Breakthrough On Ash Dieback

Family names for Family trees in Japanese

(source: http://www.e-keizu.com/info/family.html )

The numbers below match the blue number above in the image.

[M]祖父（そふ sofu）, [F]祖母（そぼ sobo）

[M]曾祖父（そうそふ sousofu）, [F]曾祖母（そうそぼ sousobo）

[M]高祖父（こうそふ kousofu）, [F]高祖母（こうそぼ kousobo）

For big brother/sister of 1, [M]大伯父（おおおじ oooji）,[F]大伯母（おおおば oooba） For little brother/sister of 1, [M]大叔父（おおおじ oooji）,[F] 大叔母（おおおば oooba）

For big brother/sister of 2, [M]曾祖伯父（そうそはくふ sousohakufu）,[F] 曾祖伯母（そうそはくぼ sousohakubo） For little brother/sister of 2, [M]曾祖叔父（そうそしゅくふ sousosyukufu）,[F] 曾祖叔母（そうそしゅくぼ sousosyukubo）

For big brother/sister of 3, [M]高祖伯父（こうそはくふ kousohakufu）,[F] 高祖伯母（こうそはくぼ kousohakubo） For little brother/sister of 3, [M]高祖叔父（こうそしゅくふ kousosyukufu）,[F] 高祖叔母（こうそしゅくぼ kousosyukubo）

For big brother/sister of your father/mother, [M]伯父（おじ oji）,[F]伯母（おば oba） For little brother/sister of your father/mother, [M]叔父（おじ oji）,[F]叔母（おば oba）

For elder than you, [M]いとこ( itoko )・従兄（じゅうけい juukei）,[F]いとこ( itoko )・従姉（じゅうし juushi） For younger than you, [M]いとこ( itoko )・従弟（じゅうてい juutei）,[F] いとこ( itoko )・従妹（じゅうまい juumai）

[M]いとこ違い( itokochigai )・従甥（じゅうせい juusei）,[F]いとこ違い( itokochigai )・従姪（じゅうてつ juutetsu）

従姪孫（じゅうてっそん juutesson）

For elder than your father/mother, [M]いとこ違い( itokochigai )・従伯父（じゅうはくふ juuhakufu）,[F]いとこ違い( itokochigai )・従伯母（じゅうはくぼ juuhakubo ） For younger than your father/mother, [M]いとこ違い( itokochigai )・従叔父（じゅうしゅくふ juushukufu）,[F]いとこ違い( itokochigai )・従叔母（じゅうしゅくぼ juushukubo）

For elder than you, [M]またいとこ( mataitoko )・はとこ( hatoko )・再従兄（さいじゅうけい saijuukei）,[F]またいとこ( mataitoko )・はとこ( hatoko )・再従姉（さいじゅうし saijuushi） For younger than you, [M]またいとこ( mataitoko )・はとこ( hatoko )・再従弟（さいじゅうてい saijuutei）,[F]またいとこ( mataitoko )・はとこ( hatoko )・再従妹（さいじゅうまい saijuumai ）

[M]甥（おい oi）,[F]姪（めい mei ）

[M]姪孫（てっそん tesson）・又甥（またおい mataoi）,[F]姪孫（てっそん tesson）・又姪（まためい matamei）

[M/F]曾姪孫（そうてっそん soutesson）

[M/F]玄姪孫（げんてっそん gentesson）

[M/F]孫（まご mago）

[M/F]ひ孫( himago )・曾孫（そうそん souson）

[M/F]やしゃご( yashago )・玄孫（げんそん genson）

[M/F]来孫（らいそん raison）

[M/F]昆孫（こんそん konson）

[M/F]仍孫（じょうそん jouson）

[M/F]雲孫（うんそん unson）

For elder than 1, [M]従祖伯父(じゅうそはくふ juusohakufu )・従大伯父（いとこおおおじ itokooooji ）,[F]従祖伯母( じゅうそはくぼ juusohakubo )・従大伯母（いとこおおおば itokooooba） For younger than 1, [M]従祖叔父(じゅうそおじ juusooji)・従大叔父（いとこおおおじ itokooooji）,[F]従祖叔母(じゅうそおば juusooba)・従大叔母（いとこおおおば itokooooba）

[M/F]三いとこ(みいとこ miitoko)・その又いとこ（そのまたいとこ sonomataitoko）

Also

You: 自分(じぶん jibun) Mather:母(はは haha) / Father: 父（ちち tsitsi）

(source: http://www.e-keizu.com/info/family.html )

Although I am a Japanese, I can’t call them all correctly… Does your language have the names?

On this day, 13th February 1743, Sir Joseph Banks was born.

Sir Joseph Banks was a British botanist and naturalist who sailed with Captain James Cook on the Endeavour voyage of 1770.

Joseph Banks was born on 13 February 1743 in London. His passion for botany began at school. From 1760 to 1763 he studied at Oxford University, during which time he inherited a considerable fortune. In 1766, Banks travelled to Newfoundland and Labrador, collecting plant and other specimens. The same year he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society.

In 1768, he joined the Society’s expedition, led by Captain James Cook, to explore the uncharted lands of the South Pacific. The expedition circumnavigated the globe and visited South America, Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia and Java. Banks collected an enormous number of specimens on the way and, on his return, his scientific account of the voyage and its discoveries sparked considerable interest across Europe.

The journal kept by the then 25-year-old Joseph Banks on board HMS Endeavour is one of the State Library’s most significant manuscripts. It records the first Pacific voyage of Captain James Cook from 1768 to 1771. Following the Endeavour’s return to England in 1771, Banks was hailed as a hero. 

The State Library’s Sir Joseph Banks collection includes correspondence, reports, invoices, accounts, maps and watercolour drawings which document the far reaching influence of Banks on the colony. This significant archive containing over 7,000 pages has recently been digitised and now needs to be transcribed. Once fully transcribed the archive will be keyword searchable which will enhance discovery and access to the collection and increase the research potential in this significant archive.  

Find out more about how to transcribe the Banks Papers

Japan’s annual Wara Art Festival (previously featured here), one of our favorite signs that autumn has returned, is now underway at Uwasekigata Park. “Wara” is the Japanese term for rice straw. It’s what remains after the rice harvest. Some regions use it to feed livestock or improve the soil. But in Niigata Prefecture it’s used to make these enormous sculptures.

The Wara Art Festival all started in 2006 when the local district reached out to Musashino Art University to seek guidance on transforming their abundant amount of rice straw into art. And in 2008, the very first Wara Art Festival was held. Since then, every year the school sends art students up to Niigata to assist in creating sculptures made out of rice straw. The festivities have ended but the sculptures are on display through October 31, 2017.

To mark the 10th anniversary of the Wara Art Festival participants made this year’s sculptures twice as big as usual.

Visit the Wara Art Festival Facebook page for more photos of these magnificent sculptures.

[via My Modern Met and Spoon & Tamago]

A Random PSA On The Gei of Geisha - Part 1

The questions surrounding what arts that maiko and geiko practice comes up regularly, and instead of just posting them onto one of the tabs I’d rather lay it out in a post here first.   The “Gei” (芸) in Geisha(芸者)/Geiko(芸妓)/Geigi(芸妓) means “Art” and there are many branches and types of art that one can master. For this part we’ll be looking at the direct performing arts that everyone knows the geisha are renowned for: music and dance. Dance - Mai (舞) All traditional Japanese dance styles have their roots in Shinto ceremonies that date back at least two millennia. There are two main styles to traditional dance practiced today: -Noh (能): Originally arrived in Japan from China in the 8th century and developed into the style we know today in the 13th century by Kan’ami (assisted by his son Zeami). Derived from the classical court style dances, it features small, precise movements to tell a story. It can be seen as “boring” or “obscure” if you’re not sure what to look for as you need to understand the movements to appreciate them to the fullest. This isn’t to say that it isn’t beautiful to behold without prior knowledge as it is quite enchanting! Gion Kobu’s Inoue school is part of the Noh tradition.  -Kabuki (歌舞伎): Derived directly from Shinto ceremonies, it was created in 1603 by Izumo No Okuni, a shrine priestess who created her own style of dance and performed it on the dry riverbed of the Kamo River. She became so famous that she was invited to perform in front of the emperor! After seeing how popular the style of dance had become rival dance groups sprung up around her and established the kabuki that we know today. The style is known for its dramatic and often “wild” movements that are meant to be appreciated by the common people. Pontocho’s Onoe, Miyagawa Cho’s Wakayagi, Kamishichiken’s Hanayagi, and Gion Higashi’s Fujima schools are part of the Kabuki tradition. Music - Raku (楽) What would dance be without music? Music, like dance, can be broken down into two types: voice/song and instruments. Singing - Uta (歌): Maiko and geiko learn traditional ballads that are performed alongside dance. There are two types: Kouta (小唄) which means “short songs/ballads” and Nagauta (長唄) which means “long songs/ballad.” They are learned by listening to an instructor and then repeating and/or transcribing the words and melody together. There’s no “set” way of reading or learning a song like there is for Western music, so it takes a large amount of practice to perform any uta properly (although there are a few methods that do exist). Instruments - Gakki (楽器) There are many instruments practiced in the karyukai, but I’ll only go over the most common ones that are seen and heard on a regular basis. -Shamisen (三味線): A three stringed instrument that is played with a plectrum. It is the most common instrument in the karyukai as it developed as an instrument that the common people used. Most uta were created to be played with a shamisen. It resembles a simplified guitar and is played in a similar fashion. -Tsuzumi (鼓): The all encompassing word for drums, but specifically dual sided drums that are roped together. There are three main types learned by maiko and geiko: -Kotsuzumi (小鼓): Literally “Small Drum,” or sometimes known as the “regular” tsuzumi, it is held onto one’s shoulder and played by striking the drum with the free hand.  -Ōtsuzumi (大鼓): Literally “Large Drum,” it is a larger size of the tsuzumi and features one end that is larger than the other. It produces a much deeper sound when struck. -Kakko (羯鼓): A wide headed tsuzumi that is played with the tsuzumi sitting on the floor and the musician striking it with rods known as bachi (桴). It is the closest equivalent to Western style drums. -Fue (笛): The all encompassing word for flute, which in traditional Japanese style is usually made from bamboo. There are two types of fue that include: -Shakuhachi (尺八): The most commonly seen and heard flute that accompanies traditional Japanese music. It features 5 holes (4 on top and 1 underneath). Its sound is often described as “haunting” as it gently pierces through silence to deliver melodies full of both happiness and sadness. -Shinobue (篠笛)/Yokobue (横笛): Flutes that are much closer to Western ones, but are still made from wood. It features 7 holes that allows it to play more notes than the shakuhachi. This type is often played with the end resting on the musician’s shoulder. -Koto (事): A 13 stringed instrument that’s considered a type of lute although it plays closer to that of a harp. Due to its size it lays flat on the floor and the musician plucks the strings individually to produce sound. Those who are new to the koto often wear metal guards on their fingers to keep the strings from slicing into their skin until their hands have developed enough to withstand the pressure.  -Kokyū (胡弓): Taught exclusively in Miyagawa Cho as it was once considered an instrument of the oiran, a kakyu is a smaller version of the shamisen that’s played upright with a bow instead of a plectrum. 

Are Complex Numbers Really Numbers?

If you look through definitions of “number” most will say that numbers are used to represent quantities (amounts or measures). Whole numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, … are probably the first numbers that come to mind and they are often used to count things like say how may watermelons jimmy has. But when quantifying things like money, whole numbers are not always enough and so we have rational numbers (which include the whole numbers but also fractions and numbers with finite or repeating decimal expansions). Yet, sometimes even these numbers are not enough to express certain quantities. Pi, for example, is not a rational number but is certainly a number as it represents the quantity that is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. It can be shown that the number pi has an infinite decimal expansion with no repeating patterns, and so a number like pi is called an irrational number. (Because they are silly? Although at first some thought so, the term irrational just means not rational.)  More specifically, pi is a transcendental number as it is not the root of any polynomial. (Transcendental, because they transcend the usual notion of number? Idk. Again, strange names.) So, the rational numbers were extended to the real numbers to include both rational and irrational numbers. Either way, we see that both rational and irrational numbers are truly numbers since they can be used to represent quantities.

What about complex numbers though? Are they really numbers, or do people just call them “numbers”? So, we should ask, can complex numbers represent some amount or measure of something? Can jimmy have i watermelons? No, but jimmy can’t really have pi watermelons either and pi is a number. Jimmy may have a watermelon that weighs pi pounds though (the only way to know this would be if jimmy had a scale with infinite accuracy, which, turns out, he does). Okay but can jimmy have a watermelon weighing i pounds? That doesn’t seem to make sense. To see if complex numbers can represent quantities we need to elaborate on what complex numbers are exactly.

The complex numbers are the real numbers extended to include the square root of negative 1 (i) and all its multiples. They have the form a+bi where a and b are real numbers. i is called an imaginary number (named imaginary because, i is not a real number, but this implies numbers like i are somehow not “real”, in the usual English sense of the word (are any numbers really “real”?) again, with the names). What truly makes complex numbers different than the other numbers we have discussed is that they “live” in 2 dimensions (the complex plane); complex numbers (e.g., 7+2i) have a real part (7) and an imaginary part (2i). While real numbers (which include whole, rational, and irrational numbers) “live” in one dimension (they can be found anywhere on the number line).

So, a complex number is a sort of two-dimensional quantity, it has a real measure and an imaginary measure. This makes them strange as numbers. We know 12 is bigger than 11 and that there are a bunch of numbers in-between 11 and 12, but which is bigger 2-8i or 3+i? Complex numbers cannot be compared in the same way i.e., there is no way to order complex numbers from smallest to largest.

These properties make complex numbers more abstract than typical numbers we encounter day to day. Nevertheless, “complex numbers are useful abstract quantities that can be used in calculations and result in physically meaningful solutions. However, recognition of this fact is one that took a long time for mathematicians to accept.”—Wolfram MathWorld http://mathworld.wolfram.com/ComplexNumber.html

Discovering the daily life during jomon period - 縄文人の生活再現 

How many did you know? All worth reading more about!!

11 New Facts Science Has Revealed About The Body

1. Hundreds of genes spring to life after you die - and they keep functioning for up to four days. 

2. Livers grow by almost half during waking hours. 

3. The root cause of eczema has finally been identified.

4. We were wrong - the testes are connected to the immune system after all. 

5. The causes of hair loss and greying are linked, and for the first time, scientists have identified the cells responsible.

6. A brand new human organ has been classified - the mesentery - an organ that’s been hiding in plain sight in our digestive system this whole time.

7. An unexpected new lung function has been found - they also play a key role in blood production, with the ability to produce more than 10 million platelets (tiny blood cells) per hour.

8. Your appendix might actually be serving an important biological function- and one that our species isn’t ready to give up just yet.

9. The brain literally starts eating itself when it doesn’t get enough sleep. brain to clear a huge amount of neurons and synaptic connections away.

10. Neuroscientists have discovered a whole new role for the brain’s cerebellum - it could actually play a key role in shaping human behaviour.

11. Our gut bacteria are messing with us in ways we could never have imagined.  Neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s might actually start out in the gut, rather than the brain, and there’s mounting evidence that the human microbiome could be to blame for chronic fatigue syndrome.

The song “It’s a long way to Tipperary” was enormously popular in New Zealand as a sound recording sung by Stanley Kirkby, with shops advertising new arrivals of stock from overseas in early 1915. At the same time, a film of the same title was also being shown in cinemas, and sheet music for an orchestral arrangement was available at the “Golden Horn” music store in Vivian Street Wellington. Copies of this Maori postcard with its “Tipirere “ translation were handed out to members of the 2nd Maori Contingent of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force after they marched through the streets of Wellington on Saturday 16 September 1915 (See Evening Post, 20 September 1915, page 8).

[Postcard]. Tipirere. N.Z.M.E.C. Hokowhitu-a-Tu. [ca 1915].    

Eph-B-POSTCARD-Vol-12-003-btm

The Blood Of Dragons Could Destroy Antibiotic Resistance

Antibiotic resistance is one of the most pressing problems of our times. Traditional antimicrobial drugs aren’t working the way they used to, and the rise

Antibiotic resistance is one of the most pressing problems of our times. Traditional antimicrobial drugs aren’t working the way they used to, and the rise of “superbugs” could bring about the post-antibiotic age, where easily treatable infections suddenly become life-threatening incurable illnesses.

There have been a slew of new discoveries recently that have revealed brand new ways to turn the tide, but the latest revelation at the hands of a team from George Mason University is a particularly unusual sounding one. As it turns out, we could use the blood of dragons to annihilate superbugs.

No, this isn’t an analogy or a plot line from Game of Thrones. The devil-toothed Komodo dragon – the devious beast from Indonesia – has a particular suite of chemical compounds in its blood that’s pure anathema to a wide range of bacteria.

They’re known as CAMPs – cationic antimicrobial peptides – and although plenty of living creatures (including humans) have versions of these, Komodo dragons have 48, with 47 of them being powerfully antimicrobial. The team managed to cleverly isolate these CAMPs in a laboratory by using electrically-charged hydrogels – strange, aerated substances – to suck them out of the dragons’ blood samples.

Synthesizing their own versions of eight of these CAMPs, they put them up against two strains of lab-grown “superbugs,” MRSA and Pseudomona aeruginosa, to see if they had any effect. Remarkably, all eight were able to kill the latter, whereas seven of them destroyed all trace of both, doing something that plenty of conventional antibiotic drugs couldn’t.

Writing in the Journal of Proteome Research, the researchers write that these powerful CAMPs explain why Komodo dragons are able to contain such a dense, biodiverse population of incredibly dangerous bacteria in their mouths. Although it’s not clear where all these bacteria originally came from, the chemical compounds in their blood ensures that they’ll never be properly infected.

In fact, it was this ability to co-exist with such lethal bacteria that piqued the interest of the researchers in the first place.

“Komodo dragon serum has been demonstrated to have in vitro antibacterial properties,” they note. “The role that CAMPs play in the innate immunity of the Komodo dragon is potentially very informative, and the newly identified Komodo dragon CAMPs may lend themselves to the development of new antimicrobial therapeutics.”

It’ll be awhile before these CAMPs are tested in human trials, but the idea that we’re effectively using dragon’s blood, or plasma, to fight against resurgent diseases is genuinely quite thrilling. Alongside Hulk-like drugs that physically rip bacteria apart, there’s a chance that, with the help of these legendary lizards, we may win this war yet.

This week, we’re taking a look at manuscripts having to do with health, medicine, and human physiology specifically focusing on how bodies are displayed in manuscript illuminations or diagrams across different cultures.

LJS 389 shown above, is a 14th century Chinese treatise on the anatomy, physiology, and pathology of blood vessels titled Shi si jing fa hui. The manuscript is made from bamboo paper and the diagrams and kaishu script are written with black ink. Focus on the diagrams of the bodies and stay tuned this week to see not only how the details and forms of these depictions change from culture to culture, but also the mediums with which these manuscripts are created.

The full LJS 389 manuscript filled with more diagrams can be found on Openn: http://openn.library.upenn.edu/Data/0001/html/ljs389.html

and Penn In Hand: http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017/d/medren/4824235