Da capo (by Dr. Jan Klein)

Today, I would like introduce you a funny but inspiring essay "Da capo" written by Dr. Jan Klein. This is about writing/editing a scientific paper, cynically teasing persistently appearance of redundant repetitions in Introduction, Results, and Discussion. I perfectly agree with his argument on this regard.
A quote from this page is shown below. Enjoy!

Deep sorrow for the death of Dr. Lani Hidalgo

As a research partner of JSPS Core Universities program, I met her, Dr. Aklani Rose Hidalgo, Director of Fish Process Technology Institute, University of Philippines School of Visayas, for the first time in the summer of 2005, at the Iloilo airport. Since then we have collaborated in seeking antibacterial peptides/proteins in tilapia and milkfish, until 2007. It was wonderful to see her with calm, bright, and sincere mind. She was a cute teacher with beautiful English pronunciation, helping much our communication. I have a lot of unforgettable memories with her, in Iloilo, Miag-ao, Kagoshima, and Fukuoka.
She passed away last week. I deeply pray her soul may rest in peace. Also I hope that her friends would recover from their sadness of missing her.

Hazy sky caused by yellow sands

Even after brief rain in this early morning, here in Fukuoka, we now have a hazy sky. This is believed to be because of yellow sands conveyed by strong winds from China. The busiest season of yellow sands should be spring, but in these years, they frequently come flying to Japan in all seasons.
In such hazy atmosphere, hiking, one of my favorite,  is not so fun because of limited view from mountain peaks. My concern is that the fine sand particles might adsorb various toxic materials from Chinese environment and fall onto Japan, possibly causing allergic reaction or chronic toxicity.

On a fine clear day.

 Today in the yellow sand.

 Today's yellow sand forecast.

Hiking under the beautiful sky

I enjoyed a brief hiking with G30 staffs and their families. The weather was perfect, with fine sky and beautifully transparent air. We climbed Mt. Koshidake (254 m) near Ito campus of Kyushu Univ. Though relatively low peak, the view from the top was amazingly beautiful. Because of the clear atmosphere, we could see several far islands: Iki, Oronoshima, Ainoshima, and Oshima.