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Essay

【No. 0073】Relationship Between Rain and Headache

Mar 1, 2015 22:19
　Today, it was raining, later snowing, and I had a headache almost all day. When it rains, I usually get a headache. It is thought that one of the most important factors of migraine is the change of the weather. When the updraft occurs, the weather becomes bad, and the atmosphere pressure drops. By the atmosphere pressure is dropping sharply, the pressure that is holding the blood vessels in the brain also drops, then the blood vessels are more likely to spread. By the blood vessels in the brain is spread, the nerves surrounding the blood vessels will stimulated and as a result, migraine will be induced. This is one of the hypotheses, but according to my experience, it's true.
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【No. 0068】That's Something

Feb 24, 2015 23:56
　I didn't know the meaning of the phrase "That's something." In fact, I didn't know the noun meaning of something, while I often use it as pronoun. Yes, something as noun means like important, great, and truth. So I can also say "You're something," in the sense of "You're great." However, I think it's a little difficult for me to get used to the phrase, because "You're something," sounds like "You're something great," for me. Also, I feel a kind of hesitation from "You're something great," for complimenting someone.
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【No. 0066】How to Use 'Almost' and 'Most'

Feb 22, 2015 22:11
　I'm sometimes confused by how to use ’almost’ and most. So today, I'd like to make a note about correct examples and wrong examples.

Correct examples:
・almost all scientists...
・almost all of the scientists...
・most scientists...
・most of the scientist...
・(the) scientists mostly...

Wrong examples:
・almost all of scientists...
・almost scientists...
・most of scientists...
・most the scientist...

I really often make a such mistake. If I say "Almost people are...," this might imply an alien which is becoming a human. I'd like to be careful.
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【No. 0065】Inemuri

Feb 21, 2015 22:47
　Inemuri is the Japanese practice of sleeping on the public places. Particularly, we often sleep as we're riding a train. According to an article that I read today, there are three reason for inemuri.

　The first one is the physical characteristics of Japanese people. Since Japanese intestinum is relatively long, it takes a long time to digest foods. During the digesting, blood is concentrated in intestinum and is hard to reach head, resulting, we become sleepy. Furthermore, it is said that swaying of a train is effective in inducing sleep.

　The second one is the nature characteristics of Japanese people. Japanese people tend to concentrate on their job or study, so their fatigue level is regularly high and their brain try to rest intentionally when they're not working and studying. This is why Japanese people sleep on a train as a conditioned reflex.

　The last one is a public order of Japan. For foreigners, sleeping on the train might seem to be dangerous, but most Japanese don't think so at all. Instead, Japanese men often fear false accusation of molesters.
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【No. 0064】A Way to Reach Moon by Folding a Paper

Feb 20, 2015 17:17
Today, I'd like to talk about a famous math problem.

"In order to reach moon, how many times do you need to fold a paper?"

If you never heard this problem, I want you to think before looking at the following answer.


Typical paper thickness is around 0.1 mm, so I will use this value here. A paper thickness which was folded n times is expressed as 0.1 times two to the power of n. Also, the distance between earth and moon is around 384,400 km. Therefore, the answer is forty-two times. When we fold a paper forty-two times, the paper thickness will be 439,804 km. Also, the paper thickness which is folded 15 times is around human height, the paper thickness which is folded 83 times is around a diameter of a galaxy. However, it is said that we can fold a paper no more than 8 times because required force to fold the paper increase while the paper area decrease.
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【No. 0063】A Fact about Suicide in Japan

Feb 19, 2015 21:19
　Today, I'd like to write a hidden fact about suicide in Japan. In Japan, it is reported that the number of suicide is around 30,000 people per year for the last 10 years. This is not a small number, however, can it be true? In fact, WHO says that the number of suicide in Japan is around 110,000 people per year. In Japan, the number of unnatural death is 150,000 people per year. WHO counted the half number of unnatural death as the number of suicide. However, Japanese government doesn't say that. Also, they doesn't recognize a suicide without a testament as a suicide, and the suicide without the testament is counted as an unnatural death. Therefore, it is said that the accurate number of suicide in Japan is around 180,000 people per year. On the other hand, the number of deaths in Japan is around 1.2 million people per year. This means that one people out of seven people in Japan will die in suicide. I think this is a horrible fact.

【No. 0058】Puke Words

Feb 14, 2015 22:06
I searched an English phrase which means "ゲロを吐く (puke or vomit)," as a result, some phrases like as follows were founded:

"bark at ants"
"feed the fish"
"sing to the sink"
"woof one's cookies"

I didn't know why these phrases mean "puke," so I thought the reason.

"bark at ants"
Since ants are worming on the ground, the puking pose looks like barking at ants. Maybe that's why.

"feed the fish"
I thought this phrase liken vomited foods to fish food.

"sing to the sink"
A scene that a human is puking to the sink is as if who are singing to the sink. Maybe.

"woof one's cookies"
The word woof is similar to the word puke, but I didn't know why cookies. This phrase might liken vomited foods to cookies.

I'm so sorry for posting a dirty content.

Also, according to the following webpage, there were so many puke words. I gave up to think where all of these words come from.
http://brookstonbeerbulletin.com/puke-words/

【No. 0057】Interesting Programmer's English

Feb 13, 2015 22:11
Today, I learned some English phrases used by programmers, and I think they were interesting. So I'd like to introduce some of them.

"I'm teenager in hex." or "I'm 20's in hex."
10 to 1F in hex means 16 to 31 in decimal, and 20 to 2F in hex means 32 to 47 in decimal. So I can say "I'm teenager in hex," hehe. If you say your age in hex, it's possible to pretend as if you're young.

"I took a core dump."
This means I drank too much or I puked. Core dump is an original memory file and it is spat up when a fatal error occurs. Anyway, this phrase This phrase represent like I'm really out of shape.

"She is Haskell."
This means she is really pure, but it's difficult to approach.

"He created a Lisp implementation in PostScript."
This means he is a freak.

【No. 0056】One of the most difficult English phrases for Japanese is ...

Feb 12, 2015 23:26
　I heard that one of the most difficult English phrases for Japanese to understand is "one of the most adjective + plural." I think this is true because I also confused this phrase. We learn that "the most" means "もっとも(mottomo)," and that the intended thing by "mottomo" should be only one. That is, "mottomo" is including the meaning of "only one." However, the words "one of + 'plural'" is attached to "the most." In view of Japanese, this is inconsistent because "one of" intends multiple things while "the most" intends only one thing. For example, when we read the sentence like "One of the highest mountains is...", we might wonder the highest mountain is not only one. Therefore, we learn something like "the most" intends things which belong to a superior group in this case. I was already accustomed to the phrase, but some Japanese are not persuaded because the Japanese words corresponding to "one of the most" is unnatural.

　Also, I heard a professor in a US university said that we should use "one of the more" instead of "one of the most." I don't know whether this point is correct or not, but I think it's interesting.
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【No. 0054】Today, I went back to my hometown for the sixth anniversary of my g...

Feb 10, 2015 21:21
Today, I went back to my hometown for the sixth anniversary of my grandfather's death.

In Buddism beliefs, people hold a memorial service for a decedent.

This observance is called houzi（法事）, and it is held 7th day, 49th day, 1st year, 2nd year, 6th year after the person's death.

Houzi will held tomorrow, and many relatives will come my home.

I have to prompt my study, but I'm tired because I drove 5 hours today.

I'll soon bed down.
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【No. 0049】An Uncommon Culture of a Specific Area of Kyoto

Feb 5, 2015 23:48
　Today, I'd like to introduce an uncommon culture of Kyoto which is the famous city in Japan. I have some friend in Kyoto, and this is a culture that I heard from them. Note that this culture go for a specific area of Kyoto.

　In that area, people never criticize and make a derogatory remark on the surface. Also, people don't praise others very much. Their wording is really beautiful and elegant. However, they need to understand the implication of their words each other, and it's difficult for people who live in another area. Especially, we have to be careful when they praised others too much or they look like so kindly.

　For example, if they say "You're good at playing the piano. I can sometimes hear your good playing at my home," or "You have so vigorous children," the true meaning of it is something like "It's so noisy. Please be quiet." Also, if they say "May I order some meal for lunch?," it means "I want you to go back to your home soon." Of course, it's not necessarily that this rule is true. Hmm, it's a complex culture.
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【No. 0047】Job-hunting in Japan

Feb 3, 2015 22:21
　In Japan, almost of all companies usually hire new staff in April. If we miss the timing, it will be really hard to find a job. Therefore, we usually start job-hunting in the winter of our junior year, and we almost look for a job during nearly 6 months. One of the reason why the job-hunting take such a long time is that Japanese companies like to conduct employment exams. Actually, some companies conduct the exams more than 7 times. I think this is useless custom indeed. We should use our time to our study instead of job-hunting.
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【No. 0023】Coin Tossing Probability

Jan 10, 2015 22:14
Today, I want to talk about coin toss probability.

Please imagine that you toss 2000 coins.

Each coin will fall and rest with either side face up "heads" or "tails" with equal probability.

Well then, what is the probability that at least 1100 heads appear?

When I saw this problem for the first time, I thought intuitively the answer is around a few percent.

However, the actual answer is around 0.0004 percent, and it can be derived easily from a normal distribution.

This fact implies strong convergence of the probability.

I wondered the result for a while such as when I'm faced with a paradox, but people with probabilistic sense will understand without much resistance.
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【No. 0005】I Finally Finished Watching Glee S4.

Dec 23, 2014 22:40
Today, I finally finished watching glee season 4 (episode 22) on Hulu.

Glee is an American musical comedy drama created by Ryan Murphy.
In this drama, high school students teams compete for singing, dancing, and artistry through their performance each other.

They are really incredibly good at singing and their songs echo through my head!
For now, I can't understand their song without Japanese subtitles, but I feel really good to hear them.
But this drama sometimes represents complex relationships and various Irony, and then, I may feel sad.

And at the end of glee season 4, some unresolved issues and unpublished results were left.
So my head is foggy...and I can't wait to watch the season 5!

Wait, by the way, I heard sad news related to season 5.
I don't know the details what will happen in the S5, but maybe I will cry.
I'd like to offer my condolences.
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【No. 0004】Today, year-end party (and Xmas party) was held in the laboratory o...

Dec 22, 2014 23:59
Today, year-end party (and Xmas party) was held in the laboratory of our university.

We bought ingredients for the party at the evening, and then cooked takoyaki.

Takoyaki is a ball shaped food made from cake flour, eggs, cabbage, green onion, pickled ginger and octopus(called tako).

Takoyaki is very yummy and we all love takoyaki.

I think almost all of the Japanese people like takoyaki.

We made about 100 pieces of takoyaki today, and I ate about 20.

I enjoyed wine, cake, yakitori(means baked chicken), and takoyaki while watching a movie with my colleagues.

But I can't go home tonight because I can't drive a car to go my home.

Good night.
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【No. 0002】I bought an electric heating blanket.

Dec 21, 2014 20:22
I bought an electric heating blanket.

My room is freezing cold.
If I put a cup of water on the desk in my room through the night, the water will freeze.
So today, I bought an electric heating blanket and used it.

As a result...what a wonderful product...
The electric blanket become warm quickly, and it made my cold body and heart warm gradually.
I am in the Seventh Heaven.
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【No. 0003】Self-introduction updates.

Dec 21, 2014 21:41
Self-introduction updates.

Hi, I'm a doctoral student studying at an university in Japan.
I'm studying X-ray CT, math, and programming.

[ Hobby ]
My hobbies are watching American drama or Japanese anime, solving math or programming problems and riding a road bike.

I've watched a lot of American drama, for example, Dr.House, Numbers, Ugly Betty, Breaking Bad, Person of Interest, Suits, Lie to me, and so on (sometimes UK dramas like SHERLOCK are included).
If there is a drama that you have recommended, I want you to tell me.
But now, I can't understand these dramas without Japanese subtitles.
In the future, I want to be able to understand these dramas with English subtitles, furthermore, without subtitles.

Also, I sometimes participate in the programming contest.
But almost all of these contests are held in English like TopCoder.
Therefore, in order to increase rating of the programming contests, I have to learn not only programming language but also English.

[ Activities ]
I established software development venture company when I was a junior student.
As a president/CEO, I conduct company management, sales and marketing, software development, employee training between my study.

[ Dream ]
My dream is to study in an US university and to become a professor of an university.