JAWing On – Life on Okinawa

Well it looks like we are actually going to luck out with Longwang. It has changed directions in the past day towards Taiwan. Because of the monster storm I finally gained some experience with several applications. The first being Google Earth and the current hurricane overlay. On the other side of things, I became interested in what was available to the novice as far as star gazing. I was able to locate two very interesting applications. One is a space similation named Celestia. This is sort of like viewing the universe in your own space craft for newbies. The other program is SkyChartIII. Although this is not a new program, it is a great way for newbies to experience the constellations as viewed from Earth . (The same company also offers an application for more advanced astronomers.)

Even in this world of more and more complex high tech gadgets, basics are needed. I didn’t even know that there was an international organization dedicated to the very serious business of what to do with our daily necessities.

Even in Japan we are limited by the redtape. This new electric socket broadband would be great for those of us who live here. But as with many things in Japan, the controls are so strict that it may end up being just another export.

I was looking at some of the various news stories; such as the self-building robots (which to me is a darn scary thought), hurricane zapping, and Google and Nasa joining forces (better maps on the way, maybe even Google Galaxy!!!); and I began to feel like my head was starting to spin from the speed of all the new technology. But then I saw this story on a technologically challenged mouse. And that’s when I realized that the world as we know it hasn’t disappeared yet, but it is under a massive transformation.

For those of you who thought you might miss the solar eclipse coming on Monday the 3rd of October, there will be a live webcast thanks to the courtesy and generosity of the city of Madrid. The time listed on the announcement is set at UTC (Greenwich Meantime). If you live in Japan, add 9 hours to the UTC for the correct time to view the various stages of the eclipse. The duration of the total eclipse will be under 5 minutes.

With the all the talk on recent discoveries of a giant squid and the Robinson Crusoe treasure, we may have to consider changing the category of science fiction to scientific possibilities.

Well the weekend following Katrina we had a typhoon hanging around the area. And once again, the weekend following Rita, we have another tropical cyclone at our door. This one has the very unusual name of Longwang, the Chinese God of Rain. To get a better view of the size of this monster check out the satellite imagery. Okinawa is that little line of dots to the NW of the eye of Longwang.

For those of you who need a good chuckle and haven’t done so yet, check out ‘Garfield’ for Tuesday September 27, 2005.

The recent arrest of Cindy Sheehan has led many to question the real motivation behind her activities. As simplistic as it may be, this is how I see the situation:

We are in Iraq. (Were we deceived as to the reason for going in the first place? Only time will give a full account of those details.) Through voting, Iraqis had the choice of whether or not they wanted to continue on this path. (And I don’t see anything stopping a call for an emergency vote to voice a change if that is what they desire.) This is a time of the internet and access to a wide array of information on almost any topic one wishes to research. America has been at war since 2001. The armed forces fight those wars. This is a time of an all volunteer armed forces. A young man believed enough in his country’s ideologies to think it was worth serving his country. War means loss of human life; his was one of those lives. A grieving mother is exercising one of the rights her son died for, freedom of speech. The mother has begun to take the right to excess leading to civil disobedience. (I don’t think that is something her son forfeited his life for.)

I have lost two mothers in my lifetime, one to alcohol abuse the other to cancer. I have never lost a child and cannot even begin to imagine the anguish that results from such a tragedy. It must be excruciating to lose a family member to a cause that is not fully defined. However, the choice of whether or not a person wants to put their life on the line, for whatever reason, lies not with the family members but with the individual involved. Ultimately, the manner in which this individual member of the armed forces casts their vote lies in whether that person reenlists or separates from the service. Whether or not we personally agree, we should respect the vote of the persons who are serving in the name of our country.