My opinion this week(115):
Necessity of the gun control
15 young students and a teacher including two criminals were killed in the
random gun shooting accident happened in a high school in Denver Coronado
last week. The criminals were insane groups that admire Hitler advocating
racial discrimination. Such insane arms as guns were used so easily to kill
so many people in such a country of the United States which is supposed to
be the most advanced cultural countries in the world.
Whenever such murders by guns happen in the United States, some big argue-
ments come up to make some kind of gun control legislation. But that has not
realized yet as to date. Soon after the accident happened, President Bill
Clinton visited one of a high school in the county and assured students there
that such serious accidents would not happen again because the Government are
taking all necessary measures to avoid happening such accidents again. What a
hollow lie it is!
Why are there so many such tragedies by gun in the United States? The answer
is quite clear. It is so easy for any American people to get guns. Every people
who are against the gun control say the following, whenever such accidents
happen. " It is not a gun which is wrong. It is the mind of human being that
is wrong. "
According to the people who are against the gun control, it is the basic
right for any Americans to hold guns to protect themselves. That is a kind
of deceptive saying. The reason why have any legislation to control guns
never passed through the diet is that there are so much lobbying against diet
members in order not to pass that kind of bills.
The United State consider themselves as a policeman in the world. Both
the President and the Diet believe it. How can those policemen explain to the
world that such serious and inhuman accidents happened just in front of them?
They could never do it in the past, and will never be able to do it as far as
they have no gun control acts in the future.
I personally appreciate a stance of the United States that they always
accuse China concerning human right issue. I don't think that the issue is not
just the domestic problems of China which are not to be intervened by another
countries. The issue is not just domestic one which are not to be intervened
by another countries, but a basic human right issue common to all human
being in the world.
I want to stress the following points to the leaders of the United States
concerning this issue. The problem of the gun control is not just a domestic
issue in the United States. As a matter of facts, several Japanese who had
visited the United States had been killed by guns in many cases in the past.
Isn't that the human right issue, is it?
Prime Minister Obuchi is going to visit the United States soon. Whenever,
Japanese Prime Minster visit there, they are always requested something to
take some actions. At this time, Mr.Obuchi should advise Bill Clinton to make
a certain gun control act as soon possible without leaving such dangerous
situation as it is today. Mr. Obuchi should mention the fact that gun control
is one of a condition whether or not the country is civilized. .
1999/05/01
Tadashi HAYASE
My opinion this week(116)
Three Honsyu-Shikoku Bridges
The third Honsyu-Shikoku Bridges which connects Mihara of Honsyu and
Imabari of Shikoku has opened on May 1. In addition to two other bridges
already in work i.e. Seto Ohashi and Akashikaikyo Bridges, this is the
third main bridges between Honsyu and Shikoku. A number of cars and people
visited the bridge on opening day, for the day is in the midst of Golden
Week. News media reported a lot on this opening also.
On the other hand, there are some big doubt on the economic validity
of this bridge. It took 25 years to construct and about 77.5 billion yen
has been spent to construct the bridge. It seems to be very difficult to
pay off the total expenditures for some time in the future. The former
example is Seto Ohashi Bridge. Since its opening, some volume of
transportation that expected beforehand has never been acquired. No reports
have never been made that prefecture income of Okayama and Kagawa have
increased due to an effect of the construction of the bridge. The income
has even decreased according to prefecture reports. That is understandable
because this is the time when bubble economy ended and no growth of economy
has been observed during this period. Nevertheless, it is so clear that only
a little economic effect has been observed since its opening.
It is expected that the same trend will also be observed on this new bridge.
At the grand opening day , a lot of passengers and cars utilize the bridges
for their curiosity. But some long range economic effect is not quite expected
even at this moment. People who are concerned with the project of the
construction are discussing how it is to be utilized more economically from
now on. That is a kind of strange , isn't it?
When it comes to the construction of bridges , there are some more projects
in addition to those three as far as the island of Shikoku is concerned. The
project is to construct a bridge between Wakayama of Honsyu side and Shikoku
and to construct another one between Shikoku and Kyusyu. Some newspapers
reported that such project will not be materialized provided that some enough
economic effects would be observed on those three bridges already opened.
Well, I would like to suggest to stop constructing more bridges any more
as such. Three is enough already. It is true that the view of those three
bridges is not so bad. It seems that they are matched with oceanic view of
Seto Inland Sea. However, they are artificial view anyway. I think it very
important to keep pure natural views in another way. Let's stop damaging pure
natural views any more.
Today is the age of information. The flow and transportation of materials
is a key factor for economic activities. However, the flow of information
is more important than that of materials today. The important fact is that
any such long time as 25 years and a lot of money as 77.5 billion yen will
not be necessary to attain the smooth flow of information. And the economic
effect of the flow of the information will be much larger compared with
the flow of materials. It is requested that those who engaged in this kind
of plans should have broader vision for long range strategies on national and
local economic development in coming years.
In summary, the most important thing to make effective use of such
information bridges is to draw more attention on the importance of information
exchange and capability among people. As this third bridges has been
constructed by connecting one island and the others, it is most important
to create information network by connecting mind of a people one after another.
1999/5/8
Tadashi HAYASE
My opinion this week(117)
China's Hegemonies
While Kosovo conflicts continues, NATO Air Force attacked the Chinese Embassy
in Belgrade by mistake. I was watching TV news of Fuji in the morning of
last Sunday. The woman news caster said: "NATO attacked the Chinese Embassy." I
grinned to hear that. The caster meant to say that that NATO attacked the
Embassy by mistake. But she surely said that way. There were many views on
that. But I definitely believe that that attack was done by accident as NATO
Headquoter explained. If it could be a kind of intentional attack, the
situation is so serious that the World War III would have occurred.
Fortunately, there is no such possibility at all, for President Clinton
apologized China for the accident.
It is natural that NATO immediately apologized China for it. However, they
are making some excuse for the mistake saying that the city map they used to
prepare attack plan improperly descried the location of the Embassy. Without
any of such reservation, NATO should have apologized China in the most sincere
manner.
Most mass media assert that it is now the time that UN should take the
initiative to solve the conflicts in Kosovo. But I wonder if UN have such
capability to solve the issue properly. It seems that UN has no such capacity
at all. In the Security Council of UN, five regular director countries have
veto power, and any consensus could have hardly attained in any cases. If
some still insist the solution under the leadership of UN, some basic
structural change of UN would be necessary.
One of the basic background for such long dispute in Kosovo, there is
a kind of strong opposition against NATO's air attack by China that is a
regular director member of Security Council of UN. The reason why China
was against the attack is that they are afraid to see that the US was
leading NATO's air attack and they are establishing stronger power in the
world politics. It seems that China almost have no interest on racial issues
in Kosobvo. They blame NATO's air attack. That's no good. What kind
of solution on the racial issues guided by President Milosevic do they have?
The big anti US demonstrations have started all over the countries in China.
It may be unavoidable sort of rally as a matter of fact. And the leaders of
Beijing Government admitted that kind of demonstrations although they request
the demonstration should be done lawfully. It is regrettable to see that the
government seems to show off such pressure against the US.
We also see that kind of short sighted diplomatic sense on their continued
attack against Mr. Ishihara, the Governor of Tokyo. After a while China's
mass media stopped the attack against Mr. Ishihara. But they started the
attack again owing said to the instruction by the top leader to continue the
attack. Observing those situation, I wonder if China have a right to blame
the US on their hegemonies. China itself may be accused to have such
hegemonies.
It is understood that Japanese government are very tolerant and deliberate
enough against China that is a kind of arrogant in many ways. It is a basic
diplomatic stance of Japanese government. But I would like to say that
Japanese mass media that have some kind of free hands should take stronger
attitude in some cases against such arrogant attitude of China. Why do some
of them stand on the side of Mr. Ishihara concerning those unreasonable attack
against him from China?
1999/5/15
Tadashi HAYASE
My opinion this week(118)
Birth of AIVO
Sony Corporation is going to start selling electronic dog pet named
AIVO at the beginning of June. Sony will sell 3,000 sets of robots in
Japan, 2,000 sets in U.S. limited to total 5,000 sets. It is also very
unique for them to sell them only thorough Internet. I saw the news in
the advertisement in newspapers. So I accessed their home page exclusively
handling the news that introduces their URL.
Several basic behaviors have already been taught to the robot. But in
addition to those, owners of the pet are able to teach some more behaviors
one by one. It cost 250,000 yen per a robot. I don't know whether the price
is reasonable or not. I also have no idea as to how many of them will be
sold at the end. Regardless of those, it is the fact that Sony has no
intention to make profits by selling the robot at this time. Many mass
media will report about the products all over the world. Many will make
comments on the high level of Sony's engineering capability. That might be
the primary purpose for Sony start selling such products in Japan.
The birth of such a robot is the fruit of high computer and robot
engineering technique of Sony and Japanese industries concerned. The robot
is able to learn many things different from ordinal industrial robots.
Interesting enough, the robot can put by itself many additional capabilities
if taught properly by owners. Those capabilities may not be quite high as
explained in the specification sheets. But it is amazing to see that many
interfaces with human being are programmed into this robot engineering.
The number of sets limited to total 5,000 will be sold out at the first
stage. But they would be bought mainly not by the ordinal consumers, but
by many of the research institutes, both of public and private, for
research and development purpose. I don't want to say that it is undesirable
. To learn and even to analyze various new ideas from such product will
create various new ideas and technologies concerning data processing and
various kind of robots. For example, such new robots to make human care for
old age, to educate infant children, etc. are mostly welcomed in any cases
to improve the human life.
Personally speaking, I am very much interested in the fact that various
new intelligent curiosity of human being will be stimulated by playing with
the pet. It will also be a good opportunity for men to analyze how feeling
and sensitivity of human being are brought about by contacting such simple
creatures. It is not so difficult for owners to teach some new behaviors
but it is the most difficult for them to teach how to react properly to
various feelings of human being. What is the difference between these pets
and real alive puppies? Where do such differences come from ? Answering to
these questions by themselves would be very meaningful to learn about human
being rather than robots as a matter of fact.
Paradoxically speaking, if man can learn the difficulty to teach the robot
feelings and sensitivity of human being, 250,000yen per a pet is worth
paying. For they can learn the importance of feeling and sensitivity of
human being playing with the robot.
99/5/21
Tadashi HAYASE
My opinion this week(119):
Problem and Solution
Recently, I have started to have a lot of troubles on my desktop PC which
I use at my home. While I was using it, it suddenly stopped operating the process
in action with the message saying "hard disk volume is shortage" or "memory
is in shortage". Then, there is a further message saying "some unnecessary
files will be deleted. Do you want to do it?" I ordinary follow the message
and delete some files and PC starts to move again. But sooner or later, I
face the same troubles again.
My PC is Gateway2000; Pentium, main memory 64M, total hard disk volume
6G. Well, that sounds good all right. I bought it 2 years ago and have used it
with a good satisfaction. I have put a number of software in it together with
a lot of data files such as pictures, illustration, and music in these days.
As a result, the drive C, volume of which is 2G has almost been filled up.
I notice the reason for the troubles as I see the message and almost know
how to comply with the troubles. But I continued to use it without taking
any fundamental actions. Then, in the Saturday morning, the PC did not
normally start up at all. After start up process, the PC come back to the
restarting process with the message saying "a register is in a trouble". I
had to oblige to call the technical support center of Gateway. It was 6 O'clock
in the morning when I usually use my PC.
Surprisinglly enough. a technical support man answered the call at once.
Having heard symptom of the troubles, the support man instructed to restart
PC by Safe Mode and to reset the PC. My PC started normally again with this
camphor injection.
Then I asked him further how to comply with these frequent troubles. He
seemed to know the basic specifications of my PC for he knew it through the
data base in his PC. My PC has three hard disk drives, i.e. C, D, and E. He
suggested to reorganize the whole hard disk drive and to increase the volume
of C drive which is the whole reason for the troubles. He said that I should
download the utility software to reorganize the hard disk at the Home Page of
Gateway and come back again to consult on the details after I get the software.
I called back the support center in Saturday afternoon. Then, a woman
supporter answered the call that time. Her interaction is very good indeed,
too. Having checked the condition of my PC by instructing me step by step,
she told me that memory resource of my PC is now only 30% level due to the
lack of volume of drive C. She agreed to the former suggestion to reorganize
the total drive, but she admitted that that is a kind of difficult and time
consuming process. She suggested that some considerable solution would be
acquired by moving some files from C to other drives such as D or E. She also
added some technical points to be followed to do it.
Well, she taught me that a surgery is a basic solution to remedy the
trouble but some kind of internal surgery approach may be good enough to
avoid such serious troubles. I decided to make internal surgery approach
for a time being.
I moved several files in C drive to D drive. Then , memory resource
recovered 60% level and PC started working better. This has been a good case
study as to Problem and Solution. At the same time, I appreciated the good
support and service provided by Gateway.
99/05/29
Tadashi HAYASE
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