Internet Voting

My old computer security prof at UC Davis, Matt Bishop, was in the news. The University of California did a study on the security of California approved voting machines and it appears that the machines failed miserably. They were even hackable from the voting terminals themselves.

I'm sure that they are better than the machines used during the last presidential election, though. I did a project on voting machines for a computer ethics class about how bad the system was. Votes were tallied on node machines which were unprotected. The votes were tallied in an unencrypted text file. People in my class said they thought a big conspiracy of vote manipulation was far fetched. They missed the point that it would take just one person five minutes or less to change thousands of votes with notepad. Sorry.. too lazy to find links at the moment.

Some things to think about

Religion:
This is a good article I came across just now: Losing My Jihadism.

Anthropology:
I also read this blog every now and then because of posts like this.

Technology:
Google is leading the way (followed by other big names like Yahoo!) in killing the horrible duopoly of internet service in the US by pledging to bid 4.6 Billion dollars on a new spectrum if the goverment forces the "owner of the spectrum bands to allow access to any device, meaning that users would not be locked into subscribing to a carrier in order to use a mobile device, such as a smartphone." I knew I wasn't the only one upset about having to choose between cable internet with TV I don't want and DSL with a phone plan I don't want.

Politics:
The US candidates for the presidency are embracing technology to try and get their messages out and have meaningful debates that answer questions from real people. People sent a massive amount of videos into YouTube to ask the candidates real questions about a variety of issues. A small number are going to be played in a debate.

Meanwhile, Japan is still using campaign law from the 50's. The use of internet for campaigning is illegal in Japan. Here's a choice quote from a Japanese student: "YouTube is more casual; you watch music videos or funny videos on it, but if the government or any politicians are on the web it doesn't feel right." Give me a break! I don't even know where to begin on what's wrong with this statement. Instead, let me mend this quote for a bit of perspective: "The TV is more casual; you watch music videos or funny videos on it, but if the government or any politicians are on the TV it doesn't feel right."

So if they can't use the internet, Japanese politicians can hand out information, right? Wrong. Pamphlets can only be passed out to 3% of the voters. The only way they can get their message out is the old fashioned loudspeaker. Let me be perfectly clear: I HATE the loudspeaker. I really loathe the intrusive and relentless noise blasting at every major train station in Tokyo. I can handle some people bowing and handing out pamphlets, but turn the damn speaker off! I literally could not hold a conversation a hundred meters away from some political speaker near the exit of Ikebukuro station in Tokyo. Come on people! Organize a venue at a stadium or park and get people who want to listen to come! I miss the laws against noise pollution in the US.

上野 Ueno

One of the places I hang out the most is Ueno. There is a park, a zoo, some museums, and lots of places to eat and hang out. It's pretty close (20 minutes by train) to where I live. I wouldn't say
I love Ueno, but I certainly am getting used to it. Here are a couple pictures taken from the park.



There is a museum of Western Art here with a lot of famous works such as the ladies in the boat, and the thinker. No pictures are allowed inside, so I just shot the copies outside. The actual thinker is quite small, which surprised me. This is an enlarged copy.

Exciting Weekend

It's been an exciting weekend from mother nature. Yesterday was one of the strongest Typhoons to hit Japan in decades and the strongest on record in July. It was supposed to hit Tokyo, but changed directions and went North East. 4 or 5 people are dead or missing.

Just 20 minutes ago I felt my first earthquake. It was level 6 in Niigata-ken, which is north west of here on the coast. In Tokyo it was level 3. I found myself just sitting here not quite knowing what to do. If it were more serious I could go under my table, but my first instinct was to see if it was on the news. I feel a bit sea sick.

In Japan...

• The sun is red.
• The moon is yellow.
• The traffic light is blue.
• People don't hand money to the cashier, they put it down on a tray for the cashier to pick up.
• People don't make eye contact with strangers on the street, let alone say hello.
• Slurping ramen isn't just polite, it is the only way to eat ramen.
• Fruit is expensive and each one is perfect. No touching unless you're buying.
• Cigarettes and beer are sold in vending machines.
• Living with one's family until marriage, even past the age of thirty, is common. It also creates a lot of disposable income that boosts the market for gadgets and clothes.
• Walking while eating is rude.
• Fixed Do solfege is taught in schools and every child plays the recorder.

It could happen

Imagine a computer in another universe. This computer is so powerful and can hold/manipulate so much data, that it can simulate an entire universe the size of our own. Someone just needs to create the initial starting conditions and rules and set it in motion. It would be like an infinitely more complex version of Conway's game of life. If such complex simulations were possible, is the simulation of the universe any different from the actual universe? Is a simulation of life the same thing as life itself? I mean down to the smallest particles, of course. I think the difference is negligible. If living creates were replicated so exactly in a computer, it is essentially the same as the real thing.

A computational system capable of such a feat, while amazing, would have to be staggeringly more advanced to do anything realistic with the data it computes. It is relatively simple to apply basic laws and rules to a system, but to analyze and see what things are arising in the system is exponentially more difficult. If our universe is a simulation, which I think isn't impossible given a larger universe with more resources (storing more data than we have particles), it is unlikely that whoever created the simulation is even aware of our existence. Such a tiny speck in time and space, sentient life has probably gone unnoticed in this demonstration. We might even be just the beta version. Maybe light was supposed to go faster.

Friday

Friday was a long day. I woke up at six for my hour long commute (1 bus and two trains) into the heart of Tokyo for my new school. This is my fifth regular (as in not temporary) elementary school. It's basically in the political heart of all of Japan, so there are many kids who speak English. One sixth grader is from San Francisco! My other four schools are in a very educationally progressive area of north Tokyo. I would not be surprised if it is the best place for English in public elementary schools in all of Japan. This new school has a high average English ability, but the mean is still a little lower than my other four schools.

Class was easy. It was my second day at the school and my first time with each of the classes I was teaching. I did my self introduction, questions, and an easy lesson (days of the week). The more I teach the more I realize that I'm the best with 3rd-4th grade. I can handle the other levels, but 3rd and 4th are the perfect balance of high energy and ability.

It was the hottest and most humid day yet this year. I played basketball at lunch and even some 1 on 1 with this sixth grader. He was pretty good and can actually palm the ball (it's not full size). I went a little easy and kept it at a tie (I don't like to let people win), but I was sweating like crazy in the heat. I left work pretty early (2pm) because this school contracted with my company directly instead of through the BOE. That means I can leave whenever the principal says it's OK.

I had some time to kill, so I cruised over to Ikebukulo (north west Tokyo, the gateway to where I used to live). I had been there Thursday night with Andrew Bush and Tim Rogers. We went to a music studio and they practiced while I messed around on keyboard a little. I don't think I could ever be in a rock band. Even if I spent the time to get good at guitar or something, rock just doesn't give me the feeling in my gut that I get when I listen to or play really good jazz.

So I killed time by walking around Bic Camera. It was getting dark, but still really hot, humid, and now rainy too. I went to the Sunshine mall. This place is like an American mall. It has one of four or five Burger Kings in Tokyo, Cold Stone, 3 or 4 McDonalds (no, really), Eddie Bauer, Gap, Toys R Us, and much more. The layout and feel is similar to American malls, but one look at a womens clothing store will clear up any confusion.

At 5 I went up to Fujimino (where I used to live) and killed a couple hours at Mr. Donuts. At seven I played a variation of soccer they call futosaru. This is a word in katakana, but I don't know what foreign word it's supposed to be. What's Foot-sal? Two of my Fujimino schools and another school played for a couple hours. It was awesome, and I was sweating more than anyone else there. I don't think Japanese people sweat very much.. or maybe I just sweat a lot. My friend Marc came too, because he teaches at the third school now.

The teachers told me that the kids have been coming into the teachers room and asking to get me back. The new English teacher doesn't speak Japanese and the level of tension has slowly been escalating as the kids start loathing English. I don't know what the hell that company was thinking putting a teacher who doesn't speak any Japanese in rural elementary schools. It's plain irresponsible. I would have liked to stay in Fujimino, but I can't deny how interesting and educational Tokyo has been. If for some reason I were to go back again now, I think I'd be a much better teacher.

After soccer I went drinking with one of the schools. Many of the people from last years staff came to hang out. It was pretty nostalgic. I had to go early (11pm) for the hour long train ride home. The bus home from the station ends kind of early, so I had to walk a half hour to get home. I could hardly believe I had gone to school that morning. It was a really long day.

I Love the Food

When people ask me what I like about Japan I usually have two fast answers: The trains and the food. So here are some things I've eaten recently. First is Monjayaki. I'll explain what it is some other time, but rest assured it's quite good. Many foreigners think it looks really gross, but until hearing that from someone it had never occurred to me because when you eat it, you see it being made (or you make it yourself) and so you know what the ingredients are.



I love tonkatsu! This is a photo from the place I used to go all the time in Fujimino. The old guy that runs the place loves me. He even took me out to sushi once before I moved. The tonkatsu (breaded pork), rice, soup, pasta and salad all ring in at 680 yen (~$6). Awesome.


Dessert in Ueno! There is a great little dessert shop in Ueno that is always crowded. I've been there twice and both times I had to share a table with strangers. Man this is good stuff though. It's a little pricey, but worth it once in a while. This one has mochi, icecream, red beans, Japanese orange and some other things I don't know the names of.

California

I'm making a poster about California for my schools and have discovered some interesting things, some of which I knew and some I didn't.

California has the worlds oldest, biggest, and tallest trees:

• Methuselah, an ancient Bristlecone Pine in the White Mountains, is about 4,838 years old.
• General Sherman, a Giant Sequoia in the Sequoia National Park, is 1,487 cubic meters.
• Hyperion, a Redwood in the Redwood National Park, is 115.55 meters tall.

California has the highest and lowest points in the contiguous US, and they are only 76 miles (123 km) apart.

• Mount Whitney, 14,505 feet (4,421 meters).
• Death Valley, -282 feet (-86 meters).

Anything interesting you think I should include in the poster? I'm of course going to talk about Hollywood, Disneyland, and Silicon Valley. Anything else that would impress little kids?

Major Differences - Status Levels

Sempai 先輩 means senior, superior or elder, and Kohai 後輩 is junior. The Sempai-Kohai system is the most profound difference in culture I have encountered in Japan. Built into the Japanese language are different levels of politeness that affect not only word choice, but conjugation and grammar.

In English, we generally speak differently around different groups of people. I can remember in middle school when I first started noticing that I had a 'family mode' and a 'friend mode'. As I grew older I noticed the line blur when talking with my siblings, but I still speak a certain way around the adults in my family that is different than how I speak to my friends. This pales in comparison to the levels of Japanese speech.

First of all, Japanese has multiple levels of polite speech. Many young people can't even speak the higher levels well. Foreigners around the college level becoming proficient in Japanese are often better at keigo (polite speech) than the Japanese of the same age. The rules seem simple enough: When speaking to someone older than you, you speak politely. When the other person is younger (and not a stranger), you speak casually. But this carries over outside of work into everyday situations - including bars or parties. I've seen men speaking politely to other men that look the same age, but are actually one or two years apart. The older man responds in casual Japanese. To a foreigner, this might seem like a somewhat cold or distant, even odd conversation, but it is quite normal in Japanese. It isn't always like this, and people make mistakes, but in general it is easy to tell who is older in a conversation by listening to how people speak.

This can create weird issues with people who don't know each others age. Or as one of my friends brought up, it can be awkward with people in the same year in school but of different ages (something common in college). Does one use keigo or not? It isn't always easy to tell.

In English, we generally speak at the same level as the counterpart in the conversation (except perhaps in extreme boss-employee relationships). If Bob is talking to Jim politely, not using slang or anything like that, Jim responds the same way. If they are friends or are familiar they might both speak casually. But if one of them spoke politely and the other was casual, almost even rude, it would not be right for a variety of reasons. Keigo is hard for me to get used to, and I usually end up speaking casually to my elders because by habit, I speak the same as the other person. Luckily no one thinks anything of it because I am a foreigner.

Perhaps the most impressive benefit of the sempai-kohai system is the affect it has on those in school. I've never seen such apparent respect and admiration for the upperclassmen as I did when I was teaching in middle school. A middle school first grader (7th grader), who was particularly naughty in class and an all around brat, was the uncomplaining servant and follower of his 3rd year baseball club sempai. I saw him get things for him, speak politely, and obey various orders. Equally amazing was the lack of abuse of the system by the 3rd years. They didn't really treat the younger kids poorly, but they did demand their respect and service. I haven't spent a whole lot of time at middle school and none in high school, but if what I observed is common, it may just make the system all worth it.