Ricardo Patino

Today we’ve received a threat by the United Kingdom, a clear and written threat that they could storm our embassy in London if Ecuador refuses to hand in Julian Assange.

AndreÏ Makine

Je pensai, avant de m’endormir, que venant en France, Charlotte essaierait de comprendre ce qu’était devenue la littérature dont quelques vieux livres représentaient pour elle, en Sibérie, un minuscule archipel français. Et j’imaginais qu’en entrant, un soir, dans l’appartement où elle vivrait, je remarquerais sur le bord d’une table ou sur l’appui d’une fenêtre – un livre ouvert, un livre récent que Charlotte lirait en mon absence. Je me pencherais au-dessus des pages et mon regard tomberait sur ces lignes: Ce fut en effet le matin le plus doux de cet hiver-là. Il faisait du soleil comme aux premiers jours d’avril. Le givre fondait et l’herbe mouillée brillait comme humectée de rosée… Ayant passé mon unique matinée à revoir mille choses, avec une mélancolie toujours croissante, sous les nuages d’hiver-j’avais oublié ce vieux jardin et ce berceau de vigne à l’ombre duquel s’était décidée ma vie… Vivre à l’image de cette beauté, c’est cela que je voudrais savoir faire. La netteté de ce pays, la transparence, la profondeur et le miracle de cette rencontre de l’eau, de la pierre et de la lumière, voilà la seule connaissance, la première morale. Cette harmonie n’est pas illusoire. Elle est réelle, et devant elle je ressens la nécessité de la parole…

Anne Bertoni

Vivre à l’image de cette beauté, c’est cela que je voudrais savoir faire. La netteté de ce pays, la transparence, la profondeur et le miracle de cette rencontre de l’eau, de la pierre et de la lumière, voilà la seule connaissance, la première morale. Cette harmonie n’est pas illusoire. Elle est réelle, et devant elle je ressens la nécessité de la parole.

Pierre Loti

Ayant passé mon unique matinée à revoir mille choses, avec une mélancolie toujours croissante, sous ces nuages d’hiver, – j’avais oublié ce vieux jardin et ce berceau de vigne à l’ombre duquel s’était décidée ma vie, et je voulus y courir, à la dernière minute avant le départ de la voiture qui allait m’emporter pour jamais.

Alain-Fournier

La cour était déserte encore lorsqu’il descendit. Il fit quelques pas et se trouva comme transporté dans une journée de printemps. Ce fut en effet le matin le plus doux de cet hiver-là. Il faisait du soleil comme aux premiers jours d’avril. Le givre fondait et l’herbe mouillée brillait comme humectée de rosée. Dans les arbres, plusieurs petits oiseaux chantaient et de temps à autre une brise tiédie coulait sur le visage du promeneur.

Nike

Ross McRoss

Rob Hefferan

Holstee

This is your life. Do What you love, and do it often. If you don’t like something, change it. If you don’t like your job, quit. If you don’t have enough time, stop watching tv. If you are looking for the love of your life, stop; they will be waiting for you when you start doing things you love. Stop over analyzing, life is simple. All emotions are beautiful. When you eat, appreciate every last bite. Open your mind, arms, and heart to new things and people, we are united in our differences. Ask the next person you see what their passion is, and share your inspiring dream with them. Travel often; getting lost will help you find yourself. Some oppurtunities only comes once, seize them. Life is about the people you meet, and the things you create with them so go out and start creating. Life is short. Live your dream and share your passion.

徳山二郎

日本人は、｢人間悪｣を正面から見据えて、それに厳しく対処できるような強さがなく、｢悪｣を犯した者に対する処罰、間違った意思決定者に対する処罰が、欧米社会と比べて極めて微温的である。
アメリカではリーダーたる者は巨悪にひるむことなく対決する。また制度面でも社会悪に対する処罰はたいへん厳しい。
社会の悪を暴くべき新聞やその他のマスコミも、各官庁が無料で提供している記者クラブにたむろして、政府発表を疑うことなく、そのまま記事にしている例が多い。太平洋戦争中、当局の報道規制があったとしても、日本を戦争に突入させようとする政府指導者たちの間違いや無策を批判したり、いさめた新聞社は一社もなかった。戦後も、マスコミの時流に阿る報道姿勢は変わらない。世論の動向に疑問を呈すべきマスコミが、国民のムードや気分に合わせて記事を書いているとしか思えない。
日本人はもっと真正面から｢人間悪｣を見つめ、その悪を抑える政治、社会、経済のシステムをしっかり組織し、築いていかなければならない。
特にここ数年、日本人の価値観は、自己中心的になり、｢自分に得か損か｣で事を決めるようになり、危うきには近寄らないようになってしまった。しかし、絶望してはならない。いま一度、日本人の精神の本源に立ち戻り、倫理、道徳や政治思想を高度なものにし、理想に近いものにするよう努力すべきである。
｢身を殺して仁をなす｣ということだ。そして、今こそ、歴史的反省の上に立って｢千万人と雖も吾往かん｣という意気込みで、自分が正しいと信じたことならば、どこまでも主張する日本人が一人でも多く輩出することを祈らずにはいられない。

Supreme Court of the United States

Struggles to coerce uniformity of sentiment in support of some end thought essential to their time and country have been waged by many good, as well as by evil, men. Nationalism is a relatively recent phenomenon, but, at other times and places, the ends have been racial or territorial security, support of a dynasty or regime, and particular plans for saving souls. As first and moderate methods to attain unity have failed, those bent on its accomplishment must resort to an ever-increasing severity. As governmental pressure toward unity becomes greater, so strife becomes more bitter as to whose unity it shall be. Probably no deeper division of our people could proceed from any provocation than from finding it necessary to choose what doctrine and whose program public educational officials shall compel youth to unite in embracing. Ultimate futility of such attempts to compel coherence is the lesson of every such effort from the Roman drive to stamp out Christianity as a disturber of its pagan unity, the Inquisition, as a means to religious and dynastic unity, the Siberian exiles as a means to Russian unity, down to the fast failing efforts of our present totalitarian enemies. Those who begin coercive elimination of dissent soon find themselves exterminating dissenters. Compulsory unification of opinion achieves only the unanimity of the graveyard.

Larry Diamond

Over the past three decades the world has been transformed. In 1974, nearly three-quarters of all countries were dictatorships; today, more than half are democracies. Yet recent efforts to promote democracy have stumbled, and many democratic governments are faltering. Why?

Mohamed Kaouche

“Democracy is…to live in freedom.”

Kaveh Baghdadchi

“Democracy is the state of being free to act and look different from the way others do.”

Barak Ravid

In general, Netanyahu embraced Romney as no Israeli prime minister has ever before embraced a candidate running against an incumbent U.S. president: Aside from their working meeting in the morning, Netanyahu also hosted Romney and his wife and sons for dinner at his official residence.

Adam Goldman, Matt Apuzzo

Despite inarguable ties between the U.S. and its closest ally in the Middle East, U.S. national security officials consider Israel to be, at times, a frustrating ally and a genuine counterintelligence threat.

The CIA considers Israel its No. 1 counterintelligence threat in the agency’s Near East Division, the group that oversees spying across the Middle East, according to current and former officials. Counterintelligence is the art of protecting national secrets from spies.

Zvi Bar’el

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi’s forcing out of two top Mubarak-era defense officials on Sunday, along with his stripping of the military commander’s power to enact laws and declare war, are seen in Egypt as necessary steps to complete the revolution that ousted Hosni Mubarak as president.

Josef Gotlib

Я готов утверждать, что “интервью” Григрия Перельмна, опубликованное в КП – не настоящее. В нем слишком много нестыковок, противоречий и глупостей. Я не знаю, выдумано ли оно автором заметки, человеком, который сдал его автору или человеком, который представлялся Перельманом. Мне непонятно, как такое могло появиться в одной из самых массовых газет без надлежащей верификации, и как его без сомнений перепечатали и использовали други СМИ, не задав вопросов.
Часть важных нестыковок указана Машей Гессен в “Снобе”, за что ей спасибо. Мы исходим из того, что Перельман очень хороший математик и, как следствие, обладает четкостью формулировок и пониманием своей науки. …

이진명, 신헌철

‘레임덕(Lame Duck).’ 불구가 된 오리란 뜻이니 어감부터 썩 달갑지 않다. 임기 말 권력 누수현상을 가리키는 말로 미국에서 재선에 성공한 대통령이 집권 7~8년차에 접어들며 권력 집중도가 빠르게 약화되는 상황을 지칭했다. 5년 단임제의 대통령제를 채택하고 있는 한국에선 레임덕이 5년마다 돌림병처럼 번지곤 했다. 게다가 레임덕 기간도 갈수록 늘어나는 모양새다. 과거엔 1년쯤 되던 레임덕 기간이 최근엔 집권 4년차면 어김없이 찾아온다. 어느 대통령이든 2년 안팎을 사실상 레임덕에 시달린다. 이쯤 되면 한국 대통령의 임기는 5년이 아니라 3~4년에 불과하다는 비아냥거림이 마냥 허언은 아니다. 레임덕이 심해지면 ‘데드덕(Dead Duck)’ 또는 ‘식물 대통령’ 신세가 된다.

김성수

이명박 대통령이 일본군 위안부, 역사교과서 왜곡 등 과거사 문제와 관련해 연일 외교상의 관례를 넘어서는 강경 발언을 쏟아 내고 있어 그 배경을 놓고 관심이 쏠리고 있다.
사실상의 임기를 불과 4개월 남짓 남겨둔 이 대통령이 과거사 등 대일 현안과 관련해 이례적으로 강도 높은 발언을 연일 쏟아 내는 것에 대해서 비판적인 목소리가 많다. 집권 내내 대일 외교문제에서 실용주의 노선을 추구하다가 임기 말년에 갑작스레 비판적인 태도로 돌변한 것은 레임덕(임기 말 권력 누수현상)에 시달리는 국내 정치상황 때문이라는 지적이 나온다. 실제로 이 대통령에 대한 국정지지도는 최근 20% 밑으로까지 떨어졌지만, 이 대통령의 독도 방문에 대해서는 80% 이상의 국민이 찬성할 정도로 지지를 받고 있다. 때문에 이 대통령이 과거사 문제를 전면에 내세우면서 레임덕을 돌파하는 수단으로 사용하고 있다는 비판이 나온다.
문정인 연세대 정치외교학과 교수는 “이 대통령의 독도 방문에 이어 연이은 대일 강경 발언은 전혀 이해가 안 되는 대목”이라면서 “대통령의 독도 방문에 대한 국민적 지지도가 84%까지 오른 여론 조사에 고무돼 ‘일본 때리기’를 하면 국민 지지도가 오를 것이라고 생각한 것 같다.”고 말했다. 문 교수는 “전반적인 외교의 큰 그림을 보면 남북관계와 한·중 관계가 나빠서 한·일 관계라도 챙겨야 하는데 대통령의 최근 언행은 한·일 간 마찰음을 심화시켜 이 정부의 향후 외교적 포석에 악영향을 줄 것”이라고 내다봤다.

平山満紀

日本はアダルトビデオ（ＡＶ）大国として世界的に知られる。そんなに性に関心の強い人たちが一方でセックスレスに陥っているとはどういうことか、外国の人からはよく不思議がられる。ＡＶの内容や見られ方に、日本では独自の特徴があるようだ。
西欧人の恋人同士は自分の性的な好みや感じ方をとことん話し合うし、身体でも確かめ合う。西欧人にとって、セックスとはこのようにコミュニケーション、それも特別に価値のあるコミュニケーションだといえる。ＡＶの内容も、いわゆる洋物は、男女両方が主体的で、性的なコミュニケーションを楽しむものが主流だ。
日本の男性たちは、パートナーがいてもＡＶを見続ける人が少なくなく、そのことが彼女とのけんかの原因になったり、彼女が男性はそういうものだと諦めたりするとよく聞く。日本のＡＶは男性目線で女性だけが被写体になっていることが多く、女性は受動的に描かれ、男性の女性に対する思い込みにあふれている。コミュニケーションというよりは、男性の妄想世界の表現といえる。
ＡＶ女優のような反応をしないといって男性が女性を非難したり、女性にとっては苦痛な行為を行うなど、男性がＡＶから受け取る思い込みの弊害は、女性がかねてより指摘してきた。女性が求めるのはふれあいや関係性なのに、男性にそれが通じないというしばしば聞く悩みも、自己完結的な妄想世界の肥大と関係があるだろう。

橋下徹

• 弱者切り捨てはだめ、格差拡大はダメ、競争はダメ、このような甘い言葉こそ本当に危険。他者に依存しすぎる日本の今のあしき流れを断ち、『自立する個人』『自立する地域』『自立する国家』をつくりたい。
• ９条がなかった時は、他人のために汗をかこう、場合によっては命の危険も負担せざるを得ないとやっていた。
• 「今の日本の政治に必要なのは独裁。独裁と言われるぐらいの力だ。 → 今の日本に必要なのは決定できる民主主義である。権力者が暴走しない、しかし決定できる仕組み。これこそ民主主義の世で叡智を結集して作らなければならないのである。日本の政治・行政で一から作り直さなければならない。
• 生徒が集まらない学校をずっと置いておいても仕方がない。　。。。　本当に家庭の事情で苦しいというなら通学定期代くらいバイトして稼ぎゃあいい。授業料までただにしてるんですから。通学代が出せないから地元に高校を残さないといけないなんて、そんな理屈は通らない。
• 交渉とは不満足の分配作業だ。
• まったく無関係な比喩によって、相手の主張が間違っているかのような錯覚に陥らせる。
• 相手のいちばんの弱みを察知し、そこにつけ込んでこそ、勝機が見えてくる。

Abby Wambach, Homare Sawa

Homare Sawa and Abby Wambach after the gold medal match, smiling as they talk about the match and praising the other on a well-played game.

Mohamed Farah, Rene Herrera

Every runner is a winner here.

Erick Barrondo

Me voy a sentir el hombre más feliz del mundo si mañana alguien deja una pistola o un cuchillo y se acerca a un estadio y lo cambia por un par de tenis para hacer deporte.

Adachi Museum Garden

Bill Murray

Scarlett Johansson

Vivian

Hashi

In the 60s, a Japanese song became incredibly popular not only in Japan but across the world. In Japan, it was called 上を向いて歩こう or roughly, “I Will Walk Looking Up.” It was an emotional song about the defeat of a popular Japanese protest movement against American military bases in Japan.
But people in English-speaking countries renamed it “Sukiyaki,” after a tasty Japanese dish which has absolutely nothing to do with what the song is about.
Little did we know that the Japanese have been exacting their revenge over our dumb translation for years, butchering American movie titles behind our backs.

• Napoleon Dynamite → バス男 (Bus Man)
• Army of Darkness → キャプテン・スーパーマーケット (Captain Supermarket)
• Karate Kid → ベスト・キッド (Best Kid)
• You Only Live Twice → 007は二度死ぬ (007 Dies Twice)
• Quantum of Solace → 007 慰めの報酬 (007 Remuneration of Comfort)
• Ratatouille → レミーのおいしいレストラン (Remi’s Delicious Restaurant)
• Almost Famous → あの頃ペニー・レインと (Back in Those Days with Penny Lane)
• Up  → カールじいさんの空飛ぶ家 (Old Carl’s Flying House)
• Fast Five → ワイルド・スピード MEGA MAX (Wild Speed: Mega Max)
• Waterloo Bridge → 哀愁 (Melancholy)
• Dodsworth → 孔雀夫人 (Madam Peacock)
• The Longest Day → 史上最大の作戦 (The Largest Operation in History)
• The Thomas Crown Affair → 華麗なる賭け (Splendid Bet)
• Officer and Gentleman → 愛と青春の旅立ち (Departure of Love and Youth)
• Bonnie and Clyde → 俺たちに明日はない (There will be no tomorrow for us)
• Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid → 明日に向かって撃て！ (Fire at Tomorrow)

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne

European Union

Any person should have the right to have personal data concerning them rectified and a ‘right to be forgotten’ where the retention of such data is not in compliance with this Regulation. In particular, data subjects should have the right that their personal data are erased and no longer processed, where the data are no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which the data are collected or otherwise processed, where data subjects have withdrawn their consent for processing or where they object to the processing of personal data concerning them or where the processing of their personal data otherwise does not comply with this Regulation. This right is particularly relevant, when the data subject has given their consent as a child, when not being fully aware of the risks involved by the processing, and later wants to remove such personal data especially on the Internet. However, the further retention of the data should be allowed where it is necessary for historical, statistical and scientific research purposes, for reasons of public interest in the area of public health, for exercising the right of freedom of expression, when required by law or where there is a reason to restrict the processing of the data instead of erasing them.

Manuel Ansede

Internet no olvida. Un subdirector de un colegio puede no recordar que unos años antes fue multado por orinar en la calle, pero la sanción en un boletín oficial será lo primero que encuentren sus alumnos cuando tecleen su nombre en Google. Este es uno de los 93 casos en los que la Agencia Española de Protección de Datos ha pedido al buscador que elimine informaciones de usuarios. Cinco de estas resoluciones, las primeras recurridas por Google, llegan mañana a la Audiencia Nacional.
Cinco magistrados escucharán los argumentos de las dos partes. Entre los que no quieren salir en Google, hay un funcionario de prisiones que apareció en el Boletín Oficial del Estado en 1996 y 1998 por una sanción disciplinaria y teme que sus datos personales sean obtenidos por terroristas de ETA con una simple búsqueda en internet. En otro caso, el diario El País informó en 1991 de una imprudencia temeraria presuntamente cometida por un ciudadano, que fue absuelto en 1993. El periódico no tiene que retirar la noticia de su hemeroteca, porque se ampara en la libertad de información veraz, pero la agencia pide a Google que no incluya este suceso en sus búsquedas para evitar “la difusión masiva de información personal”.

NHK

Anna Justice

全日本民主医療機関連合会

私たちは、いのちの平等を掲げ、地域住民の切実な要求に応える医療を実践し、介護と福祉の事業へ活動を広げてきました。患者の立場に立った親切でよい医療を進め、生活と労働から疾病をとらえ、いのちや健康にかかわるその時代の社会問題にとりくんできました。また、共同組織と共に生活向上と社会保障の拡充、平和と民主主義の実現のために運動してきました。私たちは、営利を目的とせず、事業所の集団所有を確立し、民主的運営をめざして活動しています。

• 人権を尊重し、共同のいとなみとしての医療と介護・福祉をすすめ、人びとのいのちと健康を守ります
• 地域・職域の人びとと共に、医療機関、福祉施設などとの連携を強め、安心して住み続けられるまちづくりをすすめます
• 学問の自由を尊重し、学術・文化の発展に努め、地域と共に歩む人間性豊かな専門職を育成します
• 科学的で民主的な管理と運営を貫き、事業所を守り、医療、介護・福祉従事者の生活の向上と権利の確立をめざします
• 国と企業の責任を明確にし、権利としての社会保障の実現のためにたたかいます
• 人類の生命と健康を破壊する一切の戦争政策に反対し、核兵器をなくし、平和と環境を守ります

World Economic Forum

The amount of data in the world is exploding – large portion of this comes from the interactions over mobile devices being used by people in the developing world – people whose needs and habits have been poorly understood until now. Researchers and policymakers are beginning to realize the potential for channeling these torrents of data into actionable information that can be used to identify needs & provide services for the benefit of low-income populations. This discussion note is a Call-to-action for stakeholders for concerted action to ensure that this data helps the individuals and communities who create it.

SPIEGEL Staff

Kauder and Struck can also feel vindicated by the fact that Anglo-Saxon capitalism was seen as a model for the rest of the world until recently, because it promised more wealth to the industrious. But it was the recklessness, the sheer savageness of this model that caused the crisis. Now German politicians can hope to shed their dull and tedious reputation worldwide, because what they have at home is the alternative to Anglo-Saxon turbo-capitalism, even as neglected as it has been: the social market economy, guided by the principles of consideration, scruples and compromise.

Michael Roberts

The ‘democratisation of finance’ is yet another illusion from the apologists of capital, just like the ‘shareholding democracy’ (where the top 10% of US households own over 80% of share wealth), or a ‘country of home owners’ (look where that got America!)

Four Seasons Hotel Firenze

松原覚樹

「忙しい！　忙しい！」と、現代人は悲鳴をあげています。その多忙のあまり、大切な自分をどこかに置き忘れて、「自分がわからない」と、うろたえています。
この行方不明の自分自身を捕らまえて、自分が自分に成り切る教えが、「禅」です。そして、この教えを知識(knowledge)でなく知恵(wisdom)として体験するのが、「坐禅」です。日本詩人の宮沢章二さんに、「坐禅を組む」の詩があります。
　　 坐禅を組んで、私が得るのは
　　 名づけがたいあるもの
　　 人には語り得ないあるもの
　　 夜明けの光にも似た　さわやかなもの
いかがでしょうか。ご一緒に禅を学んで、もう一人の自分に出会い、坐禅を組んでさわやかな人生を創造して、価値ある生き方を営もうではありませんか。

Heran Miller

藤原帰一

イスラム社会や第三世界への連帯、というものを私は信用しない。そこには、国際共産主義運動への連帯が独裁への黙認を伴っていたのと同じような自己欺瞞があるからだ。
また、世界的規模で民主主義を実現するためには必要な闘争だという主張も信用できない。本来は国内体制の選択である民主化を対外闘争の理念にすり替えることは、植民地支配が植民地に文明をもたらすと考えた帝国主義者たちと選ぶところのない、観念の詐術に過ぎないからだ。
さらにいえば、憲法９条と絶対平和主義が展望を開くとも考えない。一見すれば普遍主義的なこの主張は、日本の非武装化を世界平和の推進にすり替えた概念操作であって、核抑止の受益者であるという日本の現実と奇怪な共存を続けてきたものに過ぎなかった。他者の排除なしに平和があり得ないと信じ込む勢力を前に、戦力を放棄した世界を説いても意味はない。
むしろ、平和から理想の仮面を取り除くことが必要ではないか。世界平和といえばユートピアのように響くだろうが、本来の平和とは戦争のない状態に過ぎない。その平和を支えるのは、もちろん各国の武力による威嚇であるが、それに加えて、互いの交渉、取引、妥協がなければこの散文的な平和を支えることはできない。ユートピアでなく、現実としての平和を見直すことが理想主義から脱却する第一歩だろう。

ロナルド・ドーア

今度は半世紀も要さないだろうが、中国が勝ちそうだ。なぜそう思うかと言えば、次の条件を勘案しているからだ。
◎ 今後の米中の相対的経済成長率
◎ 政治的課税力――国庫収入の成長率
◎ 国威発揚の意志の強さ――軍事予算拡大の用意
◎ 人的資源（日中ではＩＱ分布は似たようなものだから、優れたミサイル技術者になりうる頭脳を持つ日本人が一人いれば、中国には１０人いる計算）
西太平洋における覇権の交替はほとんど必然的だと思うが、それについての大問題が三つ。
① アメリカにゴルバチョフはいるか、である。それとも、何千万人もの死者が出そうな実際の衝突、つまり戦争の勝ち負けに決済がゆだねられるか。
②その頃になると、徐々に東洋のモデルになるだろう中国の経済は、米国と同様な個人所有権がオールマイテイの組織になるのか。そして、アメリカのような成功した人とそうでない人の格差が大きい社会となるか、それとも儒教的な家父長主義な政策をとってより平等な社会になるのか。
③６０年もの間、日本を行ったり来たりし、日本人の友達が多い私にとって大変関心が高い問題だが、土壇場になっても、日本は依然として米国に密着しているのか。独立国家として、米中が何千万人を殺しかねない衝突に突き進まないよう、有効に立ち回れるのかどうか。

Colin Miller

Elizabeth Elton Smith

It was a glorious day in autumn. The sky of unsullied Dlue glowed like a sapphire. The universal air was filled with stillness. Not a breeze whispered , — not a bird flapped its wing. It was the triumph of repose, — when the undying energies of man slumbered for a moment, — when even the conflict of his passions was suspended. Beautiful, melancholy autumn! whose ruddy ripeness whispers of decay; whose richest teints mingle with “the sere and yellow leaf,” as if the lusty year had toiled through youth and manhood for wealth which overflows, just when waning life indicates that the power of enjoyment is passing away.
A small grove of noble chestnuts threw its kindly shadow over a house of modest elegance. Sheltered from the fierce beams that darted from the south, the weary wayfarer gazed on it with a longing eye, as a nest of domestic comfort. And in that spot the dearest household charities had flourished ; it was the home of a widow and her only child.
But now an awful visitant was there. Death had laid his hand on the beloved, the revered, parent. For her, time had sounded his last note, and she was whispering her dying counsels in the ear of the fair creature who knelt by her side. Pale as the young face was, which was turned upward, now to the dying mother, now to heaven, it was glorious in its rare beauty. Sorrow and watching had dimmed the brilliance of its colouring ; but the eye of holy blue, the noble brow, the polished forehead, the glittering hair displaying its golden luxuriance as it hung neglected and unbound — were still there. It was the face of an angel in its beauty ; but the feelings, the sufferings of a mortal wore marring its brightness.

RT

US President Barack Obama has signed a secret order allowing the CIA and other American agencies to support rebels seeking to overthrow the Assad regime, a US government source told Reuters.
Obama reportedly gave the order, known as an intelligence “finding”, earlier this year. The presidential finding also provides for US collaboration with a secret command center operated by Turkey and its allies.
The full extent of the assistance the “finding” allows the CIA to give the Syrian rebels is unclear. It is also unknown precisely when Obama signed the order.

Wayne Madsen

President Obama’s own work in 1983 for Business International Corporation, a CIA front that conducted seminars with the world’s most powerful leaders and used journalists as agents abroad, dovetails with CIA espionage activities conducted by his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham in 1960s post-coup Indonesia on behalf of a number of CIA front operations, including the East-West Center at the University of Hawaii, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Ford Foundation. Dunham met and married Lolo Soetoro, Obama’s stepfather, at the East-West Center in 1965. Soetoro was recalled to Indonesia in 1965 to serve as a senior army officer and assist General Suharto and the CIA in the bloody overthrow of President Sukarno.

Bassma Kodmani, Marc-Édouard Nabe

Konrad Hausner

Das von den Medien konstruierte Bild ist einfach, um nicht zu sagen: banal. Assad ist ein Diktator. Demzufolge sind seine Gegner die „Guten“.
Als Sprecherin der syrischen Opposition taucht regelmäßig der Name Bassma Kodmani auf. Wer ist diese Frau? Gehört sie den Opfern des Assad-Regimes an, die nun ihr Leben für Land und Freiheit einsetzt?
Sie war gerade 10 Jahre alt. Schon im Jahre 2008 zählte sie zu den Gästen beim Bilderberg-Treffen, damals noch als Französin. Sie repräsentierte die sogenannte „Arab Reform Initiative“, eine vom Westen gesteuerte Vereinigung verschiedener arabischer „Forschungsinstitute“. Beim 2012-Treffen wurde als Nationalität dann „international“ angegeben und eingeladen wurde sie in ihrer Funktion als „Vorstand der Auslandsorganisation des Syrischen Nationalrats“.
Ungeachtet der dort erfolgten Absprachen, wenn Kodmani als Sprecherin der syrischen Rebellen zitiert wird, sollte es eigentlich der journalistischen Sorgfalt entsprechen, Recherchen bezüglich ihres Umfeldes durchzuführen.
Im Jahr 2005 gehörte Kodmani der „Ford Foundation“ an. Auch die bereits zitierte „Arab Reform Initiative“ erfreut sich namhafter Unterstützer. Gegründet wurde dieser Dachverband nämlich vom US-amerikanischen Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), einem überaus einflussreichen Think Tank, dem praktisch alle großen Konzerne, von ABC-News über Coca Cola, Merck und Google bis zu Goldman Sachs und Deutsche Bank als Mitglieder ebenso angehören wie amerikanische Spitzenpolitiker. …
Wenn eine Frau, die sich derartiger Verbindungen erfreut, nach Interventionen durch westliche Militärs in Syrien verlangt, so kann dies wohl kaum als „die Stimme des Volkes“ gewertet werden.

mX

Noah Davis

Everyone’s talking about Brazil-Mexico (for good reason) on the men’s side of the Olympic tournament, but allow us to submit another thought: Japan-Korea is actually a better matchup.
Why?
Because these teams have history. The Wall Street Journal explains in a story today: “While relations between Japan and South Korea have grown friendly in recent decades, when it comes to sports, they remain best of enemies. An intense rivalry developed as the two neighbors became rising powers first in baseball, then in soccer.
Sure, it’s just the Olympics, but rivalries are rivalries and wins are wins. All we’re saying is don’t sleep on the bronze-medal match.

Neil Wilson

London's Olympic Games, praised around the globe for great sport and brilliant organisation, were smeared on Wednesday by the world’s most infamous dealer in sporting drugs.
Victor Conte, jailed in the United States for his role in supplying athletes such as Dwain Chambers and Marion Jones with so-called designer drugs, told The Times that six out of 10 athletes at the Games are taking banned substances.

Japan Probe

We have created this site to act as a blog-based reservoir of information, entertainment, and news on the more interesting aspects of Japan. Some of the material we post will be of our own original creation, and some of it will be submitted by others or linked from other sites on the net.
Our goal is to create a site that allows users to read interesting things about Japan. Some of the stuff we post may shock or offend certain people. We haven’t created this site to bash Japan or spread false stereotypes about the Japanese. Nor is this meant to be pro-Japanese propaganda. The content of this site does not necessarily reflect our personal opinions.

Tony Painter Bass

The scam goes deeper. The big crooks are World Media Group, LLC. But, you say, “World Media Group” is a big respected ISP. That’s World Media Group, Inc.! Totally different. World Media Group, LLC is an ISP that creates fictitious clients who do nasty things. “Not our bad…stupid clients”, is their constant refrain. Nearly every WMG, LLC hosted domain is a scam. You know those fake prize announcement spams? That’s them. … They maintain a store front ISP biz to look good, but no one has ever been happy with that service, as it’s just a cover and they try to rip people off that way too. The guy to put the heat on (and refer to these emails below- make a FBI complaint too- it worked!) is: Gary Millin.

赤阪清隆

私はこれまでの経験から、どのように重要なメッセージであっても、効果的なコミュニケーション無しには人々の理解を得ることが難しいことを身にしみて感じてまいりました。最近特に日本からの対外的な情報発信が減少し、日本の国の勢いが急速に衰えていると海外で見られていることに、私は深く憂慮せざるを得ません。日本にはまだまだ世界の平和と発展に貢献できる底力が十分にあると信じるからです。

周小川

超主权储备货币的主张虽然由来已久，但至今没有实质性进展。上世纪四十年代凯恩斯就曾提出采用30种有代表性的商品作为定值基础建立国际货币单位“Bancor”的设想，遗憾的是未能实施，而其后以怀特方案为基础的布雷顿森林体系的崩溃显示凯恩斯的方案可能更有远见。早在布雷顿森林体系的缺陷暴露之初，基金组织就于1969年创设了特别提款权（下称SDR），以缓解主权货币作为储备货币的内在风险。遗憾的是由于分配机制和使用范围上的限制，SDR的作用至今没有能够得到充分发挥。但SDR的存在为国际货币体系改革提供了一线希望。
—
重建具有稳定的定值基准并为各国所接受的新储备货币可能是个长期内才能实现的目标。建立凯恩斯设想的国际货币单位更是人类的大胆设想，并需要各国政治家拿出超凡的远见和勇气。而在短期内，国际社会特别是基金组织至少应当承认并正视现行体制所造成的风险，对其不断监测、评估并及时预警。

Tim Graham, NewsRescue, Dior

The Telegraph, Top Secret Writers, Dior

Sanford M. Jacoby

After remaining stable during most of the postwar period, top wealth shares recently have trended upward in the United States. The average net worth–wealth minus debt–of the top 1% wealth class grew by 78% from 1983 to 2004, while for the middle 20% net worth grew by 27%. Financial development is related to wealth accumulation at the top. Non-residential assets are relatively unimportant for the median wealth bracket (24% of net worth), but for the top 1% they constitute 91% of net worth. Hence the recent decline in housing prices is shrinking the wealth owned by the median household. The top 1% owns 42% of net financial assets; the bottom 90 % owns 19 %. The income derived from owning financial assets–especially equities– has risen in recent year. Corporate payouts are up, as are opportunities for capital gains. (A dollar invested in an S&P index fund in 1980 would be worth $1500 today.) In 2004, the top 10% accounted for 61% of all unrealized capital gains. To the extent that the wealthy get better (including inside) information and realize larger financial returns than the less wealthy, their share of finance-derived income will be greater than their share of financial wealth. …
U.S. institutional investors in 1960 owned 12% of U.S. equities; by1990 they owned 45% and the share rose to 61% in 2005. Institutions today own 68% of the 1000 largest U.S. public corporations. Although institutional holdings rose over a long period, it was in the 1980s that institutions first began to flex their muscles as shareholder activists. Because institutional investors rarely own more than 1% of a company, they can and do press companies to pursue riskier business strategies such as heavy debt, the payment of which requires stringent cost-cutting. Indeed, institutional activism is associated with asset divestitures and with layoffs. This does not mean that institutions push firms to the edge of bankruptcy, but even a bankruptcy now and then would not do major damage to their portfolios.

Bryan Burrough, John Helyar

Barbarians at the Gate has been called one of the most influential business books of all time — the definitive account of the largest takeover in Wall Street history. Bryan Burrough and John Helyar’s gripping account of the frenzy that overtook Wall Street in October and November of 1988 is the story of deal makers and publicity flaks, of strategy meetings and society dinners, of boardrooms and bedrooms — giving us not only a detailed look at how financial operations at the highest levels are conducted but also a richly textured social history of wealth at the twilight of the Reagan era.

Adolf A. Berle

We are well underway toward recognition that property used in production must conform to conceptions of civilization worked out through democratic processes of American constitutional government. Few American enterprises, and no large corporations, can take the view that their plants, tools and organizations are their own, and that they can do what they please with their own. There is increasing recognition of the fact that collective operations, and those predominantly conducted by large corporations, are like operations carried on by the state itself. Corporations are essentially political constructs. Their perpetual life, their capacity to accumulate tens of billions of assets, and to draw profit from their production and their sales, has made them part of the service of supply of the United States. Informally they are an adjunct of the state itself. The “active”— that is, productive —property of an organization increasingly is prevented from invading personality and freedom, from discriminating in employment and service against categories of men, in recklessly using their market control.
Passive property— notably, stock— increasingly loses its “capital” function. It becomes primarily a method for distributing liquid wealth and a channel for distributing income whose accumulation for capital purposes is not required. The corporation may, and indeed is expected to, retain earnings for the maintenance and enlargement of its capital plant and operations. The stockholder’s right to spend the income from or use the liquid value of his shares as he pleases is guarded as a defense of his right to order his own life.

Lyndon B. Johnson

There is in front of you young people today the promise of a greater tomorrow. It is a tomorrow that is brighter than yesterday, and it is a tomorrow that is more challenging than today. This is not a time for timid souls and trembling spirits. We have it within our power to find the best solutions to the worst of problems, and we intend to do just that.
So let your young hearts armed with new weapons join in an old battle against ancient enemies–the enemies of poverty, disease, illiteracy, strife, and bigotry.
And with your courage and with your compassion and your desire, we will build the Great Society. It is a Society where no child will go unfed, and no youngster will go unschooled. Where no man who wants work will fail to find it. Where no citizen will be barred from any door because of his birthplace or his color or his church. Where peace and security is common among neighbors and possible among nations.

Ronald Dore

Антон Евсеев

Недавно американские ученые разгадали одну из самых сложных и интересных загадок эволюции — каким образом живые организмы приобрели модульное строение? Они выяснили, что модульность развивалась не потому, что она расширяла возможности эволюции, а потому, что позволяла снизить энергетические затраты на самоподдержание целостности всей системы.

橘子译

そういえば、ロシア語の中に Гулять так гулять （遊ぶならとことんと遊ぼう）という決まり文句があります。要するにパーティーなどでハメをはずすことですけれども、そのときたとえ人に迷惑をかけたとしても、それはむしろ「しっかり遊んだ」証拠になるようで、ちっともかまわないようです。
日本人にとって「ちょうどいい」状態がロシア人にとっては「中途半端」だったり「物足りなかったり」するという感性の違いもありますけれども、実は、もう一つ、ロシア人の性格・性質から来る問題もあります。「ちょうどいい」という状態は案外絶妙なバランスを必要とする場合が多いのですが、それを達成したり維持したりするには日本人のような「きめ細かさ」や「丁寧さ」が必要なのです。ところが、豪快なロシア人はそういうのが大の苦手。ロシア人はどちらかというと、「細かいことは気にしない」、「大枠で考える天才肌」の人が多いのです。
・・・これだけ性格が違うと、日本人とロシア人との間で誤解やトラブルがあっても不思議はないでしょうけれども、付き合い方によっては案外お互い補い合える部分はいくらでもあるのではないかと思います。

中谷幸司

TKPゲートタワービル 大阪

Mass Observer

国华

城管服务外包，一度被认为是深圳在城市公共管理上的创新之举，这一模式却因弊端丛生屡遭质疑，先有“开山寨执法车执法”等种种乱象，如今更爆出了涉黑人员变身城管协管员的荒唐事。舆论重重压力之下，深圳一度传出了可能取消“城管外包”的消息。
无可否认，深圳城管的这些乱象和黑幕，确实是在“城管外包”之后发生的，但这并不是说，所有问题都是“外包”惹的祸。公共服务外包，作为行政改革的先进经验，本身并无任何问题，城管协管员这样的“职务”，也不是什么外包禁区。要知道，巡逻查案拘押等警务，监狱管理等，在一些国家照样外包给私人，并不一定会出现失控的现象。
深圳城管乱象的根源不在“外包”，而在“外包”之后的监管空白。公共服务外包，政府部门不能想怎么包就怎么包，应将外包行为有效置于公众监督之下；公共服务外包的同时，政府的责任不能“外包”，而应与外包公司签定明晰的契约，监管到每一环节。
在深圳的“城管外包”经验里，无论是公众监管还是行政监管，都不到位。虽然按照深圳对“城管外包”模式的设想，“公众参与”是其中重要一环，但事实上公众根本连“外包”的具体详情都不清楚，遑论监督了。有关部门与外包公司签定合同时，非常混乱，有的是社区、街道出面，有的是区政府出面，外包公司聘用的协管员无须经过资格审查，外包公司的违规行为也缺乏强制性的惩罚措施。整个“城管外包”的运作，缺乏一套准入、退出和监督机制。
深圳在外包权责不明、监管不力的情况下，匆匆推行“城管外包”，结果遇挫。这对更多已经或准备将服务外包的政府部门是个警示：公共服务可以市场化，但公共责任绝不可市场化，在有效的监管机制未建立的情况下，公共服务外包请且慢推行。

Une étudiante grecque

Je trouve qu’on ne devrait pas mal traiter les immigrés de Grèce. Il ne faut pas oublier qu’avant ce sont nous qui étions à leur place et qui partions à l’étranger pour trouver du travail, une vie. Nous sommes tous humains.

Katherine Harmon

Usain Bolt might be the world’s fastest man but …

The cheetah can reach sprint speeds of 104 kph.

Paul Krugman

… a funny thing happened on the way to the predicted fiscal crisis: instead of soaring, U.S. borrowing costs have fallen to their lowest level in the nation’s history. And it’s not just America. At this point, every advanced country that borrows in its own currency is able to borrow very cheaply. …
So what is going on? The main answer is that this is what happens when you have a “deleveraging shock,” in which everyone is trying to pay down debt at the same time. Household borrowing has plunged; businesses are sitting on cash because there’s no reason to expand capacity when the sales aren’t there; and the result is that investors are all dressed up with nowhere to go, or rather no place to put their money. So they’re buying government debt, even at very low returns, for lack of alternatives. Moreover, by making money available so cheaply, they are in effect begging governments to issue more debt.

Marcel Junod

原爆投下約１カ月後の広島に約１５トンの医薬品を届け、被爆者の治療に尽力したスイス人医師、故マルセル・ジュノー博士の生涯を描いたアニメ作品「ジュノー」。

ジュノー博士は赤十字国際委員会（ＩＣＲＣ）の派遣員としてスペイン内戦や第２次世界大戦で捕虜や被災者を救護。ＩＣＲＣ駐日代表として連合国軍総司令部（ＧＨＱ）と交渉し、医薬品を調達して広島に駆けつけた。

NHK

去年の暮れ、長崎の医師の問い合わせをきっかけに、被爆に関する「あるデータ」が突然公表された。原爆投下直後に降った放射性物質を含む雨「黒い雨」に、１万３千人もの人があったことを示す分布地図だ。どこでどれくらいの人が黒い雨にあったか、これまで「公式データ」はないとされてきただけに、広島・長崎は衝撃を受けた。データは、放射線の人体への影響を科学的に明らかにするためにアメリカの研究機関ＡＢＣＣが集め、研究を引き継いだ放射線影響研究所（放影研）が保管していたものだった。多くの被爆者の協力のもと集められた“命の記録”。しかし今に至るまで、このデータを使って黒い雨の影響が研究されることはなかったという。なぜデータは、被爆から６７年たつまで、その存在さえ明らかにされなかったのか。調査に協力した被爆者たちは、どんな思いを抱いてきたのか。被爆者追跡調査の歴史を丹念に追いながら、その実像に迫っていく。

Max Huber

Thus it is our task to form a third front above and cutting across the two belligerent fronts, a third front which is directed against neither of them, but which works for the benefit of both. The combatants of this third front are interested only in the suffering of the defenceless human being, irrespective of his nationality, his convictions or his past. They fight wherever they can against all inhumanity, against every degradation of the human personality, against all injustice directed against defenceless human beings. It is for these fighters that Dr. Junod has coined the expression ‘the third combatant’.

大久保利晃

7月28日、TBSテレビ（中国放送）の「報道特集」で、「知られざる『放射線影響研究所』の実態を初取材」という番組が放映されました。その内容は、

• 「放影研の調査は決して被爆者のためではありませんでした」
• 「福島の人々の不安に応えられない放影研。その原因は、放影研のデータに決定的に欠落した部分があるからです」
• 「内部被曝のデータが欠落した放影研にリスクが解明できるのか疑問です」

など、事実に反するもでした。

Sean P. Aune

It seems that the British Olympic Team is not the biggest fans of the Beats by Dr. Dre headphones as it took the step of banning its athletes from wearing them late last week.
When the participants of the London 2012 games arrived in the city, boxes of the Beats headphones were delivered to the hotels and Olympic Village with the headphones inside.
… as Beats didn’t pay for the product placement, instead, the British team has a sponsorship deal with Panasonic. According to the International Olympic Committee’s Rule 40, no athlete may endorse a product they have a personal sponsorship with while at the games on or off the field, and that includes social media.

Eduardo Borensztein, Ugo Panizza

Sovereign debt is different from private debt because creditors do not have a well defined claim on the sovereign’s assets. The lack of a procedure for enforcing sovereign debt contracts is partly due to the principle of sovereign immunity. However it also relates to the fact that, even when creditors obtain a favorable ruling, they cannot attach assets which are located within the borders of the defaulting country, and in fact have had limited success in going after assets located abroad.

RT

A Jordanian MP pointed a gun at a political activist during a heated debate on the country’s political stance on Syria.

The action, which included shoe throwing, was broadcast live on Jordanian TV.

福島正秀

アフシン・ゴトビ

川崎が1点負けている時に尊敬できるのは、そこで情熱をもって献身的に追いつこうとしているところです。私にとって興味深いのは、私が日本人ではないのでそう思うのかもしれませんが、1点をリードしている時と1点を負けている時で完全に違ったサッカーをやるということです。
—
日本では、もっと多く練習をすれば、よりうまくいくと考えられがちです。でも、より少ない練習というのも大事だと思います。少なくても賢い練習というものは、たくさんの練習より効果があります。ハードワークは大事ですが、頭を使った練習はもっと大事だと思います。

Subrata Chakrabarty

Theodore M. Singelis, Harry C. Triandis, Dharm P. S. Bhawuk, Michele J. Gelfand

• Vertical collectivism includes perceiving the self as a part (or an aspect) of a collective and accepting inequalities within the collective.
• Horizontal collectivism includes perceiving the self as a part of the collective, but seeing all members of the collective as the same; thus equality is stressed.
• Vertical individualism includes the conception of an autonomous individual and acceptance of inequality.
• Horizontal individualism includes the conception of an autonomous individual and emphasis on equality.

Paul C. Sondrol

	Totalitarianism	Authoritarianism
Charisma	High	Low
Role conception	Leader as function	Leader as individual
Ends of power	Public	Private
Corruption	Low	High
Official ideology	Yes	No
Limited pluralism	No	Yes
Legitimacy	Yes	No

Uichol Kim, Harry C. Triandis, Cigdem Kagitcibasi, Sang-Chin Choi, Gene Yoon

… in East Asian societies, Confucianism has provided a moral and philosophical basis for self-construal and social order. … collectivist societies that support the basic tenets of Confucianism prioritize the common good and social harmony over individual interests. All individuals are assumed to be linked in a web of interrelatedness. Individuals are conceived to be embedded and situated in particular roles and status. They are bound by relationships that emphasize common fate. Individuals are bound by relationships, which emphasize a common fate. Individuals are encouraged to put other people’s and the group’s interests before their own. From a societal point of view, duties and obligations are prescribed by roles, and individuals lose “face” if they fail to fulfill these duties and obligations. Concession and compromise are essential ingredients in promoting role-based and virtue-based conceptions of justice. Social order is maintained when everyone fulfills his or her roles and duties. Institutions are seen as an extension of the family, and paternalism and legal moralism (i.e., moral values institutionalized in legal codes) reign supreme. In order to promote the collective welfare and social harmony, individuals are encouraged to suppress any individualist and hedonistic desires. As a result, interdependency, succour, nurturance, common fate, and compliance are important aspects of East Asian collectivism.

Geert Hofstede

Individualism pertains to societies in which the ties between individuals are loose: everyone is expected to look after himself or herself and his or her immediate family. Collectivism as its opposite pertains to societies in which people from birth onwards are integrated into strong, cohesive in-grups, which throughout people’s lifetime continue to protect them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty.

田中宇

近現代とは、産業革命と国民国家革命を進展させる時代のことだ。産業革命によって大量生産の工業が生まれ、大量生産したものを買わせる消費者を増やさねばならないという、人類史上初の事態が起きた。それまで支配層が、農業生産をやらせる群衆としかみなしていなかった世界中の貧農、農奴、貧乏人を、消費者や中産階級に仕立てていく、新たな世界的事業が始まった。支配層から見て、農奴は貧乏でかまわないので極限まで搾取したが、消費者には金を持たせねば工業が発展しないので賃上げなど待遇改善する必要が出てきた。人々を貧農から工業労働者に転職させ、賃金を払って消費させ、工業製品を買わせるという経済循環の構図を世界に拡大し、儲けを世界的に増やすのが、資本家の目標となった。これが近現代の始まりだ。
資本家は個人だが、産業革命は国家的な事業だ。産業発展に必要な交通や通信などのインフラ整備は、私企業でなく、国家がまとめてやるのが効率的だ。国家を豊かにするには、人々に喜んで納税させる必要がある。農奴として搾取していた人々を「国民」「主権在民」などといっておだてて教育すれば、人々は国家の主人としての「自覚」を持ち、国家に忠誠を尽くし、喜んで納税し、兵役に就く。国民国家は、それまでの、やる気のない農奴を無理やり働かせた生産性の低い絶対君主制国家よりもはるかに強く、富が蓄積された。近現代は、世界中で産業革命と国民国家革命が起きる時代になった。

Jim Rogers

What we all need to understand is the rise of China. Everybody talks about China these days, but most people do not seem to understated what’s really happening in China. China is going to be the next great country in the world whether we like it or not.
The 19th century was the century of the UK, the 20th century was the century of the US, the 21st century is going to be the century of China.
Now I know they call themselves communists in China but let me tell you they are amongst the best capitalists in the whole world. In fact in China they save and invest over 35 percent of their income. In America we save and invest 2 or 3 percent of our income.
China has been the most successful country in the past thirty years. They will continue that for a long time.

United Nations General Assembly

… the existence of a pattern of serious violations of human rights, that is of a systemic nature, and includes intensified restrictions on the fundamental freedoms of association, assembly, opinion and expression, including with regard to the media, as well as allegations of torture and ill-treatment in custody, impunity of perpetrators of human rights violations and abuses, harassment of civil society organizations and human rights defenders, violations of due process and fair trial safeguards, and pressure on defence lawyers;
… to immediately and unconditionally release and rehabilitate all political prisoners, to address, through comprehensive, transparent and credible investigations, reports of torture and ill-treatment, to implement all other recommendations contained in the report of the High Commissioner, and to put an immediate end to arbitrary detention of human rights defenders, the increased use of short- term arbitrary detention and arbitrary travel bans aimed at intimidating representatives of the political opposition and the media, as well as human rights defenders and civil society; …

Choi You-sun

Kim Young-hwan, the North Korea human rights activist from South Korea, told local media that about two weeks after his March 29th arrest, Chinese authorities deprived him of sleep for seven straight days.
On the sixth day of sleep deprivation, Kim said he was electrically tortured for about five to eight hours, and slapped on the face until he was bruised.
He said it was only after he began to speak about his activities in China related to North Korean human rights, that the electric shocks and beatings ended.
Yet the authorities forced the activist to sleep while sitting on a chair for another two weeks.

Gallup

Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum

Dave Boyer

With four months to go until Election Day, President Obama’s well-funded campaign on the airwaves is focusing on two broad themes: that he is a fighter for the middle class who needs more time to finish the job, and that Republican rival Mitt Romney is obsessed with corporate profits to the point of being borderline unpatriotic. …
The Obama campaign’s attack on Mr. Romney’s record in the private sector is aided by the pro-Obama super PAC Priorities USA, which is run by two former Obama White House staffers, Bill Burton and Sean Sweeney. From April 10 through June 28, 100 percent of the ads sponsored by Priorities USA mentioned Bain Capital by name, according to a study by Kantar Media’s campaign media analysis group. …
The campaign spent $12 million on TV ads in a single week last month, after a $25 million, monthlong ad buy that ended in early June. The Obama team has purchased $6.5 million worth of airtime for TV ads during the Olympic Games in London, which begin July 27.

이현승, 송강호, 신세경

日刊スポーツ

五輪のたびに審判問題が起こるように見えるが、どの競技も常に問題は抱えている。ただ、注目度が違うから目立つ。普段は競技を見ない人も、テレビをつける。問題があればテレビのワイドショーでも繰り返し扱うから「五輪は誤審ばかり」の印象を受ける。
身体能力と技術が向上するから、審判の判断はどんどん難しくなる。５０年前の体操や柔道を見ると、技も分かりやすく、判定もしやすいだろうと感じる。しかし、今の技のスピード、複雑さに審判もついていけなくなる。だからこそ、各競技は「誤審」をなくすためにあらゆる策を講じる。
テクノロジーの導入も１つだ。ビデオ判定は、最も代表的なもの。当初は人間の下す判断の補助的なものだったが、その役割は年々大きくなっている。さらに「審判の審判」導入。より公平な判断を下すために審判のミスをチェックする。
あらゆるスポーツで、審判は重要だ。審判がいなければ、スポーツは成り立たない。

Toshio Tsunozaki

(30 July) I would like to express my deep gratitude to the media and citizens who have contributed so that the bike is found. In this way the Serbian people have demonstrated friendship, affection and good will.
(17 August) Once again I would like to express my deep gratitude to the government, local governments, companies and all citizens of Serbia for their sympathy, support, solidarity, the organization of various humanitarian events and offers of assistance to our people.

Лев Николаевич Толстой

Любовь — это бесценный дар. Это единственная вещь, которую мы можем подарить и все же она у тебя остаётся.

John Lennon

All you need is love.

Latin Central

• Amor vincit omnia.
  Omnia vincit amor.
• Amor caecus est.
• Amor non est medicabilis herbis.
  Nullis amor est medicabilis herbis.
• Sine amor, nihil est vita

信息时报

李玄旭大声说: “我说了 I am female!, 可她就是不相信。” “她真是女的!” 冯真板着脸跟女工作人员 “吵”。