Stunned by this news. Whatever your views of Shinzo Abe’s politics, this is absolutely distressing.

https://twitter.com/cbsnews/status/1545261690475921409

I was a cub reporter covering the Prime Minister’s office for AP when Abe first became PM. This might sound pretentious but I feel we go way back..

I’m at a vigil for victims of the Buffalo mass shooting, in Harlem

“We are at war with the darkest of humanity.”

“We will not leave our state, we will not leave our city. We pray for our city. We pray for peace. We bless you New York. No one is going to drive us out.” “I thought about slavery. I thought about reconstruction. I thought about the strange fruit hanging from trees across the South. I thought about attempts to integrate our schools. I thought about the race riots. And the violence. But I know that God is still on his throne.”

Nope, you still don’t want shelling at or near a nuclear power plant, even one that has a safer design than Chernobyl. If the bombs take out the power/backup power for the plant’s cooling system, you’re still pretty f*cked.

https://twitter.com/jrmygrdn/status/1499564645048369153

I mean even this thread acknowledges that if the cooling fails, you have *several hours* before.. issues

Great, that’s more than enough time to fix things up — when the site is/could again come under attack by the Russians

https://twitter.com/jrmygrdn/status/1499564660449763329

I wrote about how energy-guzzling lightbulbs are still prevalent in the United States because of industry efforts to stall standards — and how they’re disproportionately sold in stores that serve low-income communities nytimes.com/2022/01/23/cli… A delay in energy efficiency standards has enabled light bulb manufacturers to prolong profits from a dying technology. Signify, the multinational that makes Phillips light bulbs, calls conventional lighting a “cash engine” for the company. nytimes.com/2022/01/23/cli…

After our move last year, we had to start our home compost box over — but glad to report it’s doing well. Lovely earthy smell, and some gentle heat coming off it today. I wrote about this Japanese home composting method back in 2020 — and after (a lot!) of correspondence w/ readers, some who found success and some who didn’t, I’ve come to the conclusion that using くん炭kuntan rice husk ash is still the most foolproof way nytimes.com/interactive/20…

I had missed this 👀

https://twitter.com/japantimes/status/1482947999479353345

But @KateRaworth’s book Donut Economics really opened my eyes recently — I’d seen Japan’s economic stagnation as a failure and tragedy. But what if perpetual growth, esp for rich nations, is just not possible or desirable, especially given our planetary and climate constraints?

Coolest workplace! (My husband started out at rival Toei Studios)

https://twitter.com/yuki_mats/status/1484800926082813952

Toho gave us Kurosawa. Shochiku gave us Ozu. Toei gave us.. Kamen Rider

Always surprised (dismayed) by how little local knowledge/fluency is valued in journalism.. sure, it’s considered essential for a local fixer/reporter, but the higher you go, feeling is still: If you’re a good journalist you can land anywhere and immediately write sweepy stories I’ve lived in the US for 8 years, speak and read English, have more or less been exposed to aspects of American culture, history, current events etc all my life — but would still feel deeply unqualified to write anything sweepy on “America”

So much drama packed into this incredible tale —

Japan’s Monkey Queen Faces Challenge to Her Reign nytimes.com/2022/01/21/sci…

Oil Executives to Face Congress on Climate Disinformation nytimes.com/2021/10/27/cli… A preview of tomorrow’s historic hearing, from @LFFriedman and me House Democrats compare the inquiry with the tobacco hearings of the 1990s, which brought into sharp relief how tobacco companies had lied about the health dangers of smoking. nytimes.com/2021/10/27/cli…