Chernobyl accident was that about 30% of the lifetime dose was delivered during the first year and about 70% during the first 15 years," it said."On the basis of environmental activity concentration data, it can be expected that the fraction of the lifetime dose beyond the first year will be lower for the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident than for the Chernobyl accident."JapanJapan disasterFukushimaNuclear powerJustin McCurryguardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Obama Wants Government Agencies to Focus on Mobile Apps

President Barack Obama has ordered all government agencies to offer more of their services in the form of mobile apps. A new memo called “Digital Government: Building a 21st Century Platform to Better Serve the American People” requires each agency to make at least two services, used by the public, available on mobile devices within 12 months. “For far too long, the American people have been forced to navigate a labyrinth of information across different Government programs in order to find the services they need,” says the memo. “Americans deserve a government that works for them anytime, anywhere, and on any device,” Obama said in a statement. Agencies are also required to provide online resources for third party developers, and make their data open and machine-readable by default. Finally, agencies are required to create a page on their websites (URL format being www.[agency].gov/digitalstrategy) within 90 days and publicly report on progress in meeting these new requirements. “The initiatives we’re launching today will make government data resources even more accessible to the public and to entrepreneurs who can turn these data into services,” said U.S. Chief Technology Officer Todd Park. The new White House directive is available (in PDF format) here. More About: agencies, apps, Mobile, obamaFor more Mobile coverage:Follow Mashable Mobile on TwitterBecome a Fan on FacebookSubscribe to the Mobile channelDownload our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

A smoke-free country? New Zealand taxes aim for it

There are smoke-free bars, smoke-free parks, even smoke-free college campuses. But a smoke-free country? New Zealand's government on Thursday squeezed smokers more than ever by announcing a 40 percent hike in tobacco taxes over the next four years. Prices there are already among the highest in the world, and by 2016 they will top 20 New Zealand dollars ($15) a pack on average. Officials hope higher taxes and new restrictions will bring the nation of 4.4 million closer to a recent pledge to snuff out the habit entirely by 2025. Other countries have lauded the idea of trying to wean their populace off tobacco, but few, if any, have been willing to put a date on it. Health officials here are so serious they recently considered hiking the cost of a pack of cigarettes to 100 New Zealand dollars ($75). Although that idea was dismissed, another measure, which will force retailers to hide cigarettes below the counter rather than putting them on display, will come into effect in July. Smoking rates among New Zealand adults have fallen from about 30 percent in 1986 to about 20 percent today. Cigarette sales have fallen more sharply, suggesting that even people who haven't quit cut back as prices rose. People who are still smoking aren't happy about where prices are going. Chris Hobman said the cost is "horrendous" and could drive some low-income people to commit crimes to support their habit. He said the government needs to provide more support and alternatives to smokers if it's serious about making them quit. Wellington resident Hayley Mauriohooho, who has smoked for about 20 years, said that although it would be good if more people quit, higher taxes won't stop her. "It's quite ridiculous for the government to be concentrating on that," she said. "They have bigger things to worry about." New Zealand's Cancer Society reacted to Thursday's announcement by sending out a press release titled "Thumbs Up!" Michael Calhoun, a spokesman for the anti-smoking lobby group ASH, said the fact that a higher percentage of low-income people smoke will mean the tax increases will force many to cut back or quit entirely because they simply won't be able to afford their habit. The New Zealand branch of cigarette company British American Tobacco says the tax increases will force consumers to turn to the black market. "Consumer demand is far better served by legitimate companies than by the illegal operators that will surely grow as the government makes it increasingly difficult for people to buy their product of choice," wrote Susan Jones, head of corporate and regulatory affairs, in an email. So far, New Zealand officials have seen few cases of illegal tobacco sales. The South Pacific nation's smoking statistics are similar to those in other developed countries. According to a 2011 study by the World Health Organization, about 20 percent of adult New Zealanders smoke. That compares to about 16 percent of adults in the U.S., 17 percent in Australia, 23 percent in China and 27 percent in France. New Zealand already charges more than 70 percent tax on cigarettes, compared to 41 percent on average for China, 45 percent on average for the U.S., 64 percent for Australia and 80 percent for France. ___ Follow Nick Perry on Twitter at http://twitter.com/nickgbperry

U.S. female soldiers sue to lift combat ban

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two female soldiers filed suit on Wednesday to scrap the U.S. military's restrictions on women in combat, claiming the policy violated their constitutional rights.

Nikki Haley Tries To Capitalize Off Video of Union Leader Smashing Pinata

Republicans are trying to capitalize off a recent video featuring a South Carolina AFL-CIO leader bashing a piñata bearing the face of South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. Haley sent out a donation request via Twitter, calling on people to stand with her against what she calls "bullying" from union leaders. "Stand with me and help fight back now against the bullying of Liberal unions. Donate here," Haley tweeted along with a link to a fundraising page featuring the video. And the Republican Governors Association released a one minute video called "Does President Obama Condone This?" linking Obama to the incident. The video features a clip of President Obama from March when he condemned the controversial comments Rush Limbaugh made about a Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown law student and contraception activist, inter-spliced with footage of the piñata smashing incident. "I thought about Malia and Sasha and one of the things I want them to do as they get older is to engage in issues they care about…and I don't want them attacked," the clip shows President Obama saying, followed by video of Donna Dewitt, the outgoing S.C. AFL-CIO president, wailing away at the piñata as someone shouts, "Wait till her face comes around and whack her." "Or called horrible names because they're being good citizens," the clip of Obama continues. "Being a part of a democracy involves argument and disagreements and debate and we want you to be engaged and there's a way to do it that doesn't involve you being demeaned and insulted." The video ends with the phrase "Does President Obama condone this kind of behavior from union bosses?" emblazoned across the screen as Dewitt continues to pound the Haley piñata. Dewitt told ABC News Tuesday that there was "no ill intent" behind the incident. "We've been the brunt of her comments now for two years and that's what the whole thing was. She's been whacking at us over the last two years," Dewitt, who has been president of the South Carolina AFL-CIO for the past 16 years and will retire at the end of June, continued. "Anyone that knows me knows there was no ill intent at all. Our folks don't go to speeches with guns and things like that. We have very loving people in our unions who will take up money for people or a vet. We just heard these comments by the governor for over the two years. They were using a memoir of the last two years I've lived under her leadership." "Kids use piñatas all the time," she added. The piñata bashing incident occurred on Saturday during a state AFL-CIO staff retreat in Columbia, S.C. The video was posted on Sunday but circulated widely on Tuesday. An AFL-CIO official denounced the actions in the video yesterday. "By now many of you have seen the video of the outgoing president of the South Carolina AFL-CIO. While it was meant as fun, there is absolutely no place for that kind of joke in a conversation that is extremely serious about how to rebuild our middle class and our country. There's plenty to talk about in Gov. Haley's awful record. We do not believe that's an appropriate joke - working people deserve a better conversation," Alison Omens, director of media outreach at AFL-CIO, said in an e-mail.

HP laying off 27,000 workers in restructuring

PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) — Hewlett-Packard says it's laying off 27,000 workers, 8 percent of its work force, as it restructures the business. The Palo Alto, Calif., company says it'll save $3 billion to $3.5 billion annually from cost cuts, including the layoffs. Hewlett-Packard Co. expects to complete the job cuts by the end of fiscal 2014. Shares are up $1.40, or 6.6 percent, to $22.48 in aftermarket trading Wednesday.

HP to Cut 27,000 Jobs

Hewlett-Packard said on Wednesday it was going to lay off 27,000 of its workers over the next year and half in a broad restructuring effort aimed at making the company leaner and more profitable. The news comes alongside HP’s quarterly results which showed profits down more than 30%. HP executives said in an earnings call that it expects to cut the jobs — about 8% of its workforce — by the end of the 2014 fiscal year. Some of the workers will be offered early retirement, HP says, and the proportion of jobs cut will vary by region. Once complete, the restructuring is expected to save HP $3 billion to $3.5 billion, the “vast majority” of which will be used to reinvest in the company. Research and development will factor highly as an area of reinvestement, along with expanding its cloud, security and information services. Enterprise storage is also expected to be an area of growth. “We’ve got to streamline our operating model,” CEO Meg Whitman said during the call. “We went business unit by business unit and said, ‘What do we want to focus on, and how many individuals do we need to deliver that service?” SEE ALSO: HP Merges PC and Printer Units in Major Restructuring Gross revenues for the company were $30.7 billion, down 3% from the previous quarter. Profits came in at $1.59 billion, down from $2.3 billion, a 31% reduction. HP’s job cuts and declining balance sheet follow a chaotic period that saw the company release and then discontinue its webOS mobile devices (including the HP TouchPad), flirt with selling off its consumer PC division, the fire its new CEO, Leo Apotheker, amid widespread criticism over his plan to reinvent HP as a software-and-services company. Since then HP appointed Whitman as CEO and has taken many steps to get the company back on track — today’s job cuts being the biggest yet. What do you think of HP’s plan to become more efficient through downsizing? Have your say in the comments. More About: Business, Hewlett-Packard, HP, layoffsFor more Business coverage:Follow Mashable Business on TwitterBecome a Fan on FacebookSubscribe to the Business channelDownload our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

Japan tsunami debris reaches Alaska

It's been more than a year since a massive quake devastated northeast Japan, and the debris believed to be from that disaster is now washing up more than 4,000 miles away in Alaska. (CNN)

Mitch Daniels on VP post: â€˜If I thought that call was coming, I would disconnect the phoneâ€™

If Mitt Romney wants Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels to be his running mate, he better get used to hearing a busy signal. Daniels delivered his most forceful rejection of the vice presidential post yet, saying he would "disconnect the phone" if he found out that Romney was considering him for the job. "It's not an office I want to hold, expect to hold, have any plans to hold," Daniels said during a Fox News interview Monday. "We ought to give some time to public service, try to pay back a little rent to this country, but my goal has always been to do the best I could and then go back to private life." When asked if Romney had contacted him about vetting him for the job, he said "of course not," adding: "If I thought that call was coming, I would disconnect the phone." • Americans in Afghanistan to fight through 2014, top commander says Want more of our best political stories? Visit The Ticket or connect with us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or add us on Tumblr. Handy with a camera? Join our Election 2012 Flickr group to submit your photos of the campaign in action.

Artist arrested while hanging ‘I ♥ NY’ bags from streetlights, charged with ‘planting bombs’

An artist who installed illuminated plastic shopping bags emblazoned with the "I ♥ NY" logo on lampposts in Brooklyn was arrested over the weekend, charged with "planting false bombs" and ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation. Takeshi Miyakawa, the 50-year-old Tokyo-born artist, was arrested at 2 a.m. in Brooklyn while he was hanging one of the bags from a tree, according to his website. The NYPD bomb squad was alerted after a passerby noticed one of Miyakawa's installations on Friday morning and called to report "a suspicious package attached to a tree." Police cleared the area for two hours, according to the Daily News. They later observed Miyakawa on top of a ladder with "an assembly consisting of a plastic box containing wires which was connected by a wire to a plastic bag containing a battery suspended from a metal rod." The installation project was intended to be part of NY Design Week 2012. On Sunday, a judge ordered Miyakawa held for a mental evaluation, "extending his detainment for an additional 30 days," his lawyer said. A Facebook group called "Free Takeshi Miyakawa" launched within hours of the judge's ruling. It was more than 1,200 members. "Takeshi loves New York, he loves this city," Louis Lim, Miyakawa's friend, told Gothamist.com. "All his installations are nonevasive. He doesn't drill into things ... We had no idea that his designs were being misinterpreted at this level. And if anything he does offends or bothers anyone, Takeshi always apologizes profusely. He's very traditional that way." According to Gothamist, the person who purportedly reported Miyakawa to police did not intend to: "I called 311 asking how to get that thing off my tree, if it was my responsibility or the city's ... the 311 woman put me through to 911 then the cops came. I left for work." • Car with four kids riding in trunk nearly hit by semi truck (VIDEO)

M 6.1, Hokkaido, Japan region

May 23, 2012 15:02:25 GMT