•
I LOVE this story:
Towards the end of May, a drug dog at Narita Airport (Tokyo) failed to detect 142 grams (about 5 ounces) of pot in the side pocket of a passenger’s luggage. While this must be troubling for the Japanese officials, what is a bit more troubling is how they knew that the pot was in the bag in the first place.
Apparently, a quick-thinking customs official had the bright idea to break a couple of regulations and plant the pot in a unsuspecting passenger’s luggage in order to test the dog and improve its at-work performance. The dog, unfortunately, failed his at-work test and missed the drugs completely, though I have a feeling the dog isn’t going to get in too much trouble for this one, especially since the story continues. Read more »
•
As frequent readers know, I went to Tokyo recently. Being completely unfamiliar with Tokyo and Japan as a whole I decided to check out a couple of guidebooks on the town. I checked out the usual big names for guidebooks: Rough Guide, Time Out, Fodors, Lonely Planet as well as a handful of others. In the end I settled on Time Out: Tokyo, Rough Guide Tokyo and a new guide that comes out later this month: Lonely Planet Tokyo Encounter. After less then a day in the city I closed Rough Guide Tokyo and ended up returning it which left me with Time Out: Tokyo and Lonely Planet Tokyo Encounter.
Now, before I say anything about either guidebook let me talk about Tokyo as a city: It is huge, it has no street names and only a couple of real tourist sites or identifiable landmarks. With (at my count) at least 4 different sets of trains (including the subway and monorail) owned by the government and various private companies it is not exactly the easiest city to get around.
Though coming from a city with a pretty complete and, supposedly, confusing subway system, I found navigating the Tokyo subways not nearly as difficult as you would think. Finding things on the street was a different story.
Read more »
•
As you may have read here before (since this is my third time mentioning it here in 3 weeks), this past weekend was the Sanyo Bussan International Lifesaving Cup held on the beach in Kanagawa, Japan.
You might be familiar with this beach from the iconic picture “The Great Wave Off Kanagawa” by Katsushika Hokusai. Okay, well, there really isn’t a beach in that picture, but that would be the view from the beach we were on if the weather had been nicer and their hadn’t been a tsunami.
Anyway, I go the chance to join Team USA as they competed. At first I was a bit skeptical about the whole idea of a lifeguard competition. By the end of the day I was right there next to the coach cheering the team on.
Unfortunately my cheering was not enough. The Australians swept the competition, medaling in every event (winning mostly golds) followed closely by the South Africans and Japan’s A team (as the host nation, Japan fielded 2 teams). For the USA, both the men and women won some medals, leaving at the end of the day with three bronze and one silver if I recall correctly (it would have been four bronze, but the men’s team got disqualified in the Tube Rescue event for going the wrong way around a buoy).
Though I had been following Analisa for the Beach Flags competition she unfortunately did not medal in it. She was knocked out of the competition due to a speedy Brit and a bad lane, though, like a champ, she came out of it with a smile.
Beyond Beach Flags, she also participated as the ‘victim’ in the Women’s Tube Rescue (the U.S. placed 5th) and was the sprinter in the Taplin Relay (they placed an amazing 4th and would have done better had their not been an issue with the surf-ski).
Overall, Team USA came in 4th (I believe), but did an amazing job (especially in the Men’s Taplin Relay where Chad Carvin moved from 4th place to 1st in the swimming portion of the relay and the team ended up getting a silver).
Despite having the designation as a team member, I did not compete at all (which was a good thing for both Team USA and my out-of-shape body).
•
If you ever go to Tokyo, make sure you go to the Sapporo Museum (and yeah, there were only 2 of us).
•
Remember those articles I posted months ago about 3D printers that were able to produce small plastic parts designed on your computer (this one and this one)?
Well color me impressed- researchers from the University of Tokyo Hospital have developed a method to make “tailor-made artificial bones for use in facial reconstructive surgery.” The method is essentially the same as with the other 3D printing, the model is created in 3D on a computer and sent to a special 3D Inkjet printer:
To make an artificial bone with this technology, a 3D computer model of the bone is first created based on the patient’s X-ray and CT scan data. The computer model is then sliced into a large number of cross-sections and the data is sent to a special 3D inkjet printer, which works sort of like an ordinary inkjet printer by transferring tiny droplets of liquid onto a surface. However, unlike ordinary printers that print on paper, this one prints onto thin layers of powdered alpha-tricalcium phosphate (alpha-TCP). The “ink” is a water-based polymer adhesive that hardens the alpha-TCP it comes into contact with. By repeatedly laying down the powder and printing successive layers on top of one another, the printer is able to physically reproduce the desired bone to an accuracy of one millimeter.
It passed the Welsh Corgi test (okay, well, they tested it first on a Welsh Corgi) and then 10 human subjects over the past year and a half constituted the round of human testing. In the next few years the second round of testing will be in place for 70 more human subjects. The benefit of the 3D printed bones is that they are cheaper and easier to construct then the current artificial bone options, they are also 10 times stronger (though not quite strong enough for load-bearing bones). This is pretty awesome on a number of levels and a great example about how advances in technology can also lead to beneficial advancements in both health care and quality of life.
