critical thinking
The "Japan and robots" meme again: Military expert Dr P. W. Singer comments on TV
It's time to visit the strange "Japan’s special relationship with robots" meme again. In a recent post, I wondered whether the meme was dying out; I haven’t heard much of it lately. (Then again, I don’t look for examples, or even spend much time in the sort of cultural-comparison media that would focus on the topic, so I'm not the best one to ask.)
Alas, though, the meme does live on, as demonstrated in a January 29 2009 episode of the Daily Show. Host Jon Stewart interviews Dr P. W. Singer, an authority on a range of topics related to modern warfare, on his new book Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century
. Both the topic and the interview were fascinating, with an exchange at the end really catching my attention. Here it is, with my comments interspersed: Read more



Kaizen as a translation for "repent(ance)"? Hmm, sounds odd to me; looking at possible words for repent(ance), there...
Hello! I loved reading your explanation. I have been fixated on this word for sometime after my...
I'm familiar with the argument you make, and was always curious: if Japanese and Korean aren't necessarily related,...
Yes, it's hard to learn proper use of those particles... but I'd have to ask, what's unusual about that? There's no...
The relation between Japanese and Korean has never been proven and is heavily disputed (as well as being politically...
Nice article, I'd dispute your points about the particles. The particles are hard enough even for native...
Well, I'm thankful for the input and would like to say "good point!", but I think we've got different zens...
If I may, kaizen is made up of two parts.One is kai which has several meanings - "effect or worth" - "cut, trim...
Hello! You still remember the kana after 20 years? Good work. The teaching method must have been good, as...
I learned Japanese for three years in high school, and we had wonderful flash cards to help us learn the Japanese...