Category: Econ & Business

International dialing

Figuring out exactly how to dial a phone number in one country while in another country (particularly if neither one of them is a country with which you have much telephonic experience) can be a huge pain in the ass.

Just a few minutes ago, while making sure I was telling someone in Japan the correct way to reach my apartment line, I stumbled across this very handy website. It lets you specify a dialing and target location and very conveniently breaks down the entire dialing sequence into whatever international, national, or local dialing prefixes apply.

Supply and demand in isolated Burma

I wouldn’t be surprised if most people reading this Washington Post article didn’t make it to the end. After all, we’re so used to getting a constant stream of news on the wretched conditions of people living in some third world nation that a certain level of fatigue sets in, and economic sanctions against Burma doesn’t have the same zing as the Yellow menace of rising China, the endless Middle Eastern wars, or the delicious scandals unfolding in Washington. But for those who did make it to the end of the article, or those watching this page, there is a paragraph at the end that I would say is quite literally jaw-dropping.

The import of automobiles, for instance, is so tightly restricted by these well-connected businessmen that Burmese say a 15-year-old Japanese sedan might sell for more than 20 times its value elsewhere and the supply of mobile phones is so limited that they can cost more than $2,000.

New Reason to Privatize Japan Post

This guy is so wrong.
So it can be punished by the market for dumb ideas like this. I present a case of Strong Bad’s imagination coming to life:

Japan Post to Deliver New Year’s Postcards to Every House in Area of Choice
[Soon addressing your cards ]”To all those living in X-town” Will Be OK

Japan Post announced on Dec. 22 that it will start a service that will deliver New Year’s postcards (nengajo) with the addressee left off to specific areas. The cards will arrive on the first of next year, and the program will be experimentally implemented in Tokyo and the 14 major cities in Japan. By placing “to all of those living in X-Town” on the cards, they will be delivered to all houses in the specified area. (Jiji Press)

Super-annoying Cartoon ‘Yu-Gi-Oh!’ Apparently Waning in Popularity

Woo hoo!

Thursday, December 22, 2005

Poor Sales of Yu-Gi-Oh! Hit Asatsu-DK’s FY05 Profit

TOKYO (Nikkei)–Advertising agency Asatsu-DK Inc. is likely to post a group operating profit of about 7.7 billion yen for the fiscal year through Dec. 31, down 7%, hurt by the floundering profitability of its content business that sells the Yu-Gi-Oh! cartoon. This would mark the first fall in profit in three years.

The company originally forecast operating profit to rise 7% to 8.8 billion yen.
dumb
After profits at the content business were pushed up by the huge popularity of Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters in the U.S. and Europe in fiscal 2004, they fell this year. Although other cartoon characters and products compensated for the decline in sales, they were unable to offset the tumble in the highly profitable Yu-Gi-Oh!

When I worked at an elementary school last year, the dorky kids couldn’t shut up about this and Pokemon. I guess this is their generation’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but whatever it still sucks.

Fan death- seriously?

When I came back from the Philippines it was already cold enough in Taiwan that I needed something to make sitting at the computer a little more palatable. My superthick blanket is enough for sleep, but I decided to pick up an electric heater. Now, I had just read this article on Yahoo Japan, which says that an 82 year old man in Yamagata City has been hospitalized in serious condition to to carbon monoxide poisoning resulting from a loose rubber hose on a Matsushita (aka Panasonic aka National) oil heat-fan. Despite the fact that I was shopping for an electric and not oil heater, I avoided Panasonic products like the plague.

Earlier today, I glanced at Kushibo’s blog and saw this post about fan death, which I’d never heard of before. Fan death is apparently a very silly Korean urban myth that an electric fan can create “a vortex, which sucks the oxygen from the enclosed and sealed room and creates a partial vacuum inside” or possibly “suck all the air away, preventing one from breathing.”

It’s claimed that this legend has spread to surrounding Asian countries, but the closest thing I’ve heard in Japan is that having an electric fan on you at night can make you catch cold, which is the kind of thing that a grandmother in any country might say without sounding like a vortex-phobe. The fact that the Wikipedia page exists only in English and Korean also seems to indicate that it may not have much of a presence in other countries, although I am at least a little surprised that no enterprising Japanese wikinerd has translated the article as fodder for making fun of Koreans.

Vincent Gallo’s Sperm


In an attempt to get away from my brush with evil (Sorry again to Dave and aburoie!), I would like to share with you something a little more positive (if a little disturbing). Vincent Gallo, actor and star of the great Buffalo 66 (and apparently he made a cameo appearance in Goodfellas!), is offering to father the child of any “non-dark” woman willing to pay him $1 million. This has to go on my list of “future aspirations” (except for the racist parts). I mean, even considering a scheme like this seriously would take an ego bigger than Lake Erie. I’m not there yet, but one can dream:

Vincent Gallo’s Sperm

$1 Million

Price includes all costs related to one attempt at an in-vitro fertilization. (A $50,000 value) If the first attempt at in vitro fertilization is unsuccessful, purchaser of sperm must pay all medical costs related to additional attempts. Mr. Gallo will supply sperm for as many attempts as it takes to complete a successful fertilization and successful delivery. Sperm is 100% guaranteed to be donated by Mr. Gallo who is drug, alcohol and disease free. If the purchaser of the sperm chooses the option of natural insemination, there is an additional charge of $500,000. However, if after being presented detailed photographs of the purchaser, Mr. Gallo may be willing to waive the natural insemination fee and charge only for the sperm itself. Those of you who have found this merchandise page are very well aware of Mr. Gallo’s multiple talents, but to add further insight into the value of Mr. Gallo’s sperm, aside from being multi talented in all creative fields, he was also multi talented as an athlete, winning several awards for performing in the games of baseball, football and hockey and making it to the professional level of grand prix motorcycle racing. Mr. Gallo is 5’11” and has blue eyes. There are no known genetic deformities in his ancestry (no cripples) Continue reading Vincent Gallo’s Sperm

Japundit gets it wrong on MOAG

Japundit is celebrating its comment-generating post about the “controversy” over the Memoirs of a Geisha movie with a victory lap. But really, who cares? The blog, I assure you, is just playing into marketers’ hands.

What no one seems to be mentioning is that putting a Chinese woman in a Japanese role was more than likely an intentional decision by the filmmakers to generate buzz. Or even if the initial casting decision wasn’t made specifically to ruffle feathers, the race mix-up angle has been played up way out of proportion for that reason. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that the race-sensitive Asians and their apologists (at Japundit, MutantFrog.com, or other public forums) would get their panties in a bundle if those ignoramuses in Hollywood confused Japanese and Chinese people, so why not exploit that to get people talking about a movie that would otherwise not be very appealing to an uninitiated audience?

Because realistically, a movie about a “geisha” probably couldn’t sell itself. Enough people in the States are vaguely aware of what a geisha is to the point of it showing up in the dictionary, but are Americans dying to see a tragic tale of star-crossed love between two stiff, unemotional Asians? Most people would understandably say, “Geesha what?” And as we all know, Japan isn’t nearly as sexy as it once was, and with Japan-China tensions being the hot-button issue that they are, a good bit of controversy never hurt anyone.

So when you go see this movie, enjoy — but just remember that your thoughts on race relations, your expectations of artistic authenticity, and all else you hold dear are all being carefully manipulated by well-paid and savvy hucksters.