The Jungle Book

Here in Japan, the particle accelerator where I work is actually made up of a chain of three accelerators: a linear accelerator to start with, a medium size circular (actually more like triangular) synchrotron and the main ring. 

In the main control room, whenever something goes wrong with the accelerator, a sort of alarm goes off to alert the operators. If the problem is with the linear section, an almighty elephant trumpet echoes through the room. If it’s further downstream in the first ring, a troop of monkeys invades the place. And to make things even more interesting, a lion roar announces problems with the main ring, but it sounds more like a kitten meowing. 

On a really bad day, the place feels like a scene from the Jungle Book. Who said scientists have no sense of humour?

Green, Yellow and Red

Autumn in Japan can be amazing especially in November when it’s quite dry and the famous “autumn leaves” change the landscape dramatically. Nature happily blends nuances of green, yellow and red to completely redecorate the scenery creating moments of breathtaking beauty. And then, like an artists in his moment of madness, it strips all the leaves from the trees and allows the canvas to rest for the winter.

In one of my travels around Japan I asked someone if the autumn leaves have appeared yet in the neighbouring forests. After a few seconds of contemplation, pointing towards the mountains he produced the most enlightening answer:

“Green, green, green, green... Yellow! Green, green, green, green... Red! Green, green, green, green... Yellow...”.

Not quite the right time, yet...

Hot Water

Here in Japan, next to where I work there’s a nuclear power station right on the shore of the Pacific Ocean. Its installed power is about 1 GW. Nuclear power plants usually run with an efficiency of about 30 – 35%, which means that for this particular one, about 2 GW of power ends up dissipated as heat. The cooling system dumps this heat in the ocean as hot water at 40 degrees centigrade or so. This is enough to keep a small bay nearby warmer throughout the year. It looks like this extra heat creates a small microclimate and fish and marine life tend to grow larger than normal. This might be just a local legend, but I’ve seen quite a few fishermen around patiently waiting for the big catch. I guess one could find a logical explanation for this. The extra heat creates a more hospitable environment for algae and other marine life which will grow more rapidly and abundantly. And with more food available, it is only normal for fish to grow larger.

Body Language

Unless you speak Japanese, the only real language you can actually use if you’re visiting Japan, is your body language. I’ve done pretty well so far miming food, or sleep or partial differential equations. But it doesn’t always work.

I started to get some dandruff, so I went to a big supermarket to get some antidandruff shampoo. It turned out it wasn’t as simple as I thought. My desperate attempts to show some flakes falling from my hair only attracted giggles from some otherwise very helpful shop assistants. Poor girls! I bet they thought I was looking for flea powder for monkeys... Eventually a quick google search solved the problem.

Things got even more interesting when I went to get a haircut. I was greeted by a very nice lady, who was obviously accustomed with more chatty customers. All I could do was smile back and nod every few seconds. Eventually our discussion came down to what I took as “How do you want your hair cut?”. Mime that! “Well”, I said trying my luck, “I like to keep it a bit longer, but not too long...”. After a while, her perplexed look told me I was running out of luck. As she stood there waiting, scissors in one hand and a big hair comb in the other, I realised I had this leaflet in my pocket from a concert I went to the night before. It was all in Japanese, but it had some pictures with several artists. “Here”, I said pointing at one of the pictures. “I want his haircut”. She quickly took the leaflet, put it next to the mirror and started meticulously cutting my hair. Every once in a while she would go back to consult the picture, probably wishing she had a 3D image of the guy, or at least a couple of police photos.

But sometimes, no matter how hard you try, you can’t get by unless you can speak a few words. I’ve eaten something strange earlier this week and I started to feel very sick. I had to go to see a doctor. Now, how do you explain symptoms like vomiting and diarrhoea without the use of language? Well, I couldn’t. And my book of useful Japanese phrases wasn’t of much help either. Eventually they had to find an English speaking doctor, for an ignorant gaijin.

Relief!

Warnings

I’ve witnessed my first earthquake about a week ago. It was quite interesting. Everything started vibrating slightly as if the whole building was being shaken by a giant evil kid. It only lasted for a few seconds. I was just about to jump under a desk as instructed by my wise mother (who’s been through a 7.2 magnitude earthquake back in Romania in 1977).

My Japanese colleagues however were calm and unperturbed. That's probably because they’ve seen this happening every week or so. And also because a few seconds before, the Early Earthquake Warning System promptly kicked in. Of course, I had no idea what the voice on the loudspeakers was saying. But the system itself is quite clever. Using seismographs located everywhere in the country, the magnitude of the earthquake is quickly estimated, as well as the expected arrival time and intensity of the main shock wave at different locations. Then the warning signal is instantly sent out giving people precious seconds to get ready. At the same time, many automatic systems do their job, like slowing down trains and controlling elevators. Impressive!

Of course, sometimes these warnings go a bit too far. Like the other night for instance. I was just about to fall asleep when I heard this voice coming from the living room. I took my baseball bat ( :P ) and slowly opened the door. It turned out the voice was coming from this speaker, which I hadn’t noticed. It went on for about a minute and then it stopped. All in Japanese, of course. It was nearly midnight and thinking it must have been something important I went to the reception to get some answers. It turned out that a thunderstorm was coming our way. They just wanted to reassure their guests that everything was fine, and that loud thunders and flashing lights are quite normal during such a storm. Thanks a lot!

Sumo

A few weeks ago a friend and I went to a sumo tournament in Tokyo. What an experience! Sumo is by far the most eccentric sport I have ever seen. The rules are quite simple: push your opponent out of the designated fight circle, or make him touch the ground with any part of his body other than the feet.

In a way, the game is maybe the personification of everything Japanese. Each game starts with someone making a melodic call. Then the two wrestlers enter the ring and make some moves meant to invoke the good spirits and discourage the opponent. Some of the moves are rather funny, like lifting a leg, which can be a challenge in itself. At the same time, the ring referee makes some very acrobatic stretches at well, while five other side referees wait patiently. When they finish this ritual, the referee gives a sign and the bout starts with a fantastic force and intensity. The fight is over within seconds. It rarely lasts longer. Then the two wrestlers bow and leave the ring. No smiles, no celebrations, no emotions.

Obviously, to get any good at this sport one needs to be agile and massive. So young sumo wannabes start by joining a sumo school, where they train, eat and drink. The traditional food is a kind of Japanese soup, a greasy stew with fish, meat and vegetables, which can provide up to 20,000 calories per day. I’m not sure if the food is provided by the school, or if they have to pay for it, but I guess this is a bit like investing in your education.

One would think not too many kids dream of becoming a sumo star, given the extreme life (and size) of a sumo wrestler. However, it looks like the temptation is big. Top division players get a nice salary and they are very respected. And they get to date the hottest Japanese women.

For more pictures, see my Picasa album.

Imperfection

I visited Nikko, a beautiful little town with many temples and shrines. At Toshogu Shrine, I was told that this five-story pagoda has its first four roofs built in Japanese style, while the top one is Chinese. Very mysterious... It turns out this isn’t some architectural error. The belief is that by building the fifth roof in a different style, the designers intentionally wanted to avoid perfection. This was to stop the evil spirits and gods getting jealous. They obviously don't like seeing humans accomplishing something faultless. That’s a privilege exclusive to gods. But the human inventiveness has no limits and the evil spirits were tricked. 

The same idea can be found in the Yomeimon gate. It has twelve pillars with some patterns carved on each of them. However, on one of the pillars the patterns are upside down. The evil spirits were fooled once again. 

It looks like even some modern companies adhere to this philosophy. Like “7-Eleven” for instance, a well-known chain of convenience stores. On their logo, “eleven” is written in capital letters except the “n” at the end, which is lowercase. 

So to all those wondering why I’m not the perfect husband, employee or friend, here’s my answer: I do it on purpose!!! Can’t risk getting the evil spirits angry!

Road Sign

I saw this road sign at some point last year. I didn't even know these traffic signs existed. It made me a bit nervous and my imagination went wild. What if just around the corner there was another one reading something like: “Low flying ballistic missiles. Please mind your head!”? Or “Watch out for artillery holes on the road!”?

Mermaid

This mermaid was for sale in my local supermarket back home. Obviously it was in the fresh fish department. Where else?

Mt Fuji

They say he who climbs Mt Fuji is wise, but who does it twice, is twice a fool. 

So I decided to prove my wisdom and climbed the mountain a couple of weeks ago. The mountain stands quite high at 3776 m and it can be dangerous going up, therefore they have an official climbing season from July to the end of August. Apparently this year alone, more than 200,000 people made their way up, so it’s entirely doable. 

But because it was already out of season I was worried about hiking alone, so I posted a message on a forum online and found three other people keen to go up. It’s quite exciting going on a mountain with some total strangers. We decided to do a night hike, in order to get there just in time for sunrise. It might sound strange, but this is apparently the way to do it. The legend says that if you see the sunrise from the top of the mountain many good things will be bestowed upon you, so it’s definitely worth the effort. 

I bought some gear (including a cool headlamp), prepared some sandwiches and some energy bars and early on Saturday morning I took a bus from Tokyo to Kawaguchiko 5th Station, which is as far as the bus can get. Got there at about 2 in the afternoon, and my online friends eventually turned up as well. Because our plan was to get to the top by sunrise, we had to wait until about 10 PM, so by the time we left I was already tired and sleepy. 

Going up in the dark is quite an interesting experience, as you can’t appreciate the main thing about mountains: the view. Just total darkness. As we got higher and higher we started seeing the city lights down below. My concern about hiking alone turned out to be totally unfounded. A lot of people were quietly doing the same thing. At some point we even ran into some sort of traffic jam and we had to wait for a while. 

On the way to the top we found many huts packed with people sleeping on the floor. It looks like they’ve paid a fortune for this privilege. It also became clear to us that we were going to get there too early so we stopped at one of the stations to get some hot noodles. It was getting very very busy so we decided to make a move. The last hour was just one long queue. It’s not quite Shibuya, but close. I can only image what it’s like in August. 

On the top it was quite cold, dark and windy. As it was still dark and I was sleepwalking by then, I found a little corner and instantly fell asleep. When I woke up, to my surprise some other people had taken my example almost keeping me warm. 

And then the sunrise came, which was quite spectacular. And being so high and above the clouds it nearly makes you think it was worth it. I was beginning to understand why the Japanese consider Fuji-san a holy mountain. 

The sun changed everything instantly and soon people were basking in the sun. At this point I realised I was actually on a volcano. No vegetation at all, only gravel, ash and slag, a big crater in the middle and some glacier nearly melted down by the unusually hot summer. It took me more than an hour to go around the crater. Signs of a violent eruption could be seen everywhere. 

One the way down I had to stop and eat one of my sandwiches as my knees were shaking. All I could think of was a nice bed to collapse on. It took me less than a couple of hours to go down (as opposed to six to go up) . By this time I had lost my mates and I was trying to catch up with them. It turned out they were too tired to continue, so they slept for a while on some rocks on the way down. I found the car park at Kawaguchiko 5th Station much more attractive. 

After a long wait the bus arrived and the next thing I remember is getting off at Shinjuku Station in Tokyo. 

Would I do it again? Probably not. It’s quite hard (I don’t know how all these people do it) and although the view from the top can be breathtaking, the overall bleak landscape didn’t impress me. And it’s the journey that counts, isn’t it? 

I took some pictures which can be seen on my Picasa album. 

Also, I tried to track my hike, but my phone died as we neared the top. It must have been the lack of oxygen. Here it is anyway:

Bond... James Bond

This might look like an ordinary brick, but it’s not. It’s got quite an interesting story to tell.

Forty-fifty years ago, a lot of the technology that we now take for granted wasn’t readily available. Take the laser for instance. You can get a laser pointer for a couple of pounds these days, but fifty years ago a laser was a toy one could only find in a research lab.

It so happened that a young scientist was at the time working in one of these research labs. One day he got an unexpected visit. The producers of the latest James Bond movie wanted to talk to him. They were looking for a laser for some special effects in the movie. It turned out they came to the right place. They got their laser, and even a custom built “time bomb” (actually just a display with a counter on a refurbished barrel). The person doing all this is in fact one of my colleagues. He is now retired and comes in only once a week and he had a brilliant career.

Being a sort of “consultant” for the movie (which is called Goldfinger, by the way) he even got to go on the set once. As a souvenir he took one of the “gold bricks”. “It used to have a shiny golden colour” he told me one day, “but my wife’s been using it in the kitchen”.

Aubergines

I love aubergines. I really do. I love their shape, their colour, their texture, not to mention their unique taste. One can cook so many nice dishes with aubergines.

And they seem to be coming in all sort of sizes as well. Here are two extreme examples.

Aubergines in Romania:

Aubergines in Japan:

Church Dress Code

My friend was in Rome last week. She wanted to visit St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican City, but she wasn’t allowed in. Her shoulders were uncovered and apparently this doesn’t go very well with the church dress code. So she bought this t-shirt to solve the problem. Perfectly acceptable this time.

Conspiracy Theory

She always told me she “was on the pill”. I never suspected she was on THIS sort of pill:

And to make things worse, one of my friends casually gave me this present (zoom in for details):

I’m slowly getting the big picture here and I smell a big conspiracy going on.

Leustean

“Leustean” is a herb quite common in Romania and many other countries. My friends are telling me its English name is “lovage”, but I still think “leustean” sounds much better. Anyway…

Georgi’s been pestering me about this herb for a while. Apparently a soup is not a real soup without a touch of “leustean”. It is the magic, essential, secret ingredient!

Since we didn’t know one could buy this herb here in England, last summer when we visited our friends in Timisoara, we asked for some “leustean” leaves. They gave us a whole plant, with roots and everything. They wrapped it in a plastic bag with a lot of mud and then they placed it nicely in my luggage among my shirts. We were given 24 hours to transport the plant here to England. We planted it in our garden and luckily it survived. However we soon found out that what we did was illegal. You can’t bring plants just like that across the border, not even "leustean". We didn’t get caught, though, otherwise who knows? Today I’d be cooking garlic soup with "leustean" for my inmates.

Our landlord became a bit worried, though:

- “Is it an invasive plant?” he asked.

- “Well, it tends to spread quite a bit, but don’t worry, I also brought a bug to keep its growth under control, so our garden should be just fine”.

He didn’t get my joke and he looked very worried at our lawn.

The plant survived the first few weeks, and even produced new leaves. It didn’t have time to grow much, as Georgi’s been using it with pretty much anything she cooks:

- “I know what goes well with this stew. Some leustean!”

And if I make myself a sandwich and I look somewhere else for a second, these green leaves miraculously appear right next to my cheese.

I wonder if there is a “leustean fun club”? I meet people every day who would join in to celebrate this fine herb.

Only the other day, I was talking to two of my friends who live in Tokyo. I’m going to visit Japan in a few weeks time and I asked them whether they need anything from Europe.

- “Yes, some leustean would be nice!”

- !?!??

Which Way?

Shallow Entertainment

I went to see Brazil playing Ireland last week at the Emirates Stadium.

And this weekend being in Geneva I went to their famous Motor Show to check out some unique cars.

So vain!

Chairs

I went to Geneva this weekend, visiting some friends. While walking around the city, I’ve seen two chairs worth mentioning.

In the St. Pierre Cathedral, in the old town, they still keep “Calvin’s chair”. Calvin was a famous protestant reformer from the 16th century. His 500-year-old chair doesn’t look very cosy, but I guess it was cosy enough for him.

In front of the Palais des Nations we found a giant chiar (about 12 meters high) with a broken leg. It symbolises opposition to antipersonnel mines and cluster bombs. Fantastic image with a powerful message!

Double Crème de la Gruyère

Memorable dictum by my friend Antonio:

- “Do you know what ‘double crème de la Gruyère’ is?”
- “!?”
- “It’s like cream, but double, and from Gruyère!”
- “!!!”

New Year’s Eve Celebrations

New Year’s Eve in Romania is all about fun and celebration and food and anything you can think of. Since we were there on holiday we hung out with some friends to mark the event as we used to, years ago. Spending time with them is dangerous, though... I laughed so hard that my ribs hurt and my face turned green... I’m still recovering.

Have Some Lemon Juice!

My friends in Timisoara had a baby a few months ago. Of course, they haven’t had any sleep since. A baby tends to keep you busy.

But they get their share of fun as well. Nothing’s more amusing than watching your baby having some freshly squeezed lemon juice. Sweet revenge!

Do you want to live forever?

I went to see a talk on aging a couple of weeks ago. And then another one on the same subject last week. Now, I’m not particularly worried about getting old yet, but my fast approaching birthday and the latest wrinkles, should definitely give me something to think about.
The most interesting seminar was given by Aubrey de Grey from Cambridge University. An eccentric, but entertaining guy. He’s got a long beard that would make da Vinci look like an amateur.
He claims that medical science has advanced so much that we are now within 20 to 30 years from tackling aging and seriously expanding our lifespan.
To put it simple, he says that our metabolism, ongoingly causes damage to our cells. This damage slowly accumulates to the point that it becomes pathological and we get all the age related diseases.
So what can we do? Well, we can try to understand and solve the metabolism problem (apparently too complicated), or ameliorate the pathological effects (a bit too late). Or we can do what he says. Remove this “damage” before it becomes pathological.
At this point the story becomes a bit technical, but the point is that seven different types of damage have been indentified. Now all we need to do is find out how to remove some of this damage. Once we do it, that’s the breakthrough and it will be just a matter of time before we improve the techniques and remove even more of this damage.
He calls this a maintenance approach. A car can virtually run for ever if it’s well looked after.
And now here comes the interesting part (with numbers and graphs). Let’s say we develop the first anti-damage, anti-aging, rejuvenation technique (or whatever you want to call it). Let’s say this fixes half the damage already accumulated. If we give the treatment to someone who’s sixty, although chronologically their age will be 60, physiologically, they will be more like 30. This means that they will live another relatively care free life for another 30 years. This is good news, because it will buy us time. Time to improve the techniques and repair a bit more damage. And if the rejuvenation therapies improve faster than the accumulation of irreparable damage, then, this means just one thing: a very very long lifespan. (see the graph below)

De Grey calculated the Longevity Escape Velocity (how fast these techniques must improve). The graph below assumes therapies double efficiency every 42 years. Some lucky people seem to be living indefinitely…


One odd thing from this graph is that first 1000-year-old is less than 20 years younger than the first 150-year-old.

Now probably de Grey has gone a bit over the top with his ideas. He’s 46 and he thinks if he’s lucky he might just get the first treatment. Some people think he’s mad. But if he is, he’s definitely not alone. He works for a foundation that sponsors age related research. And as I found out there are more and more scientists who think we can get our bodies to work a bit longer. Maybe not 1000 but at least 100 -150 years. De Grey however, is much more optimistic. He strongly believes the first 1000-year-old is alive today!

At the end of the talk there was a storm of questions, but one in particular is worth mentioning.
“ – Dr de Grey, as you know, our ears and noses keep on growing throughout our lives. How do you think a 1000-year-old would look like?”
“ – ?!??!!?!!”
“ – An elephant?”

Coats of Arms

I was checking some facts on North Korea today on Wikipedia, when I noticed something interesting. Their coat of arms seems very familiar. It looks more or less like the one Romania had during the communist regime. See for yourselves: 

North Korea today:

Romania, 20 years ago:

But then I learned something interesting. It looks like there were some design guidelines coming all the way from Moscow:

-    “You guys can have your own coat of arms, as long as it looks like this!”
-    “But, comrade… 1000 years of history…”
-    “Eeeh eeeh! No buts!”
So I went on and made a list with current and former communist countries and looked for coats of arms resembling the two above. It looks like the design recommendations worked. They all look more or less the same (Cuba's the odd one out). But most of them share a common fate: they're abandoned and forgotten.

Afghanistan:

Albania:

Armenia:

Azerbaijan:

Belarus:

Benin:

Bosnia and Herzegovina:

Bulgaria:

Cambodia:

China:

Croatia:

Cuba:

East Germany:

Estonia:

Georgia:

Hungary:

Kazakhstan:

Kyrgyzstan:

Laos:

Latvia:

Lithuania:

Macedonia:

Moldova:

Mongolia:

Montenegro:

Mozambique:

Russia:

Serbia:

Slovenia:

Tajikistan:

Turkmenistan:

Ukraine:

USSR:

Uzbekistan:

Vietnam:

Yugoslavia: