YouTube Opens A Production Space In Tokyo To Help Creators Make Better Videos
Those who are accepted get three months to use the production facilities, including access to sound stages, as well as the use high-quality cameras, lights, production and editing equipment. The Space has three production studios, equipment rooms, screening rooms, and post-production facilities, including edit bays and a foley room.
A Land Without Guns: How Japan Has Virtually Eliminated Shooting Deaths
The only guns that Japanese citizens can legally buy and use are shotguns and air rifles, and it’s not easy to do. The process is detailed in David Kopel’s landmark study on Japanese gun control, published in the 1993Asia Pacific Law Review, still cited as current. (Kopel, no left-wing loony, is a member of the National Rifle Association and once wrote in National Review that looser gun control laws could have stopped Adolf Hitler.)
To get a gun in Japan, first, you have to attend an all-day class and pass a written test, which are held only once per month. You also must take and pass a shooting range class. Then, head over to a hospital for a mental test and drug test (Japan is unusual in that potential gun owners must affirmatively prove their mental fitness), which you’ll file with the police. Finally, pass a rigorous background check for any criminal record or association with criminal or extremist groups, and you will be the proud new owner of your shotgun or air rifle. Just don’t forget to provide police with documentation on the specific location of the gun in your home, as well as the ammo, both of which must be locked and stored separately. And remember to have the police inspect the gun once per year and to re-take the class and exam every three years.
Read the full article at TheAtlantic.com
World rich list shows emerging Asian Century
Hong Kong (CNN)— Asia is set to have the world’s wealthiest residents, with city-state Singapore heading the rich list.
Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea will do well, too, according to by a new survey that predicts which countries will be home to the wealthiest citizens by 2050.
By one measure, they are already are. Singapore’s per capita income is estimated by Knight Frank and Citi Private Wealth’s 2012 Wealth Report to be the highest in the world at $56,532 in 2010, measured by purchasing power parity. Norway follows at $51,226, then the U.S. ($45,511), Hong Kong ($45,301) and Switzerland ($42,470). (The International Monetary Fund listed Singapore 3rd in the world in 2010-11 by per capita GDP, behind Qatar and Luxembourg, which weren’t included in the Knight Frank report).
By 2050, the Wealth Report estimates the world’s wealthy citizens will be dominated by Asia: Singapore ($137,710), Hong Kong ($116,639), Taiwan ($114,093) and South Korea ($107,752). The only western economy projected to remain in the top five is the U.S., with an estimated per capita income of $100,802.
Danny Quah of the London School of Economics predicts that by 2050, the world’s economic center of gravity will be somewhere between India and China, the report notes. In 1980, the global economic center lay in the middle of the Atlantic.
Keep reading at CNN.com
Scenes From the World's Tallest Tower
Tokyo’s Skytree made its official debut earlier today in front of about 200,000 visitors. The tower offers two separate observation decks (one at 1,148 feet and another at 1,476 feet) as well as a small collection of restaurants and shops.
Standing at 2,080 feet, the Skytree is now the world’s tallest tower and second tallest structure (after Dubai’s 2,723-foot Burj Khalifa). It will replace the 1,093-foot Tokyo Tower, which was surrounded by too many high-rise buildings to give complete digital television coverage.
In earthquake-prone Japan, the Skytree is designed to absorb 50 percent of the energy from a seismic movement. It is painted Skytree White, a color based on a bluish white traditional Japanese color known “aijiro.” It is part of Skytree Town, a commercial complex that includes an aquarium, a planetarium, office space, and shopping center.
In today’s dollars, the U.S. spent more on rebuilding Iraq than it spent in Germany and Japan after WWII.
"Who Needs Nukes? Japan Plans a Massive Shift to Solar Power"
“Japanese officials are set to unveil a new “Sunrise Plan” at the G8 meetings tomorrow. The plan would require all new buildings to be covered by solar panels by 2030, and result in 10 million solar powered homes. The solar rooftop goals are just part of a broader initiative to shift the country to clean, renewable energy sources.”
"Has the Monorail's Future Finally Arrived?"
I looove monorails. I wish Seattle had invested in the monorail plan. But Light Rail isn’t a bad substitute. We just need more rail in general
