There is absolutely no doubt that the Japanese love their fish and if you wanted further proof then just take one look at the Ocean Theater and you will be more than convinced. Designed to fit perfectly into every modern home by Seiko Clock and Takara Tomy, this ultra-cool and captivating accessory will light up your living room unlike anything else. Capturing the mystic essence of those deep, dark fathoms and bringing out the splendor and the beauty that are hidden from our vision, the Ocean Theater come in the open and closed modes.

The Ocean Theater in its open mode acts as a projector that allows you to turn your living room into the depths of the Great Barrier Reef. In the closed mode though, you can witness five different sea worlds and over 120 types of living creatures that dwell inside. Apart from this one can adjust the features of the Ocean Theater in a way that allows it to function automatically or can use the manual mode for interactive fun.

The clock mode shows you various time zones, but even that is done in a special way with fishes forming the digits and cute greeting messages while a dolphin alarm would sing you out of your dreams! Apart from all this the Theater can act as a music player, a docking station for your iPod and a lot more. Uber-cool, eco-conscious and enchanting, we hope this Japanese delight swims across the Pacific very soon!

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The global fate of fisheries, their decline and overexploitation, may yet show a more promising environmental future. Where trade agreements failed to halt the overfishing of oceans, the United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place next month in Copenhagen may yet be the solution.

The trick lies in the pledge by the leaders of the G20 group of countries to phase out fossil-fuel subsidies in the “medium term.” Fuel subsidies are undeniably part of the Copenhagen political agenda. The environmental problems resulting from the subsidizing of overfishing will most likely be solved with the climate deal stipulation that the world’s fishing fleets convert to biofuels.

It is a well-documented fact that ‘fisheries account for 1.2% of global oil consumption and emit more than 130m tons of carbon dioxide a year. That makes the industry similar in scale to the Netherlands, the 18th-most prolific oil-consuming country.’ Many critics have noted that ‘in subsidising unsustainable practices, governments are promoting a licensed form of theft by one generation from the next.’ In the last ten years, ‘fishing subsidies have cost $250 billion.’

According to Victor do Prado, deputy chief of staff at the WTO, “Fisheries is part of the overall Doha mandate. As long as this issue is treated within the WTO it is difficult to decouple it from the rest of the round dossiers. What would countries like Japan and Korea be gaining by decoupling? In other words, a global deal on fisheries subsidies is unlikely because countries such as China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Spain—all of which have large fishing fleets—do not want to cut subsidies.”

Fact is overfishing is subsidized by billions of taxpayer dollars, euros and yen. If the WTO cannot solve the conundrum, climate-change negotiations might just be able to.

Via The Economist

Managing with its small amount of resources and increasing demand for fuels, Japan is one of those countries of the world that largely depends on renewable sources for energy consumption. No wonder this yearning led the country to launch an audacious multi-billion dollar eco-friendly concept, the Space Solar Power System (SSPS) that would take form by 2030.

Cashing in on the fact that power of the sun is five times stronger in space when compared to Earth; the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is looking forwards to launching an array of photovoltaic dishes measuring several square kilometers (square miles) beyond the Earth’s atmosphere into the geostationary orbit from where the energy collected would be zapped down through laser beams or microwaves. These would in turn be collected by the enormous parabolic antennae to be set up in restricted areas of the sea and dam reservoirs. This one gigawatt system that would be the size of an average atomic power plant is expected to generate electricity at eight yen (cents) per kilowatt-hour which happens to be six times cheaper than the current cost in the country.

The government is roping in several Japanese high-tech giants like Mitsubishi Electric, NEC, Fujitsu and Sharp as a part of this project. So, not very far in the future, we might spot an extraterrestrial solar power station while watching the sky through our telescopes!

Via Yahoo News

China has become the world’s largest producer of household garbage. The country has produced a lot of junk in packaging, old electronics, newspaper, bottles, etc. ‘Beijing officials warned in June that all of the city’s landfills would run out of space within five years.’

Japan has little spaces for practically everything. For its trash, it has no more space left. ‘Japan has virtually no space for new landfill sites and so ends up burning nearly 50 million tons of solid garbage each year, leading to dioxin emissions six to seven times higher than in Europe.’

One solution that big economies have been depending on is incinerating their trash, which is all the worse for global warming. Some experts believe, though, that ‘the incinerators take up less real estate, they can do double duty by generating electricity, and they reduce the amount of planet-warming methane that’s emitted by trash decaying in landfills.’ These arguments may make no sense to developing countries that host foreign-owned incinerators.

China has been burning its garbage in highly toxic incinerators that emit mercury and dioxins, all detrimental to the health of living things. But most of China’s incinerators are actually not located in China, but rather ‘all the way across the Pacific.’ Thus, the modern day dilemma of having no space left for a country’s trash has given birth to the phenomenon of dumping garbage abroad. Japanese waste exports to Thailand have grown from 54 tons a year to 350,000. Ironically, China had also been a dumping ground of foreign waste for many years.

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Via The New Republic

In Japan, Windows 7 launch came with a 777 yen Burger King 7-patty Whopper 7-day promo.

The ‘satire’ seems to revolve around the multiple use of the number 7, obviously for some mnemonic intent. The Windows 7 launch ad was aided by Burger King’s Whopper that boasts of 7 patties. To top that, the whopping Whopper costs 777 yen.

It’s overkill for both the burger and the use of ‘7.’ Not to mention that the product is a cardiac threat (the fat-laden burger, I mean, at 5.1 inches. Too early to indict the operating system).

This is a case of a good operating system combined with a bad ad that could backfire for the Windows-guess-what-number. It might have been a calorie-laden transfat-addled publicity stunt for an otherwise good product.

The 7-patty monstrosity actually translates to 1,000 calories, according to FoxNews.  To stress the obvious just a bit more, the promo is offered only for 7 days.

Hope the Japanese love (that much) beef (without needing 7 antacids), as well as glean all the double intentions in the use of that magic number.

The new Microsoft product will hopefully not be just ‘junk for the PC’s gut,’ and instead ‘slaughter the competition.’ After all, Vista which Microsoft hopes to rectify its reputation over, was a ‘bloated’ mistake.

This is yet another weird ad from Microsoft, known to come up with unusual ad styles.

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Via Natural News

It will be presented October 6 in Tokio in CEATEC, larger conference of technology of Japan, the revolutionary’s 3D prototype camera of Sony, that promises recordings with the use of just one lens.

The release of the camera HFR Comfort 3D can mark an important change in the filmings, because the use of only one lens will allow to the spectators so much to attend the same sequence in 3D as in 2D, giving like this a more universal character to the format.

The new camera will solve one of the problems of the current recording method, that is the complicated sincronization which is need – among the two lenses of the traditional system the two lenses need to be carefully aligned and synchronized so that the resulting images have the same angle of 3D perception when exhibited.

The new system works using different sensor of image: the initial sequence is recorded through the only lens and the images are captured then by mirrors by two sensor CMOS: one of them is responsible for the capture that the right eye will see, and the other concentrates on the images that will be visualized by the left eye.

According to the site TechWatch, the new technology tends to reduce the costs of recording 3D programs for television, and it will allow these programs to be quickly carried for smaller screens.

Via: TechRadar.

It’s a most timely garb for the busy executive who just might be paranoid over the infectious spread of the dreaded Influenza A H1N1 virus, also known as Swine Flu. A Japanese menswear company named Haruyama Trading has produced some 50,000 pieces of said suit that is ‘coated with titanium dioxide, a chemical commonly used in toothpaste and cosmetics and that breaks down when reacting with light, supposedly killing the virus upon contact.’

According to Shinto Hirata, vice director of merchandising at Haruyama, ‘the suit is proven to kill 40 percent of the latest flu virus in about three hours and will retain its protective capability even after being washed several times.’ He says, “If a person with the flu virus coughs, it might get on someone else’s suit and from there, another person might get infected. Small children might catch the virus after touching their father’s suit. We came up with this idea to protect all businessmen and their families.”

The suit was developed over a period of one year, as a joint research by several companies including Haruyama and Gaea, a company that has been specializing in anti-bacterial and deodorizing fabric coatings ‘for over 10 years.”  Gaea applies similar protective coatings on commercially-available anti-flu face masks, towels, and physician’s apparels.

The suits start selling on Thursday. It comes in four colors and styles: medium grey, charcoal, navy, and a grey pinstripe. It costs around $590.

Via Telegraph.co.uk/Reuters

Typhoon Melor hit Japan, in the main island of Honshu, the south west of Tokyo. More than 40 people were injured and killed two people. Houses were damaged by the strong winds and the streets were flooded. The winds that caused damage caused 198 km/ hour.

The typhoon landed Japan before dawn in Aichi prefecture. The strong gust of wind brought heavy rains and uprooted trees. Many were injured and more than 300 flights were cancelled. The famous bullet train services were halted due to the storm. Factories were shut down halting production which the hardworking Japanese workmen would make up of it later. Thousands of households did not have electricity.

The typhoon has weakened though, now moving into the Pacific. Japan has intensive measures to deal with the floods, storm and typhoons. In August 2009, Typhoon Etau killed at least 25 people due to flash floods and landslides.

Another storm Ketsana, caused a huge damage in the South East Asia taking hundreds of lives, especially in the Philippines ad Vietnam. In Taiwan itself Typhoon Morakot took more than 600 lives.

Via: BBC

Or you are simply stuck at a hotel with no access to a charger, having forgotten yours behind at home. KDDI, the phone major from Japan utilized the platform offered by CEATEC conference at Tokya to display its updated prototype methanol fuel cell-powered mobile phone.

It is powered by methanol and not electricity. The fuel cell also has a lithium ion battery for better energy use in the phone. This battery has been enhanced in quality to offer customers power for 320 hours, a rise over standard battery capacities of today.

The main merit of methanol as a power source is that it can be instantly refilled unlike having to wait for the power supply to fill up a standard mobile phone. In the next few years, KDDI is hoping to be out with a saleable version of this updated mobile phone powered by methanol. Effort is on to make the mobile electricity free!

Via: KDDI, Plusd

The developing countries will now play a more significant role in the economic policies of the world. The ultra-elite club of the richest industrial nations known as G7 will relinquish its top level global economic forum to the much broader G20 that includes the emerging economies and developing countries such as China, Brazil, and India.

The recent development is in recognition of the ‘growing economic importance of Asia and some Latin American countries, particularly since the United States and many European countries have found their banking systems crippled by an economic crisis originating in excesses in the American mortgage market.’

Over the past thirty years, the G7, composed of the countries of the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, was the main economic group. Russia was eventually added to the short roster.

The move is a much-needed break for the emerging economies whose main concerns have been monumental, an example of which is eliminating trade barriers especially in politically sensitive sectors like agriculture.

There are criticisms to the move: ‘Proponents of the smaller group say the friendships it fosters are important when friction arises in the group or outside it in one-on-one policy disputes between nations. They also point to complications that arise when 20 countries with vastly different economies try to reach agreement on setting exchange rates or other complex financial questions.’

On the other hand, those who support the broadening of the global economic forum say that ‘the emerging nations, and the huge slice of the world’s population that they represent, must have a seat at the table to debate not only economic issues, but also environmental issues like climate change.’

Via The New York Times