Tokyo Vice

I've been reading Tokyo Vice by Jake Adelstein. Jake is a Jewish-American working as a reporter for a Japanese newspaper in Tokyo, Japan. He's covering crime, which means he's talking to the Yakuza, which means he's visiting hostess bars. And then I come across this in New York Mag. I think it's kind of insightful.

Illustration by Zohar Lazar

Margaret Atwood on Japanese Hostess Clubs By Jennifer Vineyard May 22, 2014 
I was in Japan, and a Japanese friend was showing me around the nightclub area. There was one nightclub with very pretty girls, most of them blonde, and they looked very Barbie indeed. So I said, “Are these prostitutes? Are these call girls?” “No, no, no, nothing like that.” “What is it?” “Well, you go in, and they’re very nice to you. They’re polite to you, they listen to you, they laugh at your jokes. And it’s very expensive.” “Oh.” There was another nightclub with extremely good-­looking young men. And I said, “Is this a gay place?” “No, no, no, nothing like that.” “What is it?” “It’s for women. You go in, and they’re very nice to you. They pour your Champagne and they light your cigarette and they give you a rose, and they listen to you talk and they respect your opinions. And it’s very expensive.” So this is acting out your fantasy of being well-treated in a romantic situation. It’s not about sex. It’s not prostitution. Just plain bare-naked sex is not the only motivator. Unless you’re completely delusional, you know perfectly well that you’re dressing up. It’s playing a part. Having a crush is like that. It’s an escape from reality. Take Twilight. They do settle down and have a little vampire sex, but at that moment, it gets boring.

New Games

Bart Bonte

Bart Bonte has made some curious games. Now he has a blog where he posts new games that have come his way. A couple of recent ones that I like are

• Initial Conditions
• Streamline

For future reference I've added them to the list of games in the sidebar. I like his picture since it reminds me of mine.

Britten V1000 Model

Britten V1000 Model Kit, prepped for painting.

The picture of the Britten V1000 motorcycle I posted the other day is a picture of a scale model, not of the actual bike. I chose that picture because of the clean background. All the other pictures I saw had cluttered backgrounds which made it difficult to see some parts of the bike. When I first saw the image I thought it was a real bike. Only when I got to the source page did I realize it was a model, but I figured if it was good enough to fool me at first glance it's good enough for my post.
     But now my curiousity is aroused, so I do a little checking. The model was developed by Jim Wylie, another New Zealander. He made the masters and then he and his crew cast some number of kits in pewter using a 'spin-casting' process, whatever that is. Some kits were sold, but then THE EARTHQUAKE hit and their stock of kits was destroyed. The molds still exist, so it is possible that someday, someone may cast another batch of kits. The kits, when they were available, weren't cheap, $330 was the list price.

Used Book Market

Got a book in the mail yesterday from Murfbooks. I ordered it on Amazon about a week ago. The price was a penny, shipping was $3.99. The packing slip that came with the book identified the seller with a 13 digit number. The order number had 17 digits. Then there was this line:

aisle 13 Bay 6   Shelf 1    Item 909

This must be a really big operation. Just from looking over the listings on Amazon there must be a couple of dozen of these places in operation in the USA, maybe as many as one in each state. They obviously aren't making any money on the sales price, so they must be making it in the shipping. Looking for more information, I came across this discussion on Reddit. I've excerpted the relevant bits:

11 Oct 2014
I managed an online book company for the past 4 years. It's the shipping. Amazon sets the shipping charge for all books and media at 3.99 (USD). Most of those books are going to cost me around .80 (possibly less) to ship anywhere in the US, .08 for materials, labor is pretty small, on the order of fractions of a cent for any one book. We list around 1200 books a day, and ship around 2000-2500 a week. Pretty much, it's volume (which also gets you the shipping discounts for being a bulk mailer), and cheap shipping. - Alfowick
Where do you get the books and how much do they typically cost? - jraby3
Everywhere. We take donations, we work with recycling companies, bookstores that shutdown, old stock from thrift stores, libraries. Cost is going to vary widely with the quality and "status" of the books. Big cost difference in buying stuff that has been sitting in a thrift store, versus nice remainders or overstocks from a clearinghouse, but say around .18 per pound. We buy in bulk so we do this for about 40,000 lbs at a time, once a week. Around 70 percent of that (in a really good load) is worthless and will be recycled, donated, or sold in our brick and mortar store. We don't throw books away. We have been moving away from buying books outright and do a lot of consignment work now.- Alfowick

P.S. The book is With Charity Toward None: A Fond Look at Misanthropy Hardcover by Florence King. Don't know anything about it, but Tam recommended Florence, so I thought I'd give her a shot.

P.P.S. I bought the book for a penny, plus shipping, but now the lowest price is $3.88. I guess dying is one way to boost your popularity.

Portland is Famous

Found on thechive.com

The Magic Switchboard

The Magic Switchboard
The ' magic' switch box seems to know how to find the right color bulb regardless of which socket it is in. Watching the video with the sound on, I couldn't figure it out. Dennis describes it as "A combination of  interesting circuit logic and misdirection by the demonstrator."

Taking 'misdirection' as a clue, I turn the sound off, watch what actually happens and it is pretty obvious. A simple program in a microcontroller could manage the sequencing easily. Still need a person for the patter.

I think the trick is to turn on the lights on in the order they are on the board. The first switch you flick turns on the first light, the 2nd switch flicked turns on the 2nd light on the board. It's gonna take some skillful patter to conceal this sequence from the audience.

Wellington Enterprises will sell you one if you are so inclined.

I can get you a tow . . .

"I can get you a tow" Shot in Louisville KY by Scott Shuffitt

Marcel put up a post today that made no sense, and when I tried to figure it out I found this, which is pretty cool I thought. Notice the big, heavy duty, chrome plated wheels up front, the fender skirts in back, and who lowers a tow truck? Somebody who lives in cools-ville, that's who.

P.S. I figured it out. He's been watching the Dude.