They eat patois in Alaska these days? My things have changed....must be that goblinization thing!

Rather than a local patois I believe it is one that is unique to the speaker who used to live north of here.

It was mostly generated by the random palin interview generator:
http://www.palinparrot.com/

I asked the Palin parrot what she thought of the Japanese invasion of Alaska (which, by the way, is a genuine WW2 incident... )

BTW - Have you heard a story that ancient ainu artifacts have been found in the Aleuitian islands - indicating links between Japan and Alaska that go back for centuries? Someone told me this when I visited a kitschy Ainu "village" in Hokkaido. I haven't had the chance to check up on that story yet.

No, but I've always found it curious that the unwieldy plectrums used on traditional Japanese stringed instruments are uncannily similar to the slicing implements indigenous Alaskans use.
I'm much less an anthropologist than I am a linguist (as Mr J Laska has already proven :) ) but that's already some ground for linking the two cultures.

You mean shamisen and biwa plectrums? Koto plectrums aren't so unwieldy.

Shamisen entered Japan from China by way of Okinawa, so I imagine that any resemblance between plectrums and Alaskan cutting implements would be coincidental. Maybe they both derive from the shape of an animal bone. That's my best guess.

EDIT: Apparently, the Biwa descends from the Arabic oud and reached Japan by way of China. Wikipedia says the plectrums are big because Samurai wanted them to double as weapons. Deadly biwa, indeed!

Please excuse me while I use the Washlet on my plectrum.....

Jon Turk's book In the Wake of the Jomon provides a fairly plausible explanation of this theory. The book details the author's re-creation of the trip from Hokkaido to the Aluetians via kayak.

An interesting read, IMHO.

The best poorly-crafted headline of the day.

As if we didn't have have enough in Kasumigaseiki. ;)

I really did LOL when I saw this. It's only March yet I think you have already won the 2010 headline Pulitzer!

I think the reporter confused nuclear with biomass, that's all.

Easily done after a lunch chez Chin, comment dit.

Spring snow left a roll cake.
 

http://www.asahi.com/national/update...003100389.html

:cool:

This happened in Tokyo yesterday morning. Super rare.

But in Yamagata, which is discussed on the snowy onsen thread, there seems to be a noun for this phenomenon.

It is called yukidawara.　ゆきだわら、雪俵. =snow shaped like straw bag of rice

Oh ... it's not so rare to find an "objet" on your windscreen, really.

Very cool! :cool:

The only objets that hit my windscreen appear to left by Rodan.

At least they aren't left behind by Rodak.

The smiling dude on the left is Noronda.