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Shohei Ohtani has 33 home runs and a 3.49 ERA, but Stephen A. Smith believes the Angels’ two-way star is detrimental to Major League Baseball. During Monday’s episode of ESPN’s “First Take,” the show’s host, Molly Qerim, asked Smith and Max Kellerman if “it’s good for Major League Baseball that Ohtani is the top attraction.” In response, Smith answered “not to me,” reasoning that Ohtani’s use of a Japanese interpreter diminishes the sport’s popularity domestically. “The fact that you got a foreign player that doesn’t speak English, that needs an interpreter, believe it or not, I think contributes to harming...

In late December 1941, Navy Secretary Frank Knox and FDR met and selected Chester Nimitz to command the Pacific Fleet, which at that time the public perceived as residing at the bottom of Pearl Harbor. Roosevelt said, “Tell Nimitz to get the hell out to Pearl and stay there until the war is won”. Knox informed Nimitz by saying, “You’re going to take command of the Pacific Fleet, and I think you will be gone a long time”.On Christmas Day 1941 Admiral Chester Nimitz arrived by Catalina flying boat to take command. He did not bring any staff with him....

The Biden Administration sent out stimulus checks of $1400 to Japanese citizens who have dual citizenships, green cards and many who are now living in Japan. The Japanese citizens used to stay in the US and worked temporarily with a business visa and returned to Japan a long time ago. The Yahoo Japan article says (rough translation): As there are many people who have a short stay and lower pensions that received the pensions. This benefit was sent incorrectly to those who are subject to more than a certain annual income. Ichikawa representative of Overseas Pension Consultation Center, “Most of...

Russian actress Yulia Peresild and filmmaker Klim Shipenko will join cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov for a Soyuz flight to the International Space Station on Oct. 5 to shoot scenes for an upcoming movie, the Russian space agency announced Thursday. In a related development, Roscosmos and Space Adventures, a company that brokers commercial flights to the space station, announced that Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and an assistant, Yozo Hirano, will launch aboard another Soyuz Dec. 8. The upcoming Soyuz launches, along with two SpaceX Crew Dragon flights carrying all-civilian crews, are the latest milestones in a new era of commercial human spaceflight....

LOS ANGELES, CA — The Los Angeles County Fairgrounds, one of the places Japanese Americans were held during World War II, will serve as an emergency shelter for unaccompanied children who have crossed the border into the United States, L.A. County has announced. Hilda Solis, chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, said Thursday the decision was made after discussions with the Biden White House. The Biden administration has contacted communities throughout the nation to find space for undocumented children being sheltered in Border Patrol facilities. It even urged, unsuccessfully, that NASA employees go to the border to...

Some of the major components in most satellites include aluminum, Kevlar and aluminum alloys, which are able to withstand both temperature extremes and constant bombardment by radiation—all in a vacuum. Unfortunately, these characteristics also allow satellites to remain in orbit long after their usefulness has ended, resulting in constant additions to the space junk orbiting the planet. According to the World Economic Forum, there are currently approximately 6,000 satellites circling the Earth but only 60% of them are still in use. Some in the field have predicted that nearly 1,000 satellites will be launched into space each year over the...

One week after Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt began pressing the U.S. military to immediately strike the Japanese homeland. The desire to bolster morale became more urgent in light of rapid Japanese advances. These included victories in Malaya, Singapore, the Philippines, Wake Island, Guam, and the Dutch East Indies, as well as sinking the British battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse. Only improbable, audacious ideas warranted consideration, because submarines confirmed Japan placed picket boats at extreme carrier aircraft range. One idea even involved launching four engine heavy bombers from China or Outer Mongolia to strike Japan and fly on to Alaska....

For its role in helping Beijing cover up coronavirus.The deputy prime minister of Japan says that the WHO should be renamed the ‘Chinese Health Organization’ for its role in helping Beijing cover-up the severity of the coronavirus outbreak.Referring to a petition which now has almost 700,000 signatures calling on WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom to resign, Taro Aso tore into the organization for conspiring with China and failing to stop a global pandemic that could have been prevented.“People think the World Health Organization should change its name. It shouldn’t be called the WHO, it should be renamed the Chinese Health Organization (CHO). This...

Rough translation by a softwareIn suitcase 134 billion fake bond: mystery on two Asian stopped at Chiasso ROME (22 June) - Remains fixed the mystery on two Asian pecked past June 4 to Chiasso from the revenue Officer while wanted to enter in Switzerland with in suitcase fake U.S. bonds of the value of 134 miiardi of dollars (about 100 billion euro), more or except for the gross domestic product of the New Zealand. The U.S. Treasury had not doubtful: the titles of U.S. credit for a nominal value of 134 billion dollars - 249 bond of the Federal Reserve...

A Group financed by the late Paul Allen is searching for sunken WW II ships. If you remember they found the Aircraft Carrier Lexington which was sunk in the battle of the Coral Sea. Now the group is attempting to located ships that were lost during the Battle of Midway. They have found the Kaga and more recently the Akagi. New Video of the Kaga on the ocean floor has been released. The ship is around 15,000 ft or more below surface. I find this type of thing fascinating just thinking of how many people on both sides are still...

So in the middle of the media firestorm featuring President Trump and his battle with four progressive Democrat freshman members in the House calling themselves “The Squad” — a whirlwind of stories over racism and anti-Semitism — The Washington Post ran a big story on none other than George Takei. Mr. Takei, of course, is famous for his role in the original Star Trek series as Hikaru Sulu, the helmsman of the starship USS Enterprise. He is now 82, described by the Post as an “activist for gay rights and social justice.” Takei is also the author of a new...

A Japanese asteroid probe has grabbed its first space-rock sample. The Hayabusa2 spacecraft successfully nabbed bits of the 3,000-foot-wide (900 meters) asteroid Ryugu today (Feb. 21; Feb. 22 Japan time), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) officials announced. Hayabusa2 spiraled down to Ryugu's surface, fired a 0.2-ounce (5 grams) tantalum "bullet" into the boulder-strewn rock at close range, and collected pieces of the ejected material using its specialized "sampling horn," JAXA officials said during a press conference this evening. … Hayabusa2's main goal is to help scientists better understand the solar system's early history and evolution, as well as the role...

**SNIP** She also shared the text conversation with the tutor who specifically advised her to add the character above the initial tattoo in order to make sense in Japanese, as characters are typically read top to bottom, right to left. But Grande included the new character below the original tattoo with a drawing of a heart, instead, which resulted in the ink making even less sense than the original. Neither of these configurations are coherent in Japanese, as BuzzFeed notes, so most people would likely read the phrase left to right as 七輪指♡, which roughly translates to “small charcoal grill...

In celebration of her new hit single, "7 Rings," pop star Ariana Grande got a new tattoo on the palm of her hand, paying homage to the song and its music video. The star said she had the phrase "7 rings" tattooed in Kanji, a Japanese style of writing. But it actually spells "BBQ Grill," as some of Grande's Japanese fans quickly pointed out. The two characters separately mean seven (七) and ring (輪), but together "七輪" means Shichirin, the name for a small charcoal grill. Amazon offers several 七輪 for sale. The combined characters roughly translate to "7 wheels"...

Just a recalling of the "devastating" Japanese "sneak" attack on the USA Naval base located at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. America was stunned, set back and unprepared, but, the USA military responded quickly with the B-24 bomber, bombing attacks on Tokyo, the aircraft being launched from the USN Aircraft Carrier "Yorktown", The Battle of the Coral Sea, and then the devastating defeat of the Japanese at the battle of Midway Island, where the USN destroyed four (4) Japanese aircraft carriers that changed the course of WWII in the Pacific Theater of Operations. All three of these brilliant...

Japan's Hayabusa2 probe, which has been circling the 3,000-foot-wide (900 meters) asteroid Ryugu since late June, deployed two little "rovers" called MINERVA-II1A and MINERVA-II1B at 12:05 a.m. EDT (0405 GMT) today (Sept. 21). The event occurred when the mother ship was about 180 feet (55 meters) above Ryugu's pockmarked, boulder-strewn surface, mission team members said. "The separation of MINERVA-II1 has been confirmed! The state of the spacecraft is normal," JAXA officials announced via Twitter just after the rovers deployed. That confirmation came after an apparently tense descent for Hayabusa2 flight controllers. "In the control room, you can hear the sound...

If you’re looking for your daily dose of someone who has zero self-awareness, look no further than this tweet from Eric Holder about how we need to reunite all of the so-called “separated children”.

... Japanese rail system occasionally becomes the focus of international headlines—as on May 11, when West Japan Railways issued a florid apology after one of its commuter trains left the station 25 seconds early.... The orderliness of society is taken as a given—Japanese commuters know how to queue on an escalator and can easily navigate the confusing, but wide-open, spaces of Tokyo’s rail stations without assistance. This allows rail operators to instead focus on deeper psychological manipulation. Operating on the theory that exposure to blue light has a calming effect on one’s mood, rail stations in Japan began installing these...

The Guinness Book of World Records recently identified Masazo Nonakaas of Japan as the oldest living man. He is over 112 years old. Japan has the highest life expectancy in the world, and some contribute this longevity to a Japanese concept known as "Ikigai," roughly translated from two words: "iki" which means "life," and "gai" which means "worth." While it's difficult to translate precisely, it refers to those activities and pursuits that give us a "reason to live" or "make life worth living". In one recent article, Ikigai was described as the intersection between "what you love, what you care...

Hollywood actor Richard Gere, French film star Alain Delon and Russia’s figure skating sensation Alina Zagitova have one thing in common: They adore Japan’s Akita dogs. And they’re not alone. In recent years, foreign ownership of one of Japan’s most famous indigenous breeds has skyrocketed, outstripping domestic demand for the fluffy, perky-eared pooches. Earlier this year, the trend hit the headlines when Zagitova proclaimed her love for Akitas after spotting them while training in Japan, and local officials pledged to get one to her. Her affection for the cute canines comes as no surprise to veteran breeder Osamu Yamaguchi, 64,...