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  • 3 min read

【No. 0082】Day for Discarding Bulky Trash

Mar 10, 2015 22:14
　Today was bulky trash day for our university. Actually, my boss and I describe this day as "treasure day" because we can pick up useful trash which was abandoned by other researchers. This time, I could obtain PC monitor, PC rack, many PC components, many kind of cables, and furniture. I think it's possible to assemble a PC by using only parts that I picked up. I also picked up two projectors, but they were completely broken. Incidentally, my boss picked up a printer that is almost new, and picked up a life-size dolls for research. Anyway, I had a lot of fun today. (As a matter of fact, about 20% of equipments in our laboratory are composed of trash that my boss and I picked up.)
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  • 5 min read

【No. 0081】Makeover

Mar 9, 2015 18:22
　Today, I and my juniors rearranged our laboratory so that we can accept new faces. We printed out a sketch of our laboratory, and discussed new arrangement. We had had a lots of opinions, for example, "I want to move a desk out of the sun to prevent skin irritation," "I need more space," "I'd like to avoid a desk near the entrance," "I want to use two desks," and "I want to isolated."

Of course, It is not possible to reflect all these demands, but we tried to think that we are as fully satisfied as possible. About 3 hours later, rearrangement was completed. I thought we'd solved almost all of our problems, however -- some juniors expressed their dissatisfaction soon. Some said "Oops, I'm worried about other people's eyes," and some said "Jesus! my space is too narrow."

Haha, it was difficult. However, I think we have to put on our considering caps about our eyes. According to the Northern Europe research, if we are working without partitions, our productivity, motivation, and concentration would decrease, and chances of getting sick would increase. Although there is nothing surprising about this, most Japanese companies don't use partitions in their offices. In order to improve our productivity, we have to create our spaces that we can concentrate. In fact, since there are four PC displays on my desk and they are serving as a surrogate for partitions, I'm comfortable.
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  • 4 min read

【No. 0080】Earned 2 yen

Mar 8, 2015 17:24
　About a year ago, I registered myself as a Android developer to sign up for the Play store. And few months ago, I registered my first app with the Play store. This app was a countermeasure tool for qualification tests that is related to information technology. The target of this app was very niche, however, I created this for myself. Also, since there are almost no advertisement on this app, it's really difficult to earn money. I today visited to the AdMob page which shows advertising revenue after a long interval. Then, I found that I had earned 2 yen by advertisements of my app. That's one small step for many people, one giant leap for me.
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  • 3 min read

【No. 0079】Friend that one had been to school with

Mar 7, 2015 22:46
　Yesterday, I met my friend from university. He came my university as a recruiter of a company and introduced his company to students. And today, I ate lunch with him, then later we talked about various things each other. It was so fun to talk with a classmate after a long time. This is why almost all my classmates got into companies when we graduated our university, and there is no classmate in my research building. I sometimes feel lonely, however, I also sometime feel as if I were a boss of students since all students in my research building are younger than me. He-he.
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  • 6 min read

【No. 0078】Create Post Archive

Mar 6, 2015 23:23
　Today, I created a web page that summarizes my previous posts. Actually, I had created a similar web page, but it was inconvenient because I used accordion representation. The accordion representation means that posts are folded and it would be open when we click the post title. This movement was rather cool, but I couldn't read my post unless I click it. I wanted to search corrected posts using some keywords, and to do this, there's a need all post are opened. So I created new one which is simple, light and open. Now I can search my posts effectively. Hehehe I'm so tired to create this. In the near future, I will re-create the css file and re-design this page.

http://kano.arkoak.com/lang8/
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【No. 0077】Connective Words

Mar 5, 2015 20:52
　Today, I learned that there are a lot of "therefore" in sentences which Japanese wrote and it should not be in heavy usage. Also I learned that we must not use "therefore" with comma at the beginning of sentences. Hehehe, I have made great use of the word ever. Similarly, I think we use far too many connective words such as "so, however, as a result." If we write sentences using many connective words, the sentences would give us the illusion that it's logical despite non-logical. This is really dangerous. In some English-speaking school, students train to enhance their mental capacity and prevent a logical leap by limiting the use of "so." I also want to be able to write logical sentences heartily, so I'd like to be careful to avoid "so." Oops, it's very difficult.
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  • 6 min read

【No. 0076】Foie Gras

Mar 4, 2015 20:46
　Today, I went to a ramen shop with my juniors. Surprisingly, foie gras bowl was sold at the ramen shop. The shop offers only 5 little foie gras bowls per day, and 4 bowls were already sold at that time. Therefore, I ordered the foie gras bowl and ate foie gras for the first time in forever. The name of the menu was "foie gras bowl," but in fact, there were only one small slice of foie gras and some slices of beef on a rice bowl. The foie gras is maybe very delicious, but it's difficult for me to describe the taste. I thought cheap meats are more suit me than expensive meats because I want to eat a lot of meat.
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  • 3 min read

【No. 0075】Sum of the Reciprocals of the Primes

Mar 3, 2015 23:23
Today, I'd like to talk about one of the most famous Euler's story.

Have you ever thought what the sum of the reciprocals of the primes will become?

Maybe most people know that the sum of the reciprocals of the natural number diverges to infinity (1/1 + 1/2 + 1/3 + ･･･ = ∞).

(Note that the sum of the reciprocals of the square of the natural number converges to π^2/6.)

In 1737, Euler proved that the sum of the reciprocals of the natural number diverges to infinity (1/2 + 1/3 + 1/5 + ･･･ = ∞).

Although that the number of primes are infinite was known in about 300 B.C., anyone couldn't solve the problem during about 2000 years.

This is no wonder, since the divergence speed of the sum of the reciprocals of the primes is extremely slow.

It's known that the sum of the reciprocals of the primes from 2 until 1801241230056600523 is finally exceeds 4 (to be specific, 4.0000000000000000002).

In order to exceed 5, we need primes until around 65 digits .

This is a horrible amount of numbers.

It's not possible to store all of these primes even if we could use all storage media on the planet.

Euler had really great foresight.

Actually, he proved this problem when he was 28, and this year, I will become 28.

I hope to be able to prove something this year, hehe.
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  • 5 min read

【No. 0074】Massive Power Outage

Mar 2, 2015 22:23
　Early in the morning, a massive power outage was occurred in my prefecture. This power outage cut electricity to about 380 thousand homes and stopped about 2700 traffic lights. Furthermore, 15 bullet trains stopped and this influenced about 6600 people. It was reported that the reason of the power outage was that transmission lines had been damaged, and it lasted from 5:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. However, actually I couldn't be aware of this power outage, because I woke up around 8:30 a.m. and I didn't use electricity for a while. I just noticed the power outage when I went to my university and watched my PC. Although I put my PC in sleep mode, it was shut down.

　Anyway, this accident was lucky it wasn't worse. I mean, despite the massive power outage, there were no large-scale traffic accidents or injuries.

【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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  • 4 min read

【No. 0072】Today, I cooked curry again and had a big mistake.

Feb 28, 2015 20:42
　Today, I cooked curry again and had a big mistake. In a typical recipe, we will simmer curry for about 20 minutes, but I simmered curry too much. I was going to watch Dr. House during simmering curry, resulting, I infatuated with the drama and forgot my cooking. Curry got burnt and my pot became charred. I barely could eat curry near on the top of the pot, but unfortunately, I left the other portion. Although I washed the pot by scraping strongly, I couldn't take off the burnt deposit which stacks to the bottom of the pot. I was really sad because the pot was my birthday present.
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  • 2 min read

【No. 0071】Year-End Debriefing Session

Feb 27, 2015 20:21
　Today, the year-end debriefing session of various organizations in our university was held. Some people presented their research, and some people presented their venture activity. We also presented about our software development venture and our projects. It was the exciting event, and I learned a lot from many other organizations. After the debriefing session, we participated a banquet and ate delicious dinner.
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【No. 0070】Birthday Party

Feb 26, 2015 23:35
　Today, a birthday party was held in our laboratory. We laboratory member are sometimes hold birthday parties when some members' birthdays are approaching. This time, we celebrated birthdays of two members. We cooked grilled beefs and ate them heartily. After we finished eating the meats, we brought a birthday cake and began to eat again. Then, we sent birthday presents to laboratory members whose birthday is approaching. Since one of them likes cherry blossom, we sent shampoo and rinse and lip balm which have good aroma of cherry to him. Also, since the other will graduate soon and begin a new life, we sent a valuable ballpoint pen to him. We had an ace time at the birthday party.
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  • 2 min read

【No. 0069】Phrases of American Dramas

Feb 25, 2015 19:25
　When I was watching an American drama, I was noticed that I could understand some phrases or words without Japanese subtitles.

For example, "you're insane" and "creepy" in "The Big Bang Theory," "you're an idiot" and "you idiot" in "Dr. House," "damn it" and "put your hands on your head" in "24."

I might have a dirty mouse if I keep watching these dramas repeatedly.

However, it is interesting for me to know various characters' trademark phrases.
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  • 3 min read

【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. 0067】Cook Hot Curry

Feb 23, 2015 22:56
　Yesterday, I cooked hot curry for my dinner. Since I used an expensive Japanese Black Wagyu, it became delicious. However, I cooked the curry too much (I made 6 servings), so today's my breakfast and lunch and dinner were also the curry. I think a few percent of now my body is composed of the curry. I'm worried whether my body is giving off a curry smell.
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  • 1 min read

【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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  • 2 min read

【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.