ArticleMaestro.com

A lot of personal household safes have been turning up at Japanese police stations in the wake of that country’s latest disaster.
They haven’t yet only been recovered by save workers digging through rubble but have also been washed up ashore, and now law enforcement is running out of space to store them.

Until recently, these safes have been kept in the station parking lot, but with each station holding onto several hundred at a time, authorities decided to test a more pro-active way of reuniting them with their owners outside of simply watching for those people to show up.
Japanese police now hope to open these safes themselves hoping of finding identifying information within with which to make their own inquiries.

Under Japanese law, there is a little more than three weeks for misplaced items to be claimed by their owners.
After twenty-three days, finders can grow to be keepers – or the government takes title.
Police hope to reunite catastrophe victims with their valuables before the finders/keepers-law can take effect.
Obviously, given the special conditions involved, extensions to the usual deadline have been offered, but any haste that can be made could certainly be welcome by the victims.

The matter is especially important because of the Japanese practice, found especially between their elderly, of saving money and other possessions not in banks but at home.
Such “wardrobe savings,” as the Japanese expression goes, is very common but has become quite the misfortune for disaster sufferers who have lost literally everything short of their lives and the clothes on their backs.
Hence, any effort expedited on behalf of such people would not simply be significantly appreciated but is absolutely required to ensure even their very continued survival.
Luckily, of course, it is due to the unique nature of Japan that valuables have been turned in, along with the absence of looting and other rioting – a fact not lost on envious foreign observers.

Wine racks are a sign of the serious oenophile, or wine conoisseur.
That is “racks,” plural, mind you – rows and rows of them, in all likelihood in a climate-controlled basement cellar, furthermore!

How does one begin?
Numerous fairly good introductions are present online.
Before purchasing wine racks and other paraphernalia of the hobby, do a easy Google search and peruse as many as possible to get a good all-round education.

Generally, the first thing to do is to sample some wines.
Again, using the internet needs to be a good starting point: check to see whether any wine tasting events are now being held in your area, whether sponsored by a club or a merchant or even – especially – a local vineyards!
Once you produce your own impression of your own tastes, you’ll be prepared for those wine racks for your own home!

No, not a full-fledged professional cellar such as described at the outset, however, but simple decorative fare good for your kitchen or den or, even, study!
A cornucopia of options is available for the rest of us who can’t afford dedicating our basements to storing wine.
Racks can be made out of virtually any material nowadays, into virtually any design.
Some aren’t even immediately recognizable as such without actually holding a bottle or two of wine!

But you’re not done yet.
If you should really get into wine, you might “wine” up getting a hundred-dollar wine newsletter – Robert Parker’s famous “The Wine Advocate.”
He’s the premier wine critic in the business, so much so that what he says will actually have an effect on the market!
But one thing to always remember, no matter how far along you go in this hobby: trust your own taste buds.
Never feel like a thousand-dollar bottle of wine is supposed to taste good!
If you enjoy the twenty-dollar bottle, that’s what you like – period.

China, China, China – what’s the big deal?
Why is everybody going on and on about China all the time?

Okay, so they own billions (or is that trillions) in American securities, currency, whatever.
And they make lotsa stuff.
Like NFL beach towels and stuff.
Yeah.
Okay.

It’s not like most people wish to work on an assembly line anyway, making trinkets and curios for Walmart.
But whatever.

All right, so it’s not simply NFL beach towels that they make.
It’s that they are also climbing up the food chain, making stuff that’s more and more high-value, such that good-paying jobs may be the next to go.
They’re hardly making textiles any more – notice that many of the clothing nowadays come from even more exotic locales – like Indonesia and Sri Lanka?

In fact, to be fair, it isn’t NFL beach towels that anyone’s upset over.
It’s the fear that aircraft manufacturing might be next!
Already the Chinese government is on record as gunning for leadership in green energy products including wind mills and solar panels, and undoubtedly they are well on their way toward dominating those industries.

But does it have to be a zero-sum game?
Does China’s rise equate to everyone else’s loss?
Put another way, are they basically gobbling up ever more slices of the pie – or may Chinese ascendancy grow that pie for everyone worried?

Well, speaking of the NFL, it’s interesting to compare and contrast that sporting league’s business decisions with the ones from the NBA.
Basketball keeps growing in popularity over there while years ago a structured exhibition game of American football was canceled practically at the last minute.
If this serves as any indication, it may be that being engaged is preferable to staying on the sidelines!

So it turns out that Jesse James likes Nazi paraphernalia.
No relation to the iconic Wild West figure, the only claim to fame that this latter-day Jesse James has is to be married to Sandra Bullock, one of the most precious actresses of our time.
Indeed, she has been crowned “America’s Sweetheart” by the celebrity press for not only her good-girl roles but for her legendary off-screen generosity, donating millions at a time, most notably in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks and the catastrophic trifecta of earthquake-tsunami-nuclear-crisis that has lately hit Japan.

So how could she have tolerated such an obvious lout?
They were always one of the most startling couples in Hollywood, a bad-boy/good-girl pair right out of central casting and screenwriters’ workshops.
What could they possibly have supplied their guests for wedding favors?
Almost sounds like the perfect set-up for one of Tinsteltown’s formulaic romantic comedies.
However, the real life version that has played out up to now more resembles tragedy for the Oscar-winning actress.

As for the bad boy, he’s now happily married to tattoo model Michelle McGee, that has also posed in Nazi regalia.
In fact, McGee has the acronym “WP” etched prominently on her legs, letters which signify “white power” in racist groups but which she claims only refers to a part of the female anatomy that’s wet!

One can only picture what was introduced as wedding favors for their guests.

Of a certain perverse fascination to a lot of observers, however, remains the query of what Bullock knew and the follow-up ones of how can she not have if she truly did not and why would she endure such racist hobbies if she actually did know.
Many speculate that perhaps she was just too naive and generous, naive when it came to the white supremacist imagery long favored by biker culture and generous regardless towards such naughtiness in a “bad boy” – again, straight out of central casting: you can’t make this stuff up!

Yes, better to gossip about wedding favors instead.

One of the most surprising uses of wind chimes has been as musical instruments in their own right.
This looks quite out of the question at first, as common varieties appear to consist of nothing more than tinkling cylinders, with the sound only slightly different depending on whether stone, wood, metal, or glass is used.
And so it is that [wind chimes] do indeed possess only a very limited set of musical features, whether melodic or percussive, but that has not stop some ingenious musicians from deploying them for their work.
And in fact, probably the most famous uses of one has been in just about the most popular videogames of all time.

That’s right, in a videogame.
Koji Kondo is a long-time audio director at Nintendo, responsible for scoring some of the company’s biggest hits, standard-setting bestsellers such as Super Mario Bros. plus the Legend of Zelda.
In the follow up Super Mario World, wind chimes figure rather conspicuously in the theme for the “Vanilla Dome” game level (or “world,” in the parlance of the Mario games).

Chimes have also been featured in the works of musicians as varied as modern composer Oliver Messiaen and rock guitarist David Sitek.
Maybe what’s most unusual about their use is the fact there are already a handful of chime-like instruments available – the mark tree is even occasionally mistaken for one!

Tubular bells are another such instrument that are often mistaken for wind chimes.
Yet such misconceptions by casual observers can be easily forgiven, given that one cylinder can only so different from another, even when on an altogether different instrument – and, probably, none of this class of instruments look unique!

Tubular bells, however, are much more widely used out of all the chime-like instruments.
The theme for the well-known animated television series “Futurama” is played with tubular bells, as was that during part of the closing credits for the prominent children’s television show “Sesame Street” during the 1980s.

AC electric motor repair is often done these days, typically for generator turbines and stuff like that, whether for power plants or ship and aircraft engines.
Nothing unusual about any of that.
But at one time, just a little over a century ago, AC, or alternating current, and DC, or direct current, were quite controversial matters – especially for the two men bitterly locked in what would become identified to history as the great War of the Currents.

Yes, AC electric motor repair is common enough these days, but back then, AC was new, and initially appeared unsafe – ironic considering that it won out over DC in several applications due to the superior safety.
But before this came about, there were the most acrimonious protests, right down to court battles, not to mention personal smearing promotions in the court of public opinion, against AC, the newer technology.

While it’s arguable that the superior AC standard may have finally been adopted, it’s almost certain that the campaign against it, and its most recognized proponent, delayed its widespread use for several years.
While something similar to AC electric motor repair is still rather skilled work, it isn’t the revoluntionary thing it was back when engines running on AC were considered exotic and, as mentioned earlier on, dangerous.

Thomas Edison, the excellent inventor, used AC’s initial faults as a method of personally attacking his one-time assistant Nikola Tesla, another brilliant mind.
Likely due to professional jealousy (though a lot of money have also been at stake, as numerous patent royalties were required), Edison went to great diets to discredit not only the technology but its most notable proponent – to the point of macabre demonstrations electrocuting animals and even a condemned prisoner in order to get the public agitated against AC!

The recent Japanese devastation has shone a spotlight on the country’s relatively unique social structure.
Unlike many other circumstances of natural disaster elsewhere, no looting or rioting has followed to compound the misfortune — and this has greatly impressed many a non-Japanese observer.
From the patient orderly lines to the return of valuables, “yamoto-damashii,” or the Japanese spirit, has elicited admiration and more sympathy from the world.

As can be imagined, articles have made an appearance trying to explain the phenomenon of people who continue to be law-abiding citizens even with being deprived of not only creature comforts but everything they own and even of loved ones.
Police stations all along the coast are loaded to capacity with the personal household safes of sufferers which have washed back to ground or been recovered from the rubble by rescue workers.
Then there is the seemingly suicidal heroism and self-sacrifice of many nuclear power plant employees.
Even animals have displayed yamoto-damashii: a dog made worldwide headlines for standing by another dog stuck under rubble, refusing to leave!

Much has been written both for and against the “Japanese-spirit interpretation” of events.
On one side, people observe that the country is a wealthy one, a technologically advanced one, and one that is perhaps uniquely homogenous one of many leading industrialized societies of which it is a member.
Of course household safes and other belongings have been returned or at least left unmolested!
It figures, argue such people, because there is no inducement to loot and riot when the country as a whole offers so many resources to provide succor.

Others observe that the spirit of Japan is such that rules are observed given that they are rules – Japanese rules – and one is Japanese.
Safes are not broken into because that is not what a Japanese person does, plain and simple.
This side of the discussion notes that no matter how rich the society, individual victims always suffer – yet they do so patiently, in a manner uniquely Japanese.

Wind chimes are not just pretty decorations to hang up around the house or garden which happen to make noise every now and then.
They have actually been used in real music, from high-brow modern music to popular everyday fare such as videogame soundtracks.
The French composer Oliver Messiaen has written for glass, wood, and seashell chimes in his opera according to Saint Francis of Assisi, while David Sitek of the American rock band TV on the Radio often hangs a wind chime at the end of his guitar for texture.

Perhaps the most famous unknown use of wind chimes in the world was made by Koji Kondo, lead musician at Nintendo, the Japanese videogaming giant.
He is responsible for the music in such bestsellers as Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda, and has incorporated chiming sounds throughout his work, such as the theme for the “Vanilla Dome” world (or stage – that is, game level) in the sequel Super Mario World.

Nonetheless, it ought to be noted that musical instruments already can be found which employ chimes or chime-like hardware.
Without a doubt, one such device, a mark tree, is also frequently known as a chime tree or a pair of bar chimes.
It is performed by sweeping a finger or stick through the length of hanging cylinders, usually made of metal though of varying lengths.
These cylinders are hung from a bar and attached in pitch order.

Equivalent instruments include tubular bells and the bell tree.
Like wind chimes proper, they are often thought of as percussion instruments, generally used in musical color.
Tubular bells, however, can produce harmonic spectra
and therefore are capable of melodies.
But these are sometimes very simple, and few solos are written for tubular bells.
One noteworthy use of the instrument is made by the animated television series Futurama, for its theme.
In the 1980s, the well known children’s show Sesame Street also featured tubular bells throughout part of its ending credits.