The Genographic Project

National Geographic and IBM have been leading a landmark anthropological five-year research study to answer the oldest questions we have about ourselves: Who are we and where did we come from? In doing so the project will also create the world’s largest survey of DNA samples to map how humankind populated the planet.
The [...]

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Japan makes robot girlfriend for lonely men

Recent news article from Reuters … gotta love the Japanese and their robots!

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Motley Fool: Stocks That Cannot Be Stopped

A recent Motley Fool article titled Stocks That Cannot Be Stopped listed a few companies that have been paying dividends without interruption for at least 50 years, they dubbed  “half-century” club.

Johnson Controls (NYSE: JCI) since 1887
Ingersoll-Rand (NYSE: IR) since 1910
IBM (NYSE: IBM) since 1916
Bemis (NYSE: BMS) since1922
Altria (NYSE: MO) since 1928
Pitney Bowes (NYSE: PBI) since [...]

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Powerful earthquake strikes Japan on June 14, 2008

The quake, which hit at 8:43 a.m. (7:43 p.m. ET Friday), was centered 100 kilometers north of Sendai (about 300 km from Tokyo) in southern Iwate Prefecture, measured at 7.0 magnitude, killing 7 people with at least 144 hurt.  News coverage from CNN, BBC and several Canadian news agencies:

CNN
BBC
Toronto Star
CityNews
CTV

So what was our family [...]

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IBM and Diversity

At IBM, we recognize individual differences and appreciate how these differences provide a powerful competitive advantage and a source of great pride in the workplace.  In fact, IBM Canada was recently selected as one of Canada’s Best Diversity Employers in a competition hosted by Mediacorp Canada, recognizing our leadership in workplace diversity initiatives. 
The combination [...]

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BusinessWeek: Big Blue Embraces Social Media

A story on BusinessWeek about IBM published on May 22, 2008, encouraging social networking among its employees with in-house versions of Web 2.0 hits such as Facebook and Twitter – IBM versions are called Beehive and BlueTwit.

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Basement Food Markets (Depa Chika)

Department store basement food floors or “food basements” (depa chika) is another cultural phenomena in Japan life. Famous Japanese department stores like Matsuzakaya, Mitsukoshi, Takashimaya and Tokyu have food basements.
These food basements are quite large (some are 2 floors) where you can find a wide variety of food, both fresh and prepared, on display [...]

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Japanese man goes on rampage in Tokyo, killing seven

See today’s article in The Times Online UK about violent tragedy in Akihabara, Tokyo’s popular electronic district. Interesting reading are the comments, currently about 100.
Although we visit Akihabara often to see the latest in electronic gadgets (ok, toys!) and games, we weren’t in the area when this tragedy happened – which is rare occurrence here [...]

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Long distance calling and Skype

Calling long distance from Japan is quite expensive – recently, we called Seoul, South Korea to book our hotel and for about 10 minutes, it cost about 2,000 yen ($20).
We actually have been using Skype to call home (Canada).  It is free using computer on both ends.  Alternatively, you can call to a landline from [...]

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Driving in Tokyo (Not) and Project Big Green

The recent news about rising (skyrocketing?) oil and gas prices has reminded me that now living in Japan, we do not have a car and use Japan’s efficient subway and train system, along with our two legs to get around Tokyo and its surrounding areas – our little contribution to saving the planet and our [...]

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