A start

But will this be enough to stop the fingers-in-ears epidemic that is tearing at the social fabric?

My thoughts exactly

This little gizmo gives advance earthquake warnings. How far in advance? This ad shows it calling for a big one - in five seconds.
There was a rattler last night that sent ducks squawking into the sky. Had it been any closer than its 300 miles, I wonder what that five seconds would have bought?

UPDATE: I wasn't looking at the pic when I wrote this. It's 8 seconds to a Japanese-scale 5 quake, I believe.
Also, I imagine this thing being kind of like the novelty "weather forecaster" that was a rock on a string - you know, if it's swaying, it's windy; if it's wet, it's raining.

If your beepy gadget is shaking and covered in dust, you're having an earthquake.

Why, thank you.

I was just thinking, if only I had some way of cleaning the counters in the public restroom.


* The fine print: This towel is for cleaning tables. Please feel free to use it as necessary.

Part of a square meal

The $150.00 part.

I bet they don't have seed spitting contests with these.

This is your wave on drugs

Buy or buy not.

Still in Japan

Follow the yellow striped road

The shaky re-entry from Seoul had me nervous when I went to the immigration office again for the last step of the visa process. For the third time, I rode the public bus full of saris and Italian suits to the 1984-looking tower, found my color and letter on the flow chart outside, and followed the matching stripe right up to counter 2A. A few deli tickets and lines later, I had a 3D bar code sticker in my passport that says I can stay for a while, as a Specialist in Humanities and International Services. Doesn't that sound unseemly?

Where does the Geisha go when it rains?

It rained most of the two days we were in Kyoto. But we had umbrellas and Kyoto is one of those cities that look better wet.

What's not to like?

A chocolate pudding sandwich is wrong, of course, but not in a bad way.