Japan, Selected Columns..[ 1813 ]

Japan, give us a break!

Commuters crowd Nishitetsu Fukuoka Station in Fukuoka on Aug. 17, after the end of the obon holiday. (Mainichi)

(Mainichi Japan) September 16, 2010

Last week my partner came home and said that she may no longer be able to take a lunch break at work.

Apparently, there is resentment among her co-workers that she leaves the office, while they have to stay and eat "bento."

Why can't they leave too? -- Because someone has to answer the phones during the break.

So why not set up a daily rotation system, allowing most to go out while one person stays behind?

Well, that won't work either because everyone is trying to prove how hard they work.

There isn't the space in these columns to discuss issues in depth, so I'm afraid this will sound like a rant. But please Japan -- give me a break.

Time after time I've been in offices here where people feel under pressure not to take time off, for lunches or anything else.

According to a report by Harris Interactive this year, Japanese workers took off an average of 9.3 of their 16.6 legally mandated vacation days.

As anyone who works here knows, even that remarkable statistic hides a lot of pain. Most office workers contribute dozens of hours per month in unpaid overtime. Many don't get proper dinner breaks and toil away into the evening. More than once I've seen friends arrive at 9 p.m. and congratulate themselves on getting home early.

Is it because everyone is so busy they can't afford time off? Of course not -- productivity in Japanese offices is low. Most people could easily do the work they're assigned in half the time.

The really distressing thing is that bosses don't even have to demand this masochistic behavior from employees here -- workers police themselves.

In my partner's offices, as in many, there's a sort of discreet bullying that keeps everyone in line. A "nani-sama" -- who-does-she-think-she-is -- approach that pulls everyone down to the same miserable level.

It made me sad to walk through Tamachi Station in August after the obon holidays and see the grim faces of people who had managed to extract only three days of holiday from their firms before returning to work.

As the economy declines here, this phenomenon is worsening. And that's very unfortunate because decent breaks and holidays could help Japan.

Reformers in Britain and elsewhere discovered over a century ago that happy employees are motivated, productive employees.

Economists say one of Japan's biggest structural problems is chronic underconsumption, in part because millions of workers have so little opportunity to spend their hard-earned cash.

And one more thing: Giving reasonable working hours to men and women would give them more time to meet, fall in love and rescue Japan from its marriage and fertility crisis.

So what's the downside? If there is one, I can't see it. 

(By David McNeill)

(Profile)

David McNeill writes for The Independent and Irish Times newspapers and the weekly Chronicle of Higher Education. He has been in Japan since 2000 and previously spent two years here, from 1993-95 working on a doctoral thesis. He was raised in Ireland.

BP May Plug Its Gulf of Mexico Well..[ 1812 ]

BP May Plug Its Gulf of Mexico Well in Four Days

By Jim Polson - Sep 15, 2010 8:04 PM GMT+0300 Wed Sep 15 17:04:56 GMT 2010

BP Plc may permanently plug in four days the Gulf of Mexico well that caused the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history, National Incident Commander Thad Allen said.

A relief well is less than 25 feet (8 meters) from intercepting the damaged Macondo well and is expected to reach the outer cement shell within 24 hours, perhaps earlier, Allen said at a press conference today in Kenner, Louisiana. The relief well will be used to inject mud and cement into any remaining gaps, permanently killing Macondo. Injecting and testing the cement plug may take as long as four days, he said.

“They are almost touching the well,” Allen said. Operators aboard Transocean Ltd.’s Development Driller III rig are testing a new tool intended to measure the distance to the well while drilling. BP said yesterday the drilling bit had been temporarily withdrawn to check the distance using sensors.

The well began leaking oil after an April 20 explosion and fire that killed 11 workers aboard Transocean’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. The well gushed an estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil before BP capped it on July 15.

BP, based in London, plugged the well’s steel casing with cement in August, and Allen said he wants to assure the space between that casing and the wall that surrounds the hole also is blocked with cement.

Allen also said he’s ordered a “task force” of government, private and academic research vessels to survey a layer of oil more than 3 centimeters (1 inch) thick found Sept. 5 about 16 nautical miles (30 kilometers) from the well by researchers including Samantha Joye, a University of Georgia professor.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jim Polson in New York at jpolson@bloomberg.net

Self-taught rocketeer's....[ 1811 ]

VBS.TV

Self-taught rocketeer's backyard is Jetson-like reality

By Motherboard.tv staff

September 15, 2010 -- Updated 1536 GMT (2336 HKT)

Man's backyard is Jetson-like reality

• Lozano's other creations include rocket bicycle, rocket motorcycle, personal helicopter

Editor's note: The staff at CNN.com has recently been intrigued by the journalism of VICE, an independent media company and website based in Brooklyn, New York. VBS.TV is Vice's broadband television network. The reports, which are produced solely by VICE, reflect a transparent approach to journalism, where viewers are taken along on every step of the reporting process. We believe this unique reporting approach is worthy of sharing with our CNN.com readers.

Brooklyn, New York (VBS.TV) -- Before you complain again about living in 2010 and not yet having a jetpack to fly you to work, consider taking a trip to Mexico. There's only one person in the world who produces a complete flying rocket belt from start to finish -- from the parts to the fuel that powers it. His name is Juan Manuel Lozano and he lives in Cuernavaca, a city two hours south of Mexico City.

So VBS sister technology channel Motherboard.tv traveled to visit him at his company, TAM (Tecnología Aeroespacial Mexicana). A self-taught scientist and inventor whose technologies have traveled the world from Turkey to Switzerland, from Boeing to the U.S. Navy, Lozano considers his biggest achievement not his jetpack, but a machine that produces pure hydrogen peroxide that he uses as fuel for most of his inventions. Apart from his rocket belt, he's assembled a rocket bicycle, rocket motorcycle, rocket dragster and a personal helicopter.

Then there's the hydrogen-peroxide-powered rocket belt. While at least one company has recently promised to bring personal flying machines to market, these conveyances only rely on propellers, not jets. But the real thing ain't cheap. If you can't afford the system, priced at around U.S. $125,000, you can pay him to drop by your party for only $20,000.

See the rest of Backyard Rocketeer at VBS.TV

Among many other projects, Lozano's working with a group of scientists on a car that will run on seawater, converted into hydrogen peroxide by electrolytic cells powered by solar energy. It's a project, he says, that will completely transform transportation and energy in the near future.

Lozano and his daughter -- the only woman to fly a jetpack -- take his creations for test-drives in their backyard. While he couldn't fly for us (he recently broke his ribs and shoulder while taking his rocket bike for a spin at 80 mph), he gave us a tour of his workshop to share with us his favorite machines and a philosophy of invention built on hard work, self-teaching, and lots of jet fuel.

NASA Inage of the Day, Sep 15th..[ 1810 ]

The latest NASA "Image of the Day" image.

The Rosette Nebula

Located about 5,000 light years from Earth, this composite image shows the Rosette star formation region. Data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory are colored red and outlined by a white line. 

The X-rays reveal hundreds of young stars in the central cluster and fainter clusters on either side. Optical data from the Digitized Sky Survey and the Kitt Peak National Observatory (purple, orange, green and blue) show large areas of gas and dust, including giant pillars that remain behind after intense radiation from massive stars has eroded the more diffuse gas. 

A recent Chandra study of the cluster on the right side of the image, named NGC 2237, provides the first probe of the low-mass stars in this satellite cluster. Previously only 36 young stars had been discovered in NGC 2237, but the Chandra work has increased this sample to about 160 stars. 

The presence of several X-ray emitting stars around the pillars and the detection of an outflow -- commonly associated with very young stars -- originating from a dark area of the optical image indicates that star formation is continuing in NGC 2237. 

By combining these results with earlier studies, scientists conclude that the central cluster formed first, followed by expansion of the nebula, which triggered the formation of the two neighboring clusters, including NGC 2237. 

Image Credit: X-ray (NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Wang et al), Optical (DSS & NOAO/AURA/NSF/KPNO 0.9-m/T. Rector et al)

Τετάρτη, 15 Σεπτέμβριος 2010 7:00:00 πμ

Storm "Karl" hits Mexico..[ 1809 ]

Tropical Storm Karl hits Mexico, some evacuated

Tropical Storm Karl is seen in a handout image from the NOAA taken September 15, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/NOAA/Handout

By Isela Serrano

 

CANCUN, Mexico | Wed Sep 15, 2010 10:58am EDT

CANCUN, Mexico (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Karl hit Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula on Wednesday and was expected to head into the Gulf of Mexico, threatening oil installations and possibly gaining hurricane strength.

Mexico's state-run oil giant Pemex has not yet curtailed any operations but said it would continue to monitor Karl's progress as it approached its vast oil production operations in the Bay of Campeche, in the southern Gulf of Mexico.

Hundreds of people, mostly from Mayan towns and villages, were being evacuated as Karl dumped rain and brought strong winds to the Yucatan, civil protection authorities said.

Majahual, home to a large cruise ship port, and the ecological reserve of Sian Ka'an, near the Mayan ruins of Tulum, were also being affected by the storm.

Karl, the 11th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, had winds of 65 mph with higher gusts. It was expected to cross the Yucatan peninsula on Wednesday and enter the Gulf of Mexico after nightfall.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Karl "is likely to become a hurricane" as it gathers strength in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico on Thursday.

After it moves through the southern Gulf, it is expected to make landfall again at hurricane strength near the Mexican ports of Tampico and Tuxpan by the weekend. Tuxpan is a major oil products import hub.

But Cancun, a top beach destination for U.S. and European tourists, was untouched by the storm, and it was also likely to pass far south of U.S. oil and natural gas platforms in the northern part of the Gulf of Mexico.

A tropical storm warning is in effect for the east coast of the Yucatan peninsula from Chetumal at the Mexico-Belize border northward to Cabo Catoche. This area is known for its white sand beaches and coral reefs.

Karl may bring some coastal flooding as well as large, damaging waves, forecasters said.

Two hurricanes, Igor and Julia, also raced across the Atlantic Ocean but posed no immediate threat to land or energy interests along their projected tracks.

Igor was 1,090 miles southeast of Bermuda and showed signs of weakening overnight but was still a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale with 145 mph winds.

Strengthening overnight, Julia -- 525 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands and moving northwest -- was also a Category 4 hurricane with 132 mph winds. It was farther from land than Igor, a day after developing into the season's fifth hurricane.

(Additional reporting by Cyntia Barrera Diaz, Robert Campbell in Mexico City. Editing by Kieran Murray)