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<title>New blog category up!  France riots</title>
<link>http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2005/11/6/22a7f72ee0fee5a5ed9f16ff00d808d7.html</link>
<description><![CDATA[with the riots occurring in France right now, i thought it would be an excellent time to create a new category of blogs on my site.  with that in mind, i'd like to write about this topic a bit.

first off, i find it amazing that this is going on.  basic plot: disaffected youth have started a mass riot after two other youths were killed by electrocution as they were running away from police. more than that though, these youths were of a different ethnicity so that triggered a mass outlash from people of similar backgrounds.

now the riots have lasted a good 10 days.  apparently, the social background of these people is that these people are marginalized and lacking in jobs.  so naturally, under these circumstances, this was the bursting point, where people were looking for their martyrs to rally for a cause.

one of my interests in this is that i see the possibility of that happening in the US too if the government isn't careful.  the current government lacks any sympathy towards the youth, only to oppress them with conservative politics as well as sending our brainwashed men and women to Iraq for a pointless, selfish cause.

it would be interesting to see this display of discontent spread throughout the world where the youth stand up against the governments of the oppressive, conservative old guard and tell them to fuck themselves.  the US has been needing something like this for a while.  i feel that the old are burning us out by making us work like slaves while they lavish in their middle management positions, their corporate private invite only parties, etc.  i look to france with inspiration in this.]]></description>
<pubDate>Sun, 06 Nov 2005 10:50:46 -0700</pubDate>
<guid>http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2005/11/6/22a7f72ee0fee5a5ed9f16ff00d808d7.html</guid>
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<title>the perfect place....</title>
<link>http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2006/3/9/3f347d6b0d0277fb464edd0f0e5a0629.html</link>
<description><![CDATA[what is my ideal place?  as much as i like japan, there's still far too many issues that make it some place i'm hesitant to live permanently.  LA sucks and is only good for the weather.  Vegas?  Maybe as a retirement home if you have plenty of money to pay for all the electric bills for the heating.  Not to mention the job market for what i do in Vegas SUCKS. So what is the ideal place?

quite honestly, i doubt there is the ideal place.  i would say Mars, but we're about 50 political years before getting to that point in my george bush estimation.  Mars?????

yeah, there's no one living there, guaranteed (i moved for those keeping track).

seriously, the point is that i'm starting to realize not only do people suck, but i want to disengage myself from most people as much as possible.  i like enough people where i'm not a complete sociopath nor anti-social.  however, i'd like to be in a spot with the minimum interaction with society.  actually, it's not so much people, but certain types of people as well as forms of control.  i want to get away from the politics and the depressing news.  

the thing i'm finding out is that the more we globalize, the more a country like the US will impose it's imperialistic nature on other places.  worse yet, you run out of places where you can live by yourself, away from bullshit like wars, taxes, politicians, and can just do what you need to get done.  by the time you reach that point, you're already 20 years before death.  and in my book, you're actually getting closer to that point each year because of the choice of diet for average humanoid.

so where to go?

honestly, i don't know.  i do know that the best thing to do is get a lot of property, make it so that you're best and most trusted friends and family can live there and form something like a self-sustaining commune.  

i would even argue that these monolithic corporations are the precursor or foretelling of these societies.  take a google or yahoo for instance.  they hire like-minded people.  you'd probably never see a wallstreet banker at one of these places.  the same could be said about seeing a dot com employee happily being employed at goldman sachs.  the philosophies are different.

what things boil down to are the return of Rosseau's philosophy.  small societies where people know and trust each other.  kinda like a tribe.  it's the only way humans will survive in the long term, as cultures intermesh and form new cultures and belief systems that clash with each other and periods.]]></description>
<pubDate>Thu, 09 Mar 2006 09:40:23 -0700</pubDate>
<guid>http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2006/3/9/3f347d6b0d0277fb464edd0f0e5a0629.html</guid>
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<title>terrorist plot in UK foiled (?)</title>
<link>http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2006/8/10/d4711f28eda85c15119c8c852d9646ef.html</link>
<description><![CDATA[so they say.  without any empirical evidence that the common person can access, it's hard to say what's going on with this.  what is certain is the obstructions the airlines have placed because of this.  you basically can bring some clothes and everything else is banned.  

i honestly see things like this as the further demise of the airline industry.  despite the fact that we need airlines for travel, the fact that this shit is going on (both in terms of theoretical terrorism and the security policies restricting people and creating massive inconvenience) and the airlines are just failing miserably in addressing these issues imply that less people are going to want to travel in the future, at least by international airlines.  it's like the saying goes, "one or two idiots ruin it for the rest of us."

two things besides these points strike me in this.  first, one of my gut reactions was thinking that what you'll see is an increasing isolation between nations with travel being threatened from security and security measures.  i can see a future where people will minimally be able to cross borders.  in my paranoia, what you'll see is a country like the US isolating their borders this way and then firing a bunch of nukes to rid the rest of the world of their enemies.  it's just like 1984 in having three major nations left on the earth just warring with each other constantly.

the second issue that comes to mind is that the aerospace industry really needs to address the problem of flight.  the problem with current travel in terms of security is that these planes are nothing more than an oversized missile with (mostly) innocent people inside.  makes a great weapon in the hands of some psychopath.

however, there is obviously a keen need to travel overseas.  addressing this though is tough since few people have come up with feasible solutions.  naturally, the best model would be something like a teleporter.  however, physics and time aren't exactly supportive of this notion so you can forget it in the next 500 years of your life.  but what about flying cars?  there has been a few attempts at this but the problem is none of them are really practical.  there's the Molar flying vehicle, which is nothing more than a Harrier Jumpjet.  who's going to fly that?

like software, the problem is understanding the requirements and creating a simple yet effective solution.  the two requirements are this: 1) fuel efficient; 2) capable of travelling great distances; 3) safe; 4) user friendly.  1) really powers 2) so people should concentrate not on the aerodynamics of this problem but the issue of powering the sucker.  forget gas.  it's a horrible fuel source as demonstrated through the massive drain on supplies.  fusion power?  again no.  the energy source must be renewable and powerful enough to fly between countries within hours.

safety of course is huge.  it can't be a rocket that the enemy can fly into a building and take out.  also, you want to make sure no border guard is going to shoot you down.  so these things have to be smart since you don't want users to be able to kill themselves so easily.  make the vehicle contrl about 40-60% of the operation and the user just inputs the directions.  

user friendly is a must.  these things should be intuitive, minimal buttons, little training involved.  make it natural.  the thing is that you're going to be involving an "upper and down" stick on top of the accelerator.  how do you get a user adjusted to three dimensional space when most people can only perform in two dimensions?  you shouldn't require a special pilot's license for something like this.  the cockpits in planes make me think the airline industry is just fucking around with people and trying to create job stability rather than innovation.  if people are capable of making a better car, why can't they be capable of making a better flying thing!?!?!!!?!?]]></description>
<pubDate>Thu, 10 Aug 2006 09:47:54 -0600</pubDate>
<guid>http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2006/8/10/d4711f28eda85c15119c8c852d9646ef.html</guid>
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<title>Plane Crash In Russia</title>
<link>http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2006/8/22/fb7f45f2e7fba15ccccc5cbc0741ca4e.html</link>
<description><![CDATA[Someone told me a funny story about how when they passed through Russia, everyone cheered upon landing.  Now, that this incident occurred, I can see why.

Actually, this event points towards why planes must be re-invented.  They are literally like bombs carrying innocent people.  Certainly, the number of crashes are fairly low when you consider how many flights occur all the time.

Nonetheless, when it occurs it's such a huge deal that people become unnerved by it.  Car crashes and such occur more frequently, yet because they typically affect a limited number of people, no one makes such a big fuss.

On the other hand, planes are death traps.  There's just no way to survive a plane crash.  You rarely hear people walking away from these things.  I mean, where can you go?

The truth is for aviation to improve, people must consider moving away from these monstrous death traps towards smaller, more agile vehicles that can cross great distances.  This is what will make flying safer in the long term.]]></description>
<pubDate>Tue, 22 Aug 2006 12:55:05 -0600</pubDate>
<guid>http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2006/8/22/fb7f45f2e7fba15ccccc5cbc0741ca4e.html</guid>
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<title>N Korea declares nuclear weapons test</title>
<link>http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2006/10/9/54cee7a0e0d0487e1ca60d69cfbbccbb.html</link>
<description><![CDATA[big thing right now is that N Korea declared a (successful) nuclear weapons test.  speculation as to where the test was conducted is going on while Japan's new Prime Minister, Abe, is in China. this move of defiance will more than likely cause increased sanctions against N Korea.  however, i'm surprised and shocked at how nutty their leader is for moving forward with this.  what allies do they have?  what do they gain from this outside of increasing hostility?

japan is in a very vulnerable position.  makes me wonder if being here much longer is viable.]]></description>
<pubDate>Mon, 09 Oct 2006 03:13:26 -0600</pubDate>
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