More Crisis Vocab

Edit: corrected a couple things in this post and the last. Commenter wanted to remain anonymous, so I'm deleting what they said...

We'll start on a term related to the last in our previous post. Keep in mind I don't know why these words were chosen, and I haven't necessarily heard them, but I am putting them into my own English and context, and confusingly mathematical looking meaning breakdowns. I hope you remember junior high math order. Also, for some practical nuclear words, check out this list.

天譴論 (tenkenron, (heaven+reproach)+theory) the belief that heaven is punishing us for our iniquities. 天譴, tenken, on its own means divine punishment.

水火 (suika, water+fire) flooding and fire. Used in 水火の苦しみ (suika no kurushimi) to mean great hardships. xの苦しみ is a common pattern in times like these; just fill in the x with the bad situation of your liking.

漏洩 (rouei, leak+leak) leakage. Especially recently, of radiation.

待避 (taihi, wait+avoid) wait for danger to pass, or make way for emergency vehicles.
退避 (taihi, escape+avoid) run away or take shelter from danger. Note this is a homophone for the previous item.

被災漁船 (hisaigyousen, (incur+calamity)+(fishing+boat)) a boat in the the wrong place at the wrong time that falls victim to a disaster. Like those ships that got swept inland by the Tsunami.

殺処分 (satsushoubun, kill+(dispose+portion)) killing off animals to avoid zoonoses (disease that humans can catch from animals). I think this one comes about because a lot of people can't donate blood if they lived in mad cow disease-laden countries. Unless I missed yet another bird flu story recently.

私利私欲 (shirishiyoku, (self+profit)+(self+avarice)) selfish desires. 私欲, shiyoku, and 私利, shiri,can mean self-interest on their own too.

Which brings us back to the governor of Tokyo, who said that we are suffering a form of tenken for our shiyoku. He apologized, but someone may well satsushoubun him from his political party if he's not careful with what he says. He'd better taihi until this scandal blows over.

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Ron Paul with Japanese subtitles

Yeah I like him, so now my Japanese readers (maybe one or two of you) can see why.

[via A Tract on the Perils of Going Native]

That Burma thing...

I made this on Friday night. It is a little late for the blog, but here you go; my take on people that take the effort... to report that they won't take effort.


Also, a Japanese photojournalist was killed, and Mutant Frog has a good assessment of the Japanese reaction.

And Steve, who worked right on the border (the place in Thailand where I volunteered) and so has a good perspective on things in that region, has a good post about things too.

We call it a

The children have heads crowned with leaves. I am told that they are gods. They look more of Greek or Roman than of Japanese deity ilk to me.

"The fire is sacred; a symbol of friendship and unity" says the eager college student.
"What do they call this kind of fire?" I ask.
"They call it... a campfire."
"Oh." I think back to earlier when a teacher laughed at me for saying that if I went camping with even a couple friends, we would have a fire. Campfire: mundane katakana word, bigger ceremonial implications. The fire week cook our food on is much smaller, separate, and surrounded by cement.
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This article helped me understand ritual in everyday Japanese life a little bit better. It also helped me understand why I have to come to an empty teachers room every day during the summer.
I was going to write about how the Japanese are obsessed with harmony, but that will do for now, pig, that'll do.

How to legalize it

I don't smoke the wacky weed, but for years I've been wondering why juries convict people that do. Why? Because juries have the right to judge a law or sentence unfair. It's why prohibition didn't stick. Anyways, I found an article that reminded me of this principal, and it warmed my semi-libertarian heart. Read.
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Also, I've wondered why medical marijauna cannot be administered in pill form. What's the deal with that?

my choice

The second amendment and the paranormal

I must voice my concern on the importance of the second amendment. Yes, I do think one of the important reasons we have it is so that the citizens can overthrow the government in the eventuality it becomes corrupt via the movie Equilibrium, but my next reason is more out there--and if you have not yet had cause to question my sanity, you will soon.

We need guns to protect us from the zombies.

Yes, zombies. There are no known zombies yet, but I think between environmental waste, nuclear weapons, exotic and man-made diseases, and supernatural forces which may or may not exist such as Armageddon, we're due for zombies in our lifetime. What's the best way to ensure that a zombie doesn't get to you? Well first off have a good four-wheel drive truck with a deer guard, and second, have a shotgun handy.
With most zombie varieties, you need to shoot the brain or the spinal chord to render them harmless, and no melee weapon short of a katana is going to achieve that. I hear salt stops zombies of the voodoo variety when thrown in their mouths, so keep that handy too.

So clearly we need the second amendment. Oh sure, you may laugh at me now, but you'll be wishing you had a gun when the zombies burst through your door.

On a related note, I've been playing typing of the dead a lot recently (a mod of house of the dead two that helps your typing skills). Now if you happen to have a keyboard handy that kills the undead, by all means feel free to use that instead.