Search - world

 
 
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 8, 2013

How does science explain a bolt from the blue?

Divine attribution In ancient times, the drama of thunder and lightning so clearly went beyond human scale that the phenomenon was handed wholesale to the gods. The Greeks had Zeus, the Romans Jupiter. At the head of the Hindu pantheon was Indra, while Norse mythology gave us Thor — all wielders of...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives
Jun 8, 2013

Yoga teacher finds creative voice — and success — in 'surreal' Tokyo

While hammering nails and cutting planks in the prop department at New York's Lincoln Center for the Metropolitan Opera in the early 2000s, Barry Silver never dreamed of a life in Japan.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 8, 2013

Why do identical twins lead such different lives?

Barbara Oliver has had an intriguing relationship with her identical twin sister, Christine, over the decades. Throughout their childhoods, they were effectively treated as two versions of the one person: they were dressed in exactly the same manner and were given the same hairstyles. "Our parents did...
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 8, 2013

Iran is outmaneuvering U.S. in Syrian proxy war

Syria is now a proxy war, and when U.S. officials say their options for intervention are constrained by Syria's air defense systems, they are also saying they fear Iran's.
BUSINESS
Jun 8, 2013

Social cost of carbon is rising: U.S.

Buried in an obscure regulation on microwave ovens is a revealing change in President Barack Obama's approach to global warming.
WORLD
Jun 7, 2013

U.S. spies track all Verizon calls

The National Security Agency appears to be collecting the telephone records of millions of American customers of Verizon, one of the nation's largest phone companies, under a top-secret court order issued in April.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 7, 2013

From Björk to Kyary, festival season has arrived

Summer means a lot of things in Japan: stifling heat and humidity, fireworks and the Bon holidays, nagashi-sōmen noodles and chilled barley tea. For music fans though, the season brings a different kind of to-do list: booking cheap train tickets in advance, stocking up on essential supplies — and...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 7, 2013

Screen violence is in the eye of the beholder

Some people avoid violent films, while others watch little else. Professional movie reviewers, who may see hundreds of films annually, cannot afford to be so picky. If you are covering the Cannes Film Festival competition, as I did one year for the Screen International daily critics' poll, you cannot...
JAPAN
Jun 7, 2013

Video of Tokyo cop's crowd-control comments goes viral

A Tokyo police officer is winning praise for quick-witted comments that kept excited soccer fans from getting out of hand Tuesday night in Shibuya after Japan won a ticket to the 2014 World Cup.
JAPAN
Jun 7, 2013

Miuras cite red bean rice, dirty jokes

Steamed red bean rice and dirty jokes may have been the key for climbing Mount Everest at age 80, famed alpinist Yuichiro Miura and his son, Gota, said Thursday.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 7, 2013

Japan an exemplary health partner with Africa

Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete thanks the government and the people of Japan for their support in helping to eradicate deadly diseases in Africa.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 7, 2013

'Olympus Has Fallen'

This latest bit of Hollywood "propatainment," "Olympus Has Fallen," is basically "Die Hard" in the White House, with Gerard Butler's disgraced former Secret Service agent trying to save the president (Aaron Eckhart) from a team of crack North Korean commandos who plan to pry America's nuclear launch...
Japan Times
CULTURE / Film
Jun 7, 2013

'Tous Cobayes?'

Adocumentary that will chill you to the bone, "Tous Cobayes?" by French filmmaker Jean-Paul Jaud addresses the enormous risks posed by GMO food, much of which is manufactured and distributed by the kingpin of the franken-food industry: Monsanto. In the last decade, GMO has become a byword for progressive...
WORLD
Jun 7, 2013

Afghan attacks soldier pleads guilty

A U.S. soldier accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians, many of them women and children asleep in their villages, pleaded guilty to murder and acknowledged that there was "not a good reason in this world" for his actions.
EDITORIALS
Jun 6, 2013

'Shock and awe' of another kind

Maybe it's just something in the air this time of year that prompts reruns of Igor Stravinsky's century-old, riotous ballet 'The Rite of Spring.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 6, 2013

China's troubling core interests

This week Chinese President Xi Jinping appears set to offer his U.S. counterpart, Barack Obama, an alluring deal for closer economic cooperation.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music
Jun 6, 2013

Metal act Gotsu Totsu Kotsu swap vikings with samurai to instill fear in fans

When pop fans hear the words 'death metal,' they may cringe as they imagine songs about nails in the neck or impalements by bands with names like Cannibal Corpse and Dying Fetus. What may not spring to mind are songs about feudal Japan.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Art
Jun 6, 2013

'The Beauty of Imari Sometsuke, Underglaze Blue Porcelain Ware: The Platters of Different Patterns'

Imari, sometsuke, Museum of Ceramic Art, Hyogo

Longform

Ichiro Suzuki, one of the most iconic players in NPB and MLB history, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with 99.7% of the vote.
With Hall of Fame induction, Ichiro makes himself heard loud and clear