Translation Sniper

If you don’t win, but you tried your best…

You’re still a loser.

As an avid reader, I have learned to enjoy slightly long commutes to and from work. While our house at the moment is actually a bit far from the office, the walk to the station isn’t that bad, and the 40min commute is straight in – and the biggest selling point is, I *always* get a seat. Being able to sit down for 40 minutes of uninterrupted reading time in the morning is a good way to spend a commute.

Recently, however, I’ve spent less time reading and more time listening to podcasts. For those of you looking for some interesting things to listen to on your iPod/iPhone etc, here are some of my favorites:

Business/Economics

EconTalk: A great all-around site, but I absolutely love the podcasts. Some great topicss – check out the multi-part series discussing Adam Smith’s lesser-known classic, Theory of Moral Sentiments.

The Economist: The Economist is obviously the gold standard when it comes to business and financial writing (anyone that’s worked with me will know how much I love the magazine’s fantastic subtitles). The podcasts are normally spoken editions of articles from that week’s edition.

Planet Money: From the NPR. Found this thanks to The Undercover Economists’ column in the Financial Times.

More or Less: A proper podcast by the same author as The Undercover Economist columns (also the name of his book, which is quite good; sort of in the Freakonomics vein).  The series is on a brief hiatus at the moment, but previous episodes are still available for download.

Bloomberg: Podcasts by the famous financial services vendor. Surprisingly, this can sometimes be hit-or-miss.

Sports

Mike & Mike in the Morning: Probably my favorite sports show of all time. I love these guys. Funny, articulate, and different enough to make things interesting. These aren’t the whole four-hour shows, thank goodness; these are 20-45min summary clips from each day’s episode.

Pardon the Interruption: Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon are really good – but tend to agree on most of the major subjects, which does sort of reduce the appeal.

The Guardian Football Weekly: For those of you in the US, this would be ‘Soccer Weekly’. While on hiatus now, this site has been godsend as I go about learning everything I need to know about England/European football.

 The FredCast: One of the more popular cycling podcasts out there – for those of you who don’t know, a ‘Fred’ is usually a derisive term for a cyclist that isn’t all that good, but has an expensive bike and all the high-end gear and gadgets. Someone like me, in other words. I liked it a bit more when it was really just one guy’s labor of love; it has gotten a bit more commercial now – but still a great listen.

The Spokesmen: Another cycling podcast – this one is produced by the host of the FredCast, but is a round-robin discussion among various people in the cycling world. The talk can be surprisingly – and refreshingly – direct.

The Sports Guy:  This guy is one of my favorite sports writers, but his podcasts can be hit-and-miss. He talks about current events and reality TV almost as much as he talks about sports.

Science

Stuff You Missed in History Class: A bit long and not overly technical, as the content seems to be geared towards younger readers. Can still be interesting.

Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe: Can sometimes get a bit technical, but often is quite fascinating.

When the MBH and I learned we were headed for Ol’ Blighty one of the things we wanted to take advantage of was the culture. While Tokyo isn’t without its art society, it obviously isn’t near as ambitious or as accessible as in London or New York. I actually listen to classical music on occasion (not just classic rock, but actual classical music, you know, the kind without any lyrics and no guitar solos).

So when we got the chance to see Giulio Cesare at the Glyndebourne Summer Opera Festival, well, we jumped at the chance. I was originally a bit more interested in a classic music concert, but one doesn’t get a chance to see a world-famous opera production very often. And besides, it was a good excuse to get to wear a tuxedo again.

The first hurdle was that Glyndebourne is actually about 75-85 miles south of London, near Brighton. Normally this would be a rather long haul by train, but thanks to the timely arrival of the new car, we decided to make a road trip out of it! Since the MIL was also in town, all three of us piled in and off we went (there is of course something slightly odd about going to the opera in a Mini Cooper – but as it turned out there were other Minis in the parking lot, so I didn’t feel so bad…). Now, a drive that long without knowing any of the roads could have been a nightmare, but thankfully my Navi System (the Tomtom 730) totally rocks. The drive itself was uneventual, the Mini drives great, and even though we left a bit late we got to our seats just as the curtain was going up.

To be honest, I fully expected to be pretty bored by the end. And there were indeed some scenes that seemed to drag on a bit. But I have to say I was honestly surprised at how fast the time went, and how enjoyable it was. The singing – the stamina needed to sing that long (often while doing dance numbers) is nothing short of amazing. The set and costumes were solid, not spectacular or over-the-top as you would often see at a musical. The story itself would have been impossible to follow if we hadn’t done some serious reading before hand. As it was, everything was sung in Italian with occasional English subscripts above the stage giving the basic plot line.

One twist Glyndebourne does is the story – basically a three-way love story involving Ceaser, Cleopatra, and Cleopatra’s brother – is moved from ancient Rome to modern times. Soldiers use guns. One of the characters comes out looking like Indiana Jones. At one point near the end the set includes a background of blimps and battle cruisers. Obviously not quite the way Handel would have envisioned it.

But really…I’m not sure that did anything to improve it. It did make for some chuckles here and there; just the juxtoposition of ancient Egypt in a modern setting – at one point Cleopatra does a dance number dressed in what looks like a Gucci mini-skirt and sun glasses. But at the end of the day I really don’t think I would have enjoyed it any less if the set had been completely faithful to the original adaption.

But that aside – it was a fantastic performance, and we all really enjoyed it. Here’s a clip, one of my favorites from the show, taken from the show’s original run in 2005:

It was actually quite a long day – the performance started at 3pm, and there were two breaks – a 20min break at about 4:30pm, and another break at about 5:45. The second break was longer, and we were able to have dinner here.  I think we smoked salmon appetizer and the lamp were probably the best dishes.

The performance ended around 8:30pm – but it was still plenty light out, so we walked around the gardens a bit. There is a very interesting history behind Glyndebourne: basically the event is held on a private estate. You can learn more about the history here,  but essentially the whole thing started when a John Cristie built a small opera house for his wife, who was a professional opera singer. The entire estate is huge, and what we didn’t know until we got there is that people arrive before the show to have outdoor picnics! I tell you, it was quite something to see crowds of people out in the middle of these green fields in tuxedos and evening dresses while sheeps bleated in the background. We did have time to take some pictures after the show:

The drive back to London was uneventful. In the end, it was quite a long day, but we thoroughly enjoyed it – so much so, in fact, that we’re already looking forward to going back next year!

Heard about this on a recent FredCast. Was expecting this to be essentially one big commercial for Cervelo – and while it partially was, it was much more than that. Really interesting and beautifully shot, especially if viewed in HD:

Part one: Beginnings

Part two: San Diego Sling

Part three: California, Part One

Part four: California, Part Two

Part five: Milan-San Remo

Most Americans will be familiar with the ‘Miracle on Ice’ – the story of the 1980 US Olympic hockey team. Basically 10 guys from Minnesota and a bunch of nobodies beating the Russians (the best team in the world at the time) in the round-robin and ultimately winning the gold medal.

Well, this might not quite on par with that result…but we now have a ‘miracle on grass‘ after the US beat Spain 2-0 in the semi-finals of the Confederation Cup. Now – some people would think that this is not a major tournament, yet it has gotten a lot of press here in the UK just because some of the biggest names in the sport are playing – Italy, Brazil, and of course Spain, which has such a strong side it’s downright scary. And even if it wasn’t a World Cup match…the fact is nobody wants to lose. Professional athletes are probably the most competitive people on the planet: they have to be to get to the very top of their sport, where the elite destroy anyone not quite good enough. We’ve all heard stories of top athletes having to win at everything they do, be it football, bowling, or table tennis.

The irony is the US looked very poor the first two games, losing to Brazil 0-3 and to Italy 1-3. They needed a 6-goal swing in the last game (a win over Egypt, and Italy losing to Brazil, with a combined goal differential of the two games of six or more).  Well, it happened – the US scored three goals to beat the Egypt team that had earlier beaten Italy, while Brazil pummeled Italy by the same score; the US ultimately went through because they had scored one more goal than the Italians.

Now, no one could be happier than me to see the Italians lose – I absolutely hate their flopping, diving, crybaby antics every time someone so much as brushes them.  And while getting to the semi-finals through the smallest back door possible isn’t the best method in the world, the important thing is getting through – Italy only needed to get one goal in their loss to Brazil, and they couldn’t get it done.

To say that Spain was the favorite would be a bit of an understatement – they were not only favored to win the Confed Cub, they were already being touted as the key favorites for next year’s World Cup. This is a fantastic win for the US – it instills confidence that the team can hold with the top teams and gives the team another chance to play a top team in a pressure situation – a great build-up to the World Cup. I don’t think this changes things on a grand scale in the near term – I still think that just getting out of the prelim round next year would be a great achievement for the US – but hopefully this will the first signpost in the road for the team’s long-term growth.

I was talking to the MBH about Japan paying out-of-work immigrants to go home and not come back (see a few posts down). She mentioned that she had heard of some European country doing this recently as well. Wow, I hadn’t heard that at all, and thought maybe I shouldn’t be focusing only on Japan.

Turns out, Spain did in fact have a similar program last year. There are two major differences, however.

First, the plan is targeted at -any- unemployed non-EU citizen, not just immigrants of Spanish descent. In contrast, the Japanese plan is only targeting foreigners of Japanese descent (mostly from Brazil). Plus, rather than simply giving the immigrants plane tickets home, immigrants are entitled to unemployment benefits – the catch is that they get 40% immediately, and 60% after they have returned home.

But the biggest difference: immigrants leaving Spain give up residency and work permits, and are not allowed back for three years…but are allowed back after three years, and will be able to recover their work and resident permits.

This to me sounds like a pretty reasonable plan. Over the short term it helps both the unemployed non-EU immigrant – immediate funds to return home, plus funds when they get back, and funds are based on benefits they were already entitled to – but allows the workers to return in three years, with fully reinstated residency/work rights. This should help Spain over the long term.

Contrast that with the Japanese solution – only targeting non-Japanese immigrants of Japanese descent, and people who leave must sign an agreement not to return. 

Japan is paying each worker $3,000, while each family member gets $2,000. That’s basically a plane ticket home, and not much else. I have not been able to track down if immigrants leaving would be also entitled to receive unemployment benefits.

Our car has arrived, and it looks sweeeet~

Mini Cooper

The long-term plight of Japan is well-known: First, a dwindling birth rate. Japan’s birth rate for 2008 was estimated at 7.87 births for every 1,000 people. That’s second lowest in the entire world – 220 out of 221 nations, second only to Hong Kong. Japan’s death rate (i.e., deaths per every 1,000 people) for 2008 was 9.26. In other words – Japan’s population overall is declining.

Another way to look at population growth is the total fertility rate: the average number of children born per woman. (The data usually makes some strict assumptions about all women living through their child bearing years, etc). The so-called ‘replacement rate’ is two children per woman – Japan’s TFR was 1.22 in 2008, has been below *1.5* for at least the last 10 years:

Even worse for Japan, the country is old – in fact, Japan has the highest proportion of elderly citizens (aged 65 or older) than any country in the world, at around 21% (Italy is second, at around 20%). Thanks to the years of ultra-low birth & fertility rates , Japan also happens to have the lowest proportion of people aged 15 or younger in the world, at around 13.6% (Bulgaria was next, at 13.8%).

So: you have an aging population that is getting older – in other words – a growing population of people that will need retirement and health care benefits. You have fewer and fewer people of working age – people paying into retirement and health care plans.

Most governments stuck in similar situations – even when the situation isn’t quite as dire as in Japan – look to immigration. Immigrants generally pay into such social service systems far more than they collect out of it, and they are generally a source of dynamic growth for a country that can’t depend on internal organic growth. Estimates are that Japan would need over 17 million immigrants within the next 50 years to maintain its current economic productivity.

So what is the Japanese government doing?

Paying Brazilian immigrants to go home and not come back.

Imagine the world-wide reaction if the US or the UK did something like this for its, say, Asian immigrants…

Granted, it’s not forced deportation or anything…but I still wonder if it a) doesn’t send the wrong message, and b) is this really the best long-term use of that money? Reducing the number of people looking for work is certainly one way to lower the unemployment rate, but wouldn’t it be better to attack from the other angle and try and generate more jobs?

Lots of interesting stories to this year’s Tour de France. 

-  Alejandro Valverde, a great climber and considered to be a contender for the general classification title, might not be allowed to start the TdF due to a two-year ban on racing Italy for alleged doping involvement. He was never tried, never found guilty, and one would wonder why an Italian ban would affect the TdF…the answer is that this year’s Tour has a stage that goes through Italy.

- Lots of possible contenders for the this year’s TdF, that starts July 4. Valverde obviously, if he can race. Cadel Evans will be up there – he made a lot of fans with his attacking style during the recent Dauphine. Contador would be up there, as would be last year’s winner Sastre. Others include Denis Menchov, Levi Leipheimer, or even Kloden.

- Obviously the biggest news is the return of You-Know-Who to the Tour, where he has won seven times. I personally can’t see him winning – not at his age, and not after two years away from professional cycling. But the guy did stay in shape (running a couple of sub-three hours marathons), and I guess you can’t really bet against someone with that much drive and determination.

But one story that I saw recently might help make the Tour a bit more popular in Japan: According to popular cycling news site VeloNews, Bouygues Telecom is probably going to name a Japanese rider, Yukiya Arashiro, to the team’s group of riders that are scheduled to start the 2009 Tour de France. Arashiro would be the first Japanese rider to start the TdF since 1996 (Daisuke Imanaka failed to make the time cut after stage 14).

If nothing else, this will give myself and the better half a team to pull for this year!

Linkage: the VeloNews story is here. The team’s web page (in French) is here. And the official Tour de France web page (in English) is here.

…out? ….gas? Neither – passed my UK driver’s exam.

The UK didn’t like my US driver’s license – apparently driving on the other side of the road presented a problem for them. My MBH, who has a Japanese license, got a full UK license straight away; I had to go the full test route – written and practical.

In hindsight, it probably isn’t a bad thing I had to do everything from scratch. It forced me to really learn all the signs and rules, which are just different enough to be a bit dangerous. And since I didn’t have a car yet, I had to take my driver’s test in a learner car – after a few lessons, which was definitely a good thing, due to the bane of UK roads: Round-abouts. While definitely helpful in terms of traffic flow, round-abouts take getting used to. Probably the biggest hurdle for me was trusting that the cars coming from straight ahead were going to give way to me as I crossed right in front of them.

The theory part was pretty easy. One cool twist – there is also a ‘hazard awareness’ section of the test. You sit and watch 15 60-second videos, and you have to click when you perceive a hazard (anything that would force you, the driver, to change speed, direction, or position). You can’t just click away like mad; the software catches that and fails you straight off. Was kind of cool.  I think they should have made this into a full-fledged video driving game; you get a certain score, you pass. Think of it as a simulator for cars, kind of like the simulators they use for pilots. Imagine being able to test out doing spins, punctures etc without risking actually totalling your car. Plus, you could reinforce the training aspecct – if you crash your virtual car the machine whips around and gives you whiplash. I can’t see any downside here.

Anyway, I took three or four lessons with an instructor in the area. Other interesting differences about driving in the UK: traffic signals and signs seem to be placed much lower than in Japan or the US. Strangely hard to notice until you get used to looking for them a bit lower. Far more cars parked on the side of the road in residential areas, which wouldn’t be so bad if the roads weren’t so narrow to begin with. Not as narrow as in Japan, for example, but pretty narrow. Thankfully the car I’m getting is pretty small so not too much to worry about.

Apparently only 40% of people taking the test pass - the test itself is pretty extensive, lasts around 40 minutes with various maneuvers (parallel parking, reversing around a corner, bay parking etc). The test was far more  extensive then when I took the test in the US – after hardly driving at all; I passed the first time and the entire test couldn’t have been more than 15-20min. Granted, roads are so big in the US it’s not like you need a lot of skill to parallel park or anything.

I took my test at 8:30 Monday morning. Traffic was pretty busy, which resulted in tight conditions for parking and such, but really the test was no big deal. I think I got marked down once or twice when the tester couldn’t see that I had actually turned my head to look in the mirror. And he said I took one junction a bit too fast. I think I had 3 marks, and up to 15 is passing.

So that’s out of the way now – next thing now is to pick up the car.

New Car

(actually, no, that isn’t my new car, but it was just a good excuse to put up some car porn).