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About meArchives for July, 2009
Prewar maps of Asia
The 外邦図デジタルアーカイブ (digital archive of gaihōzu, “maps of foreign lands”) on the Tōhoku University library website looks like a great resource for students of wartime history, cartography buffs, or people interested in Asian geography in general.
Some of the maps are Japanese productions, but others were taken (stolen?) from other sources. The maps of Guam, for instance, appear to have come from the US Corps of Engineers and Navy Department, and have Japanese text overlaid on them; many of the maps of Indonesia are Dutch in origin. Fun to browse through, even if you don’t have a pressing research need. (I titled this post “Asia,” but the maps extend to charts of Europe, parts of Africa, and the Pacific rim, too. Lots to choose from.)
(Via The Map Room; link seen on the NBR Japan Forum.)
Mangled Mifune on the Menu
A very quick heads-up to a translator who wants to make an interesting (and potentially delicious) cold call: 料理屋「三船」 (Ryōri-ya Mifune) is a restaurant that takes the great actor Mifune Toshirō as its theme. Part of me hopes this means Belushi-style swordplay à la “Samurai Delicatessen,” but the place looks like it’s shooting for something a bit more classy.
Expressing a view of Mifune Toshiro’s world in to the plate, and the food he loved the most, to your satisfactory.
Unfortunately, the class doesn’t extend to the English portion of its website. Hence the translation sales angle. Go for a meal, thank the owner for the culinary experience, and mention that you’d like to help brush up the multilingual site so it matches the stature of the man whose name is being borrowed.
(Via @Nictos.)
When you know you’ve made it
. . . is when you get phone calls at work from pump-and-dump operators. The guy on the phone just now told me he was from Addison Capital Management’s New Delhi office. This outfit has called me a few times in the past, usually to pitch some wealth management deal (offshore accounts to shelter my vast wealth from tax authorities or something).
Today the deal was on a company called EM International, which is about to announce a contract with JC Penney to produce furniture, or something. “It’s trading at $4.00 now. I won’t tell you it will go up to $10.00, but I can say that it will be trading at $6.25 within three or four months,” goes the guy. This is a deal to show me just what ACM can do for me and make me a loyal client.
A quick bit of Googling for EM International + JC Penney turns up this message board discussion in which two people report the very same EMIE/JC Penney story. Long story short, maybe I should have tried to keep the guy on the phone and get more info on the outfit to pass on to the authorities, rather than say “mm hmm, maybe not” and hang up on him.
Anyway, the most important thing to take away from all this is: Vast wealth! I gots me some of it, and they knows about it, yes they does.
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