Miki's Kernel and Shells

3/13/2011

Hearty messages encouraging us

First of all, Fukuoka city where I live in is perfectly fine, far away from the region attacked by the earthquake and tsunami.
Several of my international friends have sent hearty messages encouraging me. I deeply appreciate them. Thank you very much.

Indeed, several of my friends are there and still to be confirmed for their safe. So I am also just praying their safe. Because of wide range of paralysis of phone/mail system and surface transportation, there is quite limited access to the people in the region. I believe they are fighting and struggling for their immediate survival, so I do not want disturb them by asking even short reply message.

My major concern is now on the situation of the nuclear power stations that failed to calm down. Radioactive cesium and iodine are already leaked out to certain (significant) level. At least two reactors are now considered to be in critical situation of melting-down. Some of them contains MOX fuel containing plutonium.....

Anyway, I would like to inform you my safe personally, and would also like to thank you for your hearty thoughts.

In my family, we prepared a back-pack containing our invaluable things, a handy radio, a torch, chocolates, and several small PET bottles of water, so that we can bring-out in emergency. We also discussed about a place to get together in emergency. This kind of preparation will be effective to minimize harms of disaster and to prevent panic.

2/03/2011

An investigation proposal

Effect of proximity of students' seats on the frequency of common wrong answers in a term examination.

12/29/2010

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!

12/16/2010

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.

12/11/2010

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.

12/05/2010

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.