Online Lies

Which do you think more people would lie, online or face-to-face? Here is an interesting talk by Jeff Hancock on TED.

Although it is scientifically true, what he finds seems to be needed more evidence in order to prove his insistence, I think. For instance, people more easily write like "I'm on my way" on twitter than other social media or email, because tweets are usually assumed as not serious even if some of them lie or overstate.

Anyway, this is very inspiring!!

Spider Silk Strings for Violin

A Japanese professor, Shigeyoshi Osaki, made a new type of violin strings using thousands of strands of spider silk. If you wonder how it sounds and looks like, see below.



In general, violinists use an aluminium-cored or nylon string for their violin (I'm using an aluminium-cored string because they are cheaper than a nylon). A few violinists who can afford to buy use a gut string, but this is more expensive and likely to exhaust than an aluminium-cored and nylon. According to Pro. Osaki, a spider silk string is the best in those strings in terms of tension and sound. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find any difference of sound in the video... Just it sounded like an ordinary violin to me.

At any rate, if this string is cheap and popular, I'd like to try it. However, it wounld take some time to be so.

Cherry Blossom

There are beautiful cherry trees in full bloom in Japan. I went to a neighbor park in order to see cherry blossoms today, though they are not fully blooming. Here are some photos I took.

Spring is just beginning here!

One Year After The Earthquake

Landscapes of then and now in Tohoku. 

Remember still on the way of recovery in Tohoku, and Fukushima nuclear plants. 

More photos, if you want to see, click here. And, here is an article by the Japanese prime minister. 

How To Get A Seat: Smartly But Strangely

I was sitting on a seat. Woman was coming and then standing in front of me. With little courageous, I said to her "Would you like to have a seat?" And, I gave up my seat to her... because she is attractive or I'm a gentleman. No, just because she looked like pregnant! And, I sat on an inappropriate space. What I am talking about now is "priority seats." The priority seats are set up for those who are disabled, pregnant, or having babies to have a seat easily. (In Japan, a subway line have conducted a policy that all seats are priority seats...Even more, they are right now considering about making the most priority seats on the priority seats. What a mess...)

Japanese sign for priority seats on trains

Just in case you really want to get a seat, Try out the following way. In China,  there are 1.3 billion people living. According to some article, to get a seat on public transportation, some women wear a fake pregnant belly! Wow!

After knowing this news, I re-thought that woman whom I offered my seat was really pregnant, just a bit fat, or wearing a fake pregnant belly??

Too Many Choices

I traveled Taipei, Taiwan in last weekend. And, I got a lot of tasty food and drinks there. Bubble teas are one of the famous drinks from Taiwan, I think. Of course I had them during the visit, but I had some difficulty when ordering them. See below!

As shown in the picture, so many choices there are!! In mind, "How can I choose?" Even I thought I'd like someone to choose a great one! However, the staff seemed busy and even I can't speak in Taiwanese. As a result, I needed to choose by myself... What would you choose when you are facing such a situation?

Recently what I learned is that when facing too many choices we tend not to buy the item, according to a jam experiment by Sheena Iyengar. But, in my case, I really wanted to drink a bubble tea, so I chose one. That is, I didn't have the choice of not buying it. So, the problem is how I picked it. I think that we would follow two patterns under this circumstance; cautious or risky choice (I can't find any research of this related topic, so to describe the phenomena I borrow these terms usually used in the group think). The cautious choice means a tendency we choose ordinary, familiar, and safe one which we have already had or seen. On the other hand, I use risky choice to describe that we are likely to pick one which we have never had or even heard and seen. When I chose one, I was considering apricot kernel (cautious) or 養楽多 (risky) flavor (*養楽多 is Yakult, although I didn't know at that time. In fact, Yakult is a drink made by a famous Japanese company).

Well, eventually, I got the apricot kernel bubble tea. It's not provocative but tasted good! Although maybe it could be good, at that moment the Yakult one seemed to me mysterious and strange. Anyway, Taipei is a good place to visit. If you have time, go there. And, if you have an opportunity to visit Taipei, try to buy Bubble teas!

Which Is Which?

Last weekend, I went to a friend's house to be invited dinner. Her father was there at that time. Although I've met him a few times, I didn't know he likes wines and he was kind of enthusiast on them as much as collects them from all over the world. And, I drunk a bottle of wine which he recommended. It was fantastic, and tasted and smelled like what I've never had. However, I unfortunately do not have good abilities to remember that taste and smell for a long time. Actually, next day I already forgot what it tasted and smelled like, though I'm sorry for him.

For so long time, researchers have wondered whether we can distinguish ordinary wines from great ones. There are a lot of research conducted by many ways: http://www.freakonomics.com/2008/07/24/keep-the-cheap-wine-flowing/

The same thing happens in the music. Probably most people have heard of the name, Stradivari who is known as a great violin maker. His violin has been acknowledged the greatest and the most expensive one all over the world.

An article by NPR introduced an interesting experiment a few days ago. It was about a blind violin test, but the point of this experiment is a "double-blind" test. That is, all participants including players and listeners didn't know which one was a Stradivari violin. If you want to try your ability, go the link: http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2012/01/02/144482863/double-blind-violin-test-can-you-pick-the-strad. You can also find the result!

Fortunately, I would have musician's ears, which means I was able to pick correct one! It seems like hearing something is good fit for me rather than tasting and smelling.