Apparently the language code for japanese is ja, not jp. Jp is the country code. I have no idea why they did this since JP remains unassigned as a language code and would make much more sense (ja can be confused with javanese).

I couldn't find any reasoning for why the iso codes were assigned as such. Closest reasoning was in https://www.alvestrand.no/pipermail/ietf-languages/2002-May/000339.html namely that apparently the two were worked on by different communities at different times, and they never bothered attempting to unify in cases where they could do so? Although clearly some cases like FR = french = france fall out naturally so they could have done the same for Japanese, I really which the design decisions were documented somewhere.

Interesting thing I learned about recently. Magnetico, a BitTorrent DHT scraper. Basically, it lets you search for torrents without middlemen like nyaa.
https://github.com/boramalper/magnetico

One instance(on yggdrasil)
http://[30a:c3d2:8cf8:f8e5:e71e:8c63:1a03:2cbc]/

>>40934
Yes, it's a well known technique.
https://pub.tik.ee.ethz.ch/students/2014-HS/BA-2014-15.pdf
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1009.3681.pdf
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9111636

Post edited on 12th Dec 2022, 12:13am

3 of the 10 tallest statues in the world are located in Japan.

>>40958
It's interesting how tiny these statues make the statue of liberty look and yet at the same time how little we ever see of them compared to said statue.

>>40959
Because the measure of a statue is not in its size but in the symbol it represents. The statue of liberty represents the successor to the British Empire, empire of empires, the first nuclear weapons state in the world, and the dominating force on the planet for almost a century. When people see the statue of liberty they associate with a country everyone in the world has some strong opinion about. No matter how large, some statue out in rural Japan can never have the social and mental impact that the statue of liberty has. It's all about the mentality of the thing, like so many other things that are physically larger but ignored by everyone. When did you last hear that Indonesia, Pakistan, and Brazil all have similar population sizes in terms of order of magnitude to the U.S.?

Tactical Repeating Bow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtUm2r0pquM

In terms of dissolving cerumen (i.e. removing earwax), nothing has been statistically found to be better than plain water (i.e. all the fancy OTC stuff are within same confidence interval of effectiveness as plain water). So really, all you need to do is a few drops of distilled water held there for 15 minutes followed by warm-water irrigation with a tri-tip syringe.

>>40973
I disagree with this premise. It certainly holds for some symbols, but I think the Statue of Liberty is memorable for a far more practical reason - New York City is one of few common entry points to the US. Whereas anybody visiting Japan likely came in from Tokyo or another people-centric hub and have no interest or business in visiting anywhere else. There are a lot of other, more benign landmarks that get a lot of traction because of where they are rather than any importance they have. The Eiffel Tower, Sydney Opera House, and Golden Gate Bridge for instance.

>>41257
I always found it a bit funny that the Golden Gate bridge gets so much attention while the bay bridge is pratically unheard of outside the bay area.

>>41255
if i put water in my ear i think id just give myself an insane ear infection and it would get very itchy and uncomfortable because the water would never come out

>>41268
Assuming your ears are clean, water should drain immediately out just by tilting your head, else just spinning around once should generate sufficient centrifugal force to dislodge all water.

If this is not the case, either you have too much earwax which is trapping the water, or your anatomy is different from most people (e.g. ear canal weirdly shaped, a perforated ear drum, etc.).

First of all, please don't judge me or ban me; I've been doing research on escorts and how that process works. I learned it's basically one big scam. Nowadays, most of them expect a "deposit", of like 50%. They come up with all kinds of reasons why. When Johns talk to each other, they say "never pay a deposit". Normal people say that too, because it's obvious. It's a borderline illegal service, and not only are you leaving a digital trail, but you have no protection when you inevitably get your money stolen. It's stupid.

But when "escorts" talk about it, or write about it, they're all for it. They say "just do research". But there's tons of stories of "reputable" ones scamming people. It's madness. They want you to turn your brain off, listen to them instead of other Johns, and give them money for nothing. It's like a black hole of integrity. I'm starting to think life is one big scam. You're being scammed right now.

Post edited on 7th Apr 2023, 9:33am

>>41345
I think it is difficult, because as an illegal service there's a very big trust divide. As either party there's no real recourse if the other person scams you short of violence. An option that you have if you're looking is to make sure you're finding reputable "providers", since there are likely fewer people giving the service than seeking it. But honestly I don't think they could provide any meaningful experience for the average person here anyways, myself at least.

>>41346
If it's the legality that's an issue then it should be easy to compare to e.g. Amsterdam. I guess it might be true, once it's legal it's just yet another business and if there's no social stigma, people can leave reviews.

They made a version of Sesame Street for Japan. And not just dubbed over the existing, but they actually produced episodes specifically for Japan.

See https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Sesame_Street_(Japan) The review is hilarious:

>The Japan Times article reported that the show was suffering from low ratings in its early months: "Viewers are complaining about the differences in the characters' voices compared with the NHK-aired version and about the exclusive use of Japanese."
>Another scathing article, published in November 2004 in the Yoimuri Shinbun, was titled "A wrong turn on new Sesame Street": "[The] new and not improved version of Sesame Street...opens with the cast shouting: 'English, Everybody. It's Sesame Street,' but it was 20 minutes later before we heard another English phrase. One of the better decisions NHK made this year was not to get involved with the Japanization of Sesame Street.

>"The show... bears very little resemblance to the original.... If anything, the show looks poised to further the scope of Japlish and make the work of the nation's English teachers even more challenging. First, there is the perplexing problem of how to pronounce the names. Since the show is now all in Japanese...bye-bye, Big Bird, and hello, Biggu Bâdo, Bâto, and Kukkî Monsutâ....

>"Then, at last, came the show's ode to its English-language-education roots—a section called English on Street set in a convenience store. Big Bird wants an umeboshi ika manju...The obliging onî-san...makes him one and we get the English phrase for the day: 'Tastes bad!' No one bothers to add an 'It,' as in 'It tastes bad.' Who needs a complete, correct English sentence in a Japanized version of Sesame Street? 'Tastes bad' is repeated in an assortment of very bad accents and then we are given the appropriate translation: mazui. That is definitely the taste the show left with me—mazui, mazui, mazui.... Yes, all in all, I'd say this show is a giant six-step leap backward for early childhood education in Japan."

I couldn't find any clips of the co-produced version, but apparently this short was done with the same cast... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMjdkEA9jM8

>>41358
wew lad. Thanks for sharing!

I learned that the 40s superman cartoon had weirdly good animation. Fleischer isn't somebody I heard of before.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKQFQhnTUV4

Is has a realism to it that was abandoned in the west. Yeah, a lot of it is rotoscoped, but I don't consider that a bad thing.

The infamous mirai botnet was named after the Mirai Nikki manga/anime

Hahaha.
An AI-generated image of an anime-style woman that also functions as a working QR code. If you have trouble reading it, try positioning your camera farther away from the image.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/06/redditor-creates-working-anime-qr-codes-using-stable-diffusion/

I just found out that Canada's medical assistance in dying (MAiD) program has been killing 1000% more people recently than it did normally.

First of all, I love the name, it makes me think of an anime maid who gently tucks me in and gives me the injection that puts me to sleep forever.

Then, it makes me wonder in how far the guidelines have been relaxed for this many people to qualify for assisted suicide.
Like, is it ideologically based?
Would they allow me to take a seat in their fine suicide chair if I tell them that I want to die because I create so much CO2 and don't want to contribute to global warming?
Or because I'm White and therefore inherently oppressive towards Blacks, First Nations people and Jews for as long as I live?

>>41534
Why should it be conditional? We celebrate personal freedom as the most important value but seem to shun giving someone the most important freedom of them all, the ability for them to decide their own life. The real reason is of course if we did that society would crumble, but no one talks about that.

>>41535
>Why should it be conditional?
ideally, I think it shouldn't be.
Practically, the easier you make it to get MAiD, the easier you also make it for people in positions of power to murder their enemies and disguise it as MAiD.

>>41538
>positions of power to murder their enemies and disguise it as MAiD.
The only way this would happen is if you blackmailed someone into doing it. And the same thing could happen even today, so it's not a real reason.

>>41541
>The only way this would happen is if you blackmailed someone into doing it.
If you happen to know German, check out this lecture by a prominent Austrian politician on how there are power-hungry cliques within Austria and the rest of the EU who have already been linked to multiple murders, and among other things control key positions in a number of hospitals, leading to a situation in which their doctors may kill or harm their enemies through intentional medical malpractice while maintaining plausible deniability:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=dV8mxqAs_Ww

So let's say a group like that abducts a target person, bring him to a hospital they control, strap him into the suicide chair and murder him. In a society that doesn't require anything such as an incurable disease as a precondition to qualify for assisted suicide, there's not even going to be a police investigation or anything, it's just one more guy who decided tonoff himself and used the government's no-questions-asked MAiD service to do it.

Or if the abduction seems too much for you, how about political prisoners? States like Britain and Canada arrest hundreds of people every year over various types of political speech crimes. When the target is already a prisoner, then all you need to do is to arrange for an interview with the prison psychologist or whatever and note down that the prisoner wants to die, and just like that he's off to the kill room where an awful lot of other enemies of the regime have already gone before.

"Genuine leather" only means a substance has some leather in it. It can be a bunch of scraps mixed with artificial material and held together with a bonding agent. So if a product is labelled "genuine leather", it's low quality.

The VA for Sakura from Capcom vs. SNK 1 on the PS1/Dreamcast is not the same as the VA for Yamato from One Piece.

I would hear Yamato do shouts, and I was so certain that Yamato's VA was the same as Sakura's from that game, but that game came out in 2000, and the VA for Yamato (who has a very interesting work history, I must say) only started working in 2007. Not only that but, being born in '91, she would've been a mere 9 years old when the game was released. It's impossible.

So, here's some video footage to show how Sakura shouts in the game. It'll show up often during her attacks, but the soonest example I'd say is 1:07
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNrYJQWWfrY
And of course, Yamato's gritty shout in this clip for comparison:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq7JhvSDxsg
0:57 for what I'm talking about.

So yeah, I was so certain, because of the similarity, that it was the same VA. Since it's not the same VA, I guess that just means that this gritty shout is really just a vocal technique. It's probably a known trick for when a woman is playing a masculine woman. I have to say, I do like this gritty shout. In hindsight though, Sakura having such a battle cry is hilariously not well thought out. Sakura's meant to be a cute teenage girl! Well anyway, that's what I wanted to share.

>>41655
Haha, I've heard about this american marketing technique before. Apparently, if food says that it's "made with 100% real beef," it's not illegal, if you use a little bit of actual real beef, and then use horse meat or whatever for the rest of the meat. I read something like that on reddit once, I'm not sure.

Also, on the topic of Yamato's VA, I want to say that I learnt something else whilst researching all of this:
Some Japanese women have thick lips.

I am aware of what East Asians think of natural African facial features. I'm quite certain the East Asian aesthetic is for lips to be thin, not thick, and that the naturally thick lips of the African is one of many points of mockery of the African by the East Asian.
Nonetheless, the VA of One Piece's "Yamato," Saori Hayami, seems to have unusually thick lips. There are definitely some pictures where they seem less pronounced than in others, but yes, she, a Japanese woman, seems to either naturally have thick lips, or to have even pursued augmentation! Is this perhaps part of the westernisation of Japan? I remember watching NHK News and learning that bodybuilding is becoming more popular amongst Japanese men. According to the news report however, it seems to be in the stage of "ottermode" being desirable. A bit of definition, and a low bodyfat percentage. (To be fair, isn't ottermode the most popular anyway?) It could progress further some day, though. Who knows?

So yeah, that's what I learnt today as well. Some Japanese women have thick lips. You'd think, if she did have them, she'd pursue a reduction asap, but no, there she is - Saori Hayami.

I learnt two things:
Plok is the OG Rayman, basically. The whole idea of a videogame protagonist that throws its limbs at its enemy? Plok did it first, it seems. Perhaps even Plok borrowed it from somewhere else.
And Nokia didn't invent Snake, like I unquestioningly assumed. There's actually an MS-DOS game called "Nibbler." I was a bit curious about DOS games, so I figured I'd check them out, and I was quite surprised to see Nibbler.

So yeah, two classic games from my childhood that I assumed were original ideas, but had actually been done before.

Yotsub&, is still going.

I had no idea. When I found out about it due to a certain website the rules forbid me mentioning, I assumed it was still going. But to see that the manga has actually been running this entire time, literally throughout the entire of the 2010s, and is still going now, is incredible.
I knew that Azumanga Daioh and Yotsub& came from the same guy, but I would've assumed he moved on, hence why I wanted to see his other works. Imagine my shock when I see that, since beginning Yotsub& in 2003, it's been going this whole time. I wonder, in storyline, where the One Piece manga was back when it started. That would probably give an interesting sense of the scope of how long this manga's been running.

Like, the iPhone wouldn't be released for another 5 years or something. The longevity is just insane.

>>41747
Doesn't he release 3 chapters per year or something like that?

>>41747
It's shocking but not that much in the manga world, there's series running since the 60's until today. Still a weird feeling.
I started following Yotsuba relatively late, around 2006, but that still means I have followed it for almost half of my life. The rarest thing could be the few volumes involved in such a long lapse of time, makes me think of Evangelion; I started buying it as a teenager and ended it as a 30 yo, 14 tomes. The Five Star Stories is particularly infamous in that aspect, only 16 tomes since 1986 and still on-going... or Akagi having the last arc going from the late 90's to 2018, more than 20 years for a single session of mahjong.

>>41747
>I wonder, in storyline, where the One Piece manga was back when it started. That would probably give an interesting sense of the scope of how long this manga's been running.
2003 saw the release of vols 27 to 31. This is manga format, so in the magazine it should be a couple chapters ahead, but it would be Wyper and the four priests of Skypiea, and the war there. So basically mid Skypiea.
I don't think it is particularly rare for such long hiatuses in the manga industry. HunterXHunter and Black Lagoon are others that come to mind.
>Like, the iPhone wouldn't be released for another 5 years or something. The longevity is just insane.
I have no fucking idea what you're talking about here.
>>41751
Do you know what's the world record for longest hiatus? I once heard it belonged to Rei Hiroe with Black Lagoon but I'm skeptic.

>>41752
>I have no fucking idea what you're talking about here.
The iPhone's release is considered a historic milestone.

>>41753
Feels weird to use the iPhone release as a milestone marker.

>>41748
Yeah, I've heard about stuff like the mangaka for HunterxHunter, despite being a mangaka for Shounen Weekly, barely releases manga. I always hear about mangakas at Shounen Weekly getting axed because their manga's not selling enough, so I'm just left wondering why some guy can just be allowed to infrequently release a few pages. How does that even happen? Why is it tolerated, but only some times?

>>41751
I didn't even know there was, an official, Evangelion manga. Not fanart. Official. Interesting.

>>41752
Yotsub& starts in 2003.
I... assume the iPhone's release was in 2008. Although, that may not necessarily be true. I didn't even check before I made that post. In fact, as I type this, I'm still not checking. I'm obstinately refusing to knowingly spread fact-checked information. Instead, with access to a mere google search, I will speculate.
Perhaps the iPhone's release was in 2006, rather than 2008?

>>41755
>Why is it tolerated, but only some times?
I imagine popularity is the main, if not only factor.
>Perhaps the iPhone's release was in 2006, rather than 2008?
It was 2007, the year phoneposting became common.

>>41756
>It was 2007, the year phoneposting became common.
I doubt this since the technology at the time was still too clumsy and annoying to make phoneposting attractive to the normalfag.

>>41757
Indeed, remember that the original iphone only had 2g connectivity and the early versions didn't have external applications. It took several years for the idea of mobile-first websites to pick up. I'd say things started gaining steam around 2010 or so, and ~2014 was the point of no return.

>>41755
>I didn't even know there was, an official, Evangelion manga. Not fanart. Official. Interesting.

Made by Evangelion's character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, and interestingly, it started before the anime. It was supposed to be a promotional work to be published alongside the TV show but I suspect at some point Sadamoto became very sick of Eva, so it ended almost 20 years after it. Still, it was a big commercial success.

The eminent guitarist Marty Friedman was known to lend his axe prowess to the Jpop scene. I find it interesting that other guitar talents from the time like Buckethead also became to have ties to the Japanese popular music scene.
And as a side note, these guys' faces tend to have a similar structure.

>>42595
I should note that Friedman's been living there for a long time. Go figure.

>>42595
I remember him helping Bang Dream seiyuu practice for their concerts.

>>42597
Neat!

you can now make your own icon themes with ml-based image generators.
25 years ago I would've loved this.

Today, I learned about a preschool in Sweden called Egalia that seeks to eliminate gender roles. Children are encouraged to play with whatever they want. They are not forced to dress in certain ways. They are free to express themselves in whatever way they want. Staff is trained to remove preconceived biases regarding a child's behavior and instead view them as their own individual.

>We don’t want to deny the biological sex. It is the gender we are working with. And the most important part is how adults relate to the children. Research shows that gender determines how children are approached - already as a crying baby. – We think we are free, but whenever we make suggestions it is almost always something within the gender category. . .
>For example, when a girl is observed to be shy, this situation is attributed to sex, and it does not raise any concerns. However, when a boy is observed to be shy, it is considered that something is wrong.
>Similarly, it has been observed that while teachers tried to comfort a crying girl they tried to avoid a crying boy. Rajalin stated that “[a]fter we had been filming and observing each other, we understood that it's not the children we have to change, it's ourselves” (Scott, 2017). After watching the recording, gender pedagogues interviewed teachers and directed questions such as “Why do we treat children differently?”, “What can we change?”, “Why is it important that we change this?” (Lind-Valdan, 2014, p. 226).
[1] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336395035_Practicing_Gender_Pedagogy_The_Case_of_Egalia

I also learned that a dyad is another word for a group of two people.

>>42608
This is so neat. Thanks for sharing.

Post edited on 14th May 2024, 11:50am

>>42609
Should also be coupled with [1]. But approach "equality" in this sense seems like a fine thing, it's just that most of the west has decided to serve the ends instead of the means and force uniform distributions even if such distributions are not actually natural. Probably if boys could like cute things without being made fun of (c.f. bronies) then the "transgenderism" stuff would not have been widespread.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-equality_paradox

>We think we are free, but whenever we make suggestions it is almost always something within the gender category
>So to be free we make genders equal
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-equality_paradox
That's what happens when you have no wars to fight, so you decide to free yourself from reason at all. Reason and thinking hurts, you know?

>>42608
Cute. I want it too!