13 Comments.

"Samurai weren't potters" - Japanese ceramics, originally Korean

– z 2014-11-08 16:49 UTC

RMT late, dinner, cooking ...

– Anonymous 2014-11-08 17:03 UTC

~2 hours, starting 0640 - Ferguson, Japanese TV and need for westerners or semi-non-Japanese-native validation of culture and internal-oriented tourism shows, geothermal heating efficiency issues, fracking in western Maryland, prejudice against big scary-threatening-looking people, non-funny idea of making a comedy about killing someone, ...

... and near end, some self-criticism ... "I'll try not to be so sad" and "I have to get out of the first-floor storage locker" and "I really need to get rid of stuff around this house" and "I need to finish up the library treasury and hand it over" ...

– z 2014-12-06 18:16 UTC

45 min lecture on the evils of advertising on newspaper web sites, the selling of naming rights to sports arenas, etc. ...

– z 2015-01-18 15:38 UTC

25 min lecture - badness of software updates - poor battery life of cellphone & ebook reader - constant sync-ing of devices ...

– z 2015-01-19 13:39 UTC

10 min - earthquake preparedness

– z 2015-01-19 13:39 UTC

60 minute lecture starting 0515 - earthquake & tsunami safety anecdotes from Japan, origami education anecdotes, used books as artifacts rather than as something to read, people who don't let their kids play outside but only have play dates, anger about how people including me didn't believe her analysis of Tohohu reactor isotopes indicative of fission, friend's daughter's husband's age and prior marriage and employment and where they live, evils of telling people they are doing great when they aren't ...

– z 2015-01-28 11:35 UTC

dysfunctional siblings, Clarence Thomas, various ministers of churches attended, global warming deniers, ISIS, sociopathic serial killers, achy knees, ...

– z 2015-02-08 15:15 UTC

~1 hour, 0530-0630: Dubai high-rise apartment fire, literature vs. fantasy/sf chauvinism (David Mitchell et al.), Russian & Japanese TV, media circular reporting using each other's sources, difficulties of internet research and using the Wayback Machine (Internet Archive) and an academic scholar's article in the Boston GLOBE ("may write him a letter") and URL changes and search limited by some agreement among publishers, Japanese taking credit for other country's achievements, knee pain, ...

– z 2015-02-21 14:18 UTC

~1hour - Japanese disaster preparation & response & analysis - Japanese recycling & beliefs about animistic spirits in objects - people who don't read to the end of their emails - ...

– z 2015-04-26 12:13 UTC

lecture on "culture appropriation" and how hypersensitive, insecure, selfish-possessive, etc. some are ... and how so many things would have been destroyed had they not been bought and given to museums, etc.

• Elgin marbles and other Greek statuary
• Native American artifacts
• togas and saris
• kimonos (touring exhibit from NHK, was in Boston, protests)
• ethnic food protests in the student cafeteria at Oberlin College
• "reposé" style of silver working, silver tray shown in art class, stolen and buried and discovered centuries later
• ...

– z 2015-12-25 13:13 UTC

• Ramadan celebration in the Arctic where sunrise/sunset are weird
• Canadian cities and their characteristics
• Montgomery County zoning law problems
• Montgomery County Library system mistakes
• Bad quality concrete at the County Transit Center
• Crooked contractors and fights with them in this house over the years
• Self-driving car accidents and failures
• Bad driving 15 years ago in rain/fog on a long road trip back from New England
• Dangers of automotive technology that make people more comfortable & less alert – including cruise control, seat heaters, and reclining seats
• Bad practices including not applying parking brakes, running the engine & air conditioner while not in the car, etc.
• ...

– z 2016-07-03 12:42 UTC