More Than 100 Poisonous Spiders Discovered

AMAGASAKI, Hyogo--Authorities on Thursday exterminated more than 100 poisonous redback spiders spotted near the Inagawa river the day before, police said. According to the police, a local man spotted a swarm of spiders at about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture and reported it to police. Police officers rushed to the scene and found more than 100 spiders inside a drainage pipe in a river wall about five meters high located along a walkway.

74 people visit eye clinics after observing eclipse

TOKYO — MAY. 22, 2012 - 04:00PM JST  At least 74 people sought help for eye problems at eye clinics in 18 prefectures across Japan after observing the annular solar eclipse on Monday, the Japanese Ophthalmological Society reported on its website Tuesday. Doctors and education officials had warned of eye injuries from improper viewing beforehand. Education Minister Hirofumi Hirano demonstrated the use of eclipse glasses in a televised news conference on the weekend. The society said most of the complaints were solar retinopathy due to not properly using special protective glasses. Of the 74, 16 were children younger than 12.

Russia, Japan in Building Gas Pipeline Talks

Russia and Japan are in talks to build a gas pipeline from Russia to expand gas supplies to the Far Eastern country, Russian gas giant Gazprom said on Thursday. "The parties have discussed prospects of increase of natural gas supplies from Russia to Japan in terms of higher liquefied natural gas production at the Sakhalin Island and implementation of an LNG plant construction project in Vladivostok," Gazprom said following a meeting between the company's export head Alexander Medvedev and Japan's former Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara. "The parties also discussed the opportunities for a gas supply project from Russia to Japan through pipeline," Gazprom said.

Twitter introduces brand pages in Japan, a first for Asia

Twitter first launched brand pages in the US in December last year and four months later the advertising feature has come to Japan, the first market in Asia. DoCoMo, the country's largest mobile operator, national retailer Lawson and Warner Entertainment Japan are the first companies that will take advantage of the pages, according to the Twitter Japan blog [Japanese], via Asiajin. It's of little surprise that Twitter has chosen Japan as its third market to launch brand pages - behind the US and the UK, the latter of which got the feature in February - as the micro blogging service has been a runaway success in Japan. Twitter has broken into the mainstream in Japan which, in a country that has traditionally preferred domestic services to those from overseas, is quite an achievement. Last year Twitter founder Jack Dorsey took stock of its remarkable growth, which began by allowing Tamagotchi owners to feed their pets more easily, before becoming (arguably) Japan's most popular social network. Proof of Twitter's appeal in Japan came last year when Mixi, which has been the country's leading social network for some time, announced an advertising partnership with Twitter to help combat the growing threat of Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg's service has taken its time to grow, but the last six months saw its membership double to reach 10 million members in the country.

Fortunetelling addiction spreads among the insecure

Chiyoko Osaki married a man after a fortuneteller said he was a good match. The marriage soon fell apart. She initially turned to her parents and friends for advice on building a solid future and career, but she soon found herself returning to the soothsayer. Although counselling is available from both public and private organizations, many people in these unpredictable economic times are looking to divination for solutions to their problems, as well as specific advice for marriage, work and future plans. As could be expected, the number of problems concerning fortunetelling has also risen Many people become addicted to fortunetelling because they have been exposed to it through TV shows and magazines since they were very young, said Hiroshi Watanabe, a lawyer. He has handled cases involving fortunetelling and fraudulent sales of goods or services claimed to bring supernatural benefits to the purchaser. Fortune tellers have long been working on the streets of Japan. But with the nation’s economy still sputtering along, the Internet has become inundated with sites providing fortunetelling services over the phone or through e-mail.

Toshiba exits mobile phone business

Toshiba Corp. has pulled out of the mobile phone business by selling its 19.9 percent stake in Fujitsu Toshiba Mobile Communications Ltd. to Fujitsu Ltd., the two companies said Monday. The company, which sells and markets mobile handsets, was originally set up in October 2010 by taking over Toshiba's mobile phone operations. It has since been renamed Fujitsu Mobile Communications Ltd. and is now under the full control of Fujitsu. The Regza Phone and some other Smartphone under the Toshiba brand will continue to be sold by Fujitsu Mobile for the time being, they said. Source: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nb20120403a8.html

Japanese computer programming language Ruby approved as global standard

The computer programming language Ruby, invented by a Japanese, has been approved by the International Organization for Standardization as a global standard, the government's Information-technology Promotion Agency said Monday. Ruby, conceived by software engineer Yukihiro Matsumoto in 1993, is a scripting language that executes tasks for software and runs on Unix, Dos, Windows and Mac operating systems. Matsumoto, a fellow at Network Applied Communication Laboratory Ltd., said he welcomes the decision and hopes for the further spread of the programming language.                                      Source: http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20120403p2g00m0dm049000c.html

Strong storm wreaks chaos nationwide

At least one elderly man was killed and several other people were injured as strong winds swept across the nation Tuesday, and the Meteorological Agency called for continued vigilance in northern regions Wednesday. Although details were not immediately available, more injuries were reported mainly from western prefectures. The Meteorological Agency warned people in other regions, including commuters in Tokyo, to brace for gusts and possible disruptions of public transportation. The winds disrupted operations of airplanes and trains, including shinkansen, mainly in western Japan in the morning. The Meteorological Agency said an active low pressure system and fronts were likely to bring strong winds to northern and north-eastern Japan from later Tuesday to Wednesday.

Official cherry blossom fete nixed

The government will cancel a cherry blossom viewing party in Tokyo scheduled for April 14 following North Korea's announcement that it plans to launch a rocket, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said Friday. The government of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda made the decision "to prepare for any contingencies," Fujimura said. Last week, Pyongyang announced it plans to launch a "satellite" from April 12-16 to mark the centennial of the birth of Kim Il Sung, North Korea's founder, on April 15. The event at Tokyo's Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden is held annually but also was cancelled last year due to the March 2011 natural and nuclear disasters. Around 10,000 luminaries would have attended the event hosted by Noda, including members of the Imperial family, the Cabinet, diplomats and other invitees from various fields.

Anti-nuke protests erupt in Japan

Thousands of antinuclear protesters took to the streets of Tokyo and other cities Sunday, the first anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami that triggered the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant. Near the head office of Tokyo Electric Power Co., which runs the crippled complex, demonstrators called for the country to abandon nuclear power and restore the prefecture, where more than 100,000 residents were forced to relocate. In Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, some 16,000 people attended an antinuclear gathering in the city and called for scrapping all of Japan's 54 commercial reactors, which provided a third of its electricity before the Fukushima disaster.

Robot built to explore nuclear plant

The Yomiuri Shimbun - A Tokyo company has developed a small, highly mobile robot that will be sent into the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant to take photos inside reactor buildings and measure radiation levels. Topy Industries Ltd. said the "Survey Runner" robot will be used to help with repair work at the plant after checking its performance and other details. The Survey Runner is expected to be able to maneuver around areas where other robots could not. It can even go up and down steep, wet stairs--an essential feature because coolant water has been injected into the reactors since the crisis at the plant began--and can turn around in a space just 70 centimeters square.

Japan will have a space elevator by 2050

It might be the stuff of science fiction dreams, but a Japanese construction company has announced that it will build a working space elevator by 2050. According to the Daily Yomiuri, construction company Obayashi Corp has announced it will build a space elevator capable of shuttling passengers 36,000 kilometers above the Earth by 2050. The company plans to use carbon nanontubes, which are 20 times stronger than steel, to produce the cables required for the elevator. Those cables will be stretched to a counterweight 96,000 kilometers above our planet, about one-fourth of the distance between the Earth and the moon. The terminal station, 36,000 kilometers above Earth, will be reached by cars that can carry 30 people and travel at 200 kilometers per hour. Source:  http://gizmodo.com/5887210/japan-will-have-a-space-elevator-by-2050

VOCABULARY

1.       Stuff (n) - exactly the kind of that dream

2.       Fiction (n) - something that people want you to believe is true but which is not true

3.       Shuttling (v) - to move people from one place to another place  

4.       Cable (n) – rope or wire for support

5.       Counterweight (n) - a weight that is as heavy as something else, so that the two objects can balance

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1.       What can you say about the article?

2.       What do you think is the purpose of this space elevator?

3.       Would you ride on this elevator? Why? Why not?

4.       Talk about science fictions.

5.       Were you ever interested in studying about space?

Japan shuts down nuclear reactor

Japan on Monday began a process that will see another one of the country's nuclear reactors go offline, leaving just two of 54 in operation. Kansai Electric Power Co (KEPCO), the largest utility firm after Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), began lowering power generation in unit three at the Takahama nuclear plant in Fukui prefecture, a KEPCO spokeswoman said. The reactor is expected to be shut down completely by midnight, leaving all 11 reactors around the country owned by KEPCO idle, she said. The move comes on the day that Japan announced a record trade deficit in January as fuel imports soared for the resource-poor nation following the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in March. Before the accident, which was caused by a deadly earthquake and tsunami, Japan had relied for one third of its power supply on nuclear energy. But power companies including KEPCO, which provides electricity to the major western cities of Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe, have not been able to resume reactors after inspection due to the safety concerns of local residents. Once the Takahama reactor goes offline it will leave one unit operational at TEPCO's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in central Japan and one at the Tomari plant in northern Hokkaido. Those two units are expected to be closed down for inspection by late April. Source: http://newsonjapan.com/html/newsdesk/article/94812.php

VOCABULARY

1.       Nuclear Reactors(n) - a large machine that produces nuclear energy, especially as a means of producing electricity

2.       Generation(v) - to produce heat, electricity, or another form of energy

3.       Deficit(n) - the difference between the amount of something that you have and the higher amount that you need

4.       Relied(v) - to depend on something in order to continue to live or exist

5.       Resume(v) - to start doing something again after stopping or being interrupted

6.       Inspection(n) - a careful examination of something to find out more about it or to check for anything wrong

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1.       What is nuclear energy?

2.       Discuss about the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

3.       What are the effects of radiation?

4.       What are the advantages and disadvantages of nuclear power plant?

5.       After the nuclear crisis in Japan, are you in favour of nuclear energy? Explain.

How the brain can make quitting alcohol harder

New researches suggest that if you like to drink but want to stop and don't seem to have to willpower to do so; it may be because chemicals in your brain are telling you to order another pint. It's been long thought that alcohol triggers the release of naturally occurring opioids in the brain's reward centers, but research has documented how this process works only in animals. A new study in the journal Science Translational Medicine offers insights into why alcohol can be so addictive in humans. Researchers used positron emission tomography (PET) to look at the distribution of chemicals in the brains of volunteers. Participants were 13 "heavy social drinkers" and 12 healthy control subjects. Women considered "heavy social drinkers" usually consume 10 to 16 drinks per week, and heavy-drinking men typically have 14 to 20 drinks per week.  Those in the control group drink fewer than five drinks per week among women, and seven drinks per week among men. It's important to note, however, that this study did not involve alcoholics.  Many of the "heavy drinkers" in this study would have on average two drinks a day, which isn't necessarily going to lead to dependency. Currently, the main drug available to help addicts stay off alcohol and drugs that is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is naltrexone.  This drug binds to the same receptors in the brain that opioids would bind to, so the opioids don't have anywhere to go. But few doctors prescribe naltrexone, partly because of the side effectss.  Headaches, nausea, irritability and achiness can result from this medication, which would drive people away from it, especially if they're already in withdrawal and trying not to drink. Still, making a drug that acts in the brain with fewer side effects is tricky, even if you try to isolate specific brain regions, he said.  Brain regions that perform different functions have similar biochemistry, so it's hard to affect some without also touching upon others. Source: http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/12/how-the-brain-can-make-quitting-alcohol-harder/?iref=obinsite

VOCABULARY

1.       Willpower (n) - the ability to control your mind and body in order to achieve something that you want to do: Example: It took all his willpower to remain calm.

2.       Opioids (n) - a psychoactive chemical; are among the world's oldest known drugs.

3.       Dependency(n) – addiction to drugs or alcohol

4.       Binds (v) - to stick together in a mass, or to make small pieces of something stick together:

5.       Nausea(n) - the feeling that you have when you think you are going to vomit (=bring food up from your stomach through your mouth

6.       Isolate (v) - to separate one person, group, or thing from other people or things:

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1.       Do you drink alcohol? How often?

2.       What are the effects of alcohol in the body?

3.       Why do people drink alcohol?

4.       Share your drinking alcohol experience.

5.       How should we treat alcohol dependency?