7/28/2014

Re childhood thyroid cancer in Fukushima

I have written about the children with thyroid cancer in Fukushima in the past post. Here.http://nuttycellist-unknown.blogspot.jp/2014/06/fifty-children-have-been-proved-to-have.html

I should correct it as well as add some more informations about them.

The authority of Fukushima Prefecture and of Fukushima Med Univ would not publish the percentage of the symptomatic cases. From the experience in Chrnobyl, those with remote metastasis or local invasion seem to be due to exposure to radioactive iodide. The authority says it is related with the patient's privacy, so that they could not publish the data. considering of the importance of the data, thsy should have published it. There is a growing suspicion that they might hide something from the public. The indication for the surgeries FMU staff have done for certain number of patients is questioned by the other researchers at present. They should reveal the data all the more for such a suspicion.

Some source, professional, says that, during the first 4 years after the accident in Chernobyl,  they have made screening for childhood thyroid cancer by palpation. No ultrasonogram. Thus it is most likely that the occurence of that cancer in children was underevaluated during the first 4 years. The cancer could occur earlier than 4 years since the exposure, that has been deemed as the incubation period of the disease. This means that the large number of thyroid cancer cases in Fukushima are not just occult tumor found by chance but overt one due to the exposure of radioactive iodide. This is another reason the authority in Fukushima should reveal the detailed data to the public.

7/27/2014

Pork with summer vegetables

Pork has been cooked with summer vegetables. Taking much veggie as this one or fresh salad, I feel pretty great. Only wish it won't be so hot at night. it disturbs us sleeping sound. Anyway, we should go through this crazy weather until the end of next month. Vegetables may help us.


7/25/2014

Mid summer

Our garden and small farm are getting ripe under burning sunray.

A couple of tomatoe plants in front of flowers. In this rainy season, rain has had tomatoe plants infected badly. Only a couple of plants are well grown. So I have added 10 plants germinated from seed. These are the last 2 plants, which are waiting to be planted somewhere from the pots.

 
My rosemary garden. Very healthy and long lasting flowers. I like them very much. I have gathered all of them at a corner in the garden. Some have been growing from the seeds which were scattered about from their mother flowers last year.
 
 
Egg plants. They are very good cooked with finegar and soy sauce after being fried.
 
 
Sweet potatoe plants. They will be good material for boiled vegetables.
 
 
Indial lilac. The flower in the mid summer. Looking up them in full bloom, I feel mid summer has arrived here.
 
 
 
I should go on struggling weeds until the end of August. Sitting in the garden, I pull the weeds without thinking any other things. A lot of sweat out of my body. Concentration. What peace I am in! May this peace last long for us! 

A music for my funeral

In Face Book, a friend of mine, Leo JJ8KGZ, uploaded "Sanctus" from Requiem by Faure. A peaceful and heavenly music. This music is a candidate for my funeral music. The most right-wing music is, however, still this one. The last piece from Matthew's Passion by Bach. Isn't this suitable for the last moment of my life? Of course, Of course, I won't be compared to Jesus Christ at all. This music overwhelms everything in my life, pleasure, sadness, love, failure and anything I have had in my life. My life is relieved. I would be allowed to live in the phase of eternity.



This week end, a good and old friend of mine, Bob W6CYX, and his wife are attending at the Bach Festival in Carmel. The main theme this year, as he said, is this Passion.

I felt much closer to him years ago when he told me he had listened to this music conducted by Helmuth Rilling at the same Bach Festival. Matthew's Passion played in Tokyo by Stuttgart Bach Ensemble conducted by Rilling was one of the most striking concerts I had ever listened to in my school days. I don't know how Bob felt about that "crossing" by the same music and the same conductor between us at that time. For me, it was an unforgettable thing in our relationship.

This music is not sad at all. Beyond sadness, it sounds even brilliant. It lets us be relieved and rest to the extent we have never experienced in our lives.

7/23/2014

Starting walking again

The rainy season has gone away. The atmosphere has become so stable that the thunder storms won't come here in the evening often any longer. In stead, the burning heat makes me feel reluctant to work in the garden in the daytime now. I am becoming lazy at outdoor activities now.

I have spent a few days recording own performance of cello as video clip. It was mainly to check what was not good yet at performance. I have learned a lot from the video clip even though the audio quality of the camera is not satisfactory at all. There is often a big gap between the subjective and the objective. It has helped me to narrow the gap as much as possible.

Another finding from the video clipping was that I had become chubby! What an ugly figure there was! I have not been aware of the body weight so much while taking as much food as I want at home. It is not a problem of the outlook but could be a cause of chronic illnesses like daibetes for sure. The gardening has not been sufficient as good exercise. I have made up my mind to get out of lack of exercise as well as too much caloric intake.

For the first step, I have started walking at night. Both I and my wife used to take walk at night. But, owing to various reasons, we have given it up some time ago. My wife has been attending to a sport gym for exercising once or twice a week. I have not done any exercise or have not gone out for physical activities. Fortunately, we have good places to walk even at night.

Last night, it was muggy. No breeze at all. It seemed the air warmed up in the daytime still remained there. My wife was so tired that she did not want to go for walk. I went to the rice paddy area by myself. Quite dark. No one or no car was around there. A faint breeze was coming over the paddies. I have walked there for half an hour. I was worrying about my knees, which could be sore at long walk. Nothing painful. It was a cosy walk in the dark. I have recalled my aunt, who used to walk a lot. It was my intention to write about this lady of faith and will here. I have, however, wasted too much space here before starting with that topic. It was supposed to be preface to her story. I would preserve it for another post in the future.

Anyway, I would go on walking and dieting a bit from now.

7/21/2014

Cooling system could get worse in time

I got a trouble with my PC last night. It has become impossible for me to type with the keyboard. While typing a message somewhere in BBS, I found the PC became not to respond to typing at all. Changing the battery for the remote type keyboard and then the keyboard itself to new one won't work out at all. I was sure the PC itself had acted up. Did it act up since I had uploaded my performance video clips so much with the PC? No kidding!

It could be a big trouble if I could not use the PC. This morning, I hurried with the troubled PC to a repair shop. They told me it should be sent to the manufacturer for repair, which would take 3 weeks. Oh my, I was seriously thinking to replace it to new one.

Fortunately, it has turned out to be due to the weakened cooling of the PC. Too much dust in the cooling fan and the ducts. Having it cleaned, it has become operative again. It runs even much faster now.

It could have been broken to the extent it could not return normal. i was lucky. It must be a quite common problem. Does everyone knows of this problem and clean the fan at certain interval? It has been told Windows OS would gradually get slowed down as it is used for a long time. I was inclined to ascribe the slowing to the Windows. Now I am feeling most cases of this kind of problem are due to this acted up cooling system. I should apologize to Microsoft regarding my wrong conviction about their product.

I was told the same thing for the cooling of the amplifier, VL1000, by a Yaesu engineer. My last one has had very dusty cooling lines. It may make it less efficient and eventually ruin the FETs. Any equipment with fans for cooling could give rise to the same problem. I have learned it from this experience.

In addition, I should back up the data in the PC to some device at regular interval. It is often advised. But I could be lazy. I should have prepared a HDD for that purpose. And, as Pete K4EWG told me this morning, I should be less dependent on this handy device. If my life won't go on at the failure of the PC, it is not a right thing.

Chris G4BUE

I have recently met Chris, of course from his home in UL, twice on 20m. It was early in the afternoon each time. As you know, 20m is the band activated at night in summer. His signal was coming through loud and clear in the daytime. It may be thanks to the condition or to his superb set up there.

Anyway, it has been almost 30 years since I knew him. He used to be a regular G guy coming through the long path on 40m at our sunset every fall. In adition to him, there used to be G3FXB, G3FXW and so forth. It was really a fascinating path opened for a while around our sunset. Chris was one of the sponsors as well as the only sponsor from G for FOC for me. I was puzzled not to be albe to get any sponsor from G. As Merle K6DC advised me, I told Chris I had known that my nomination would be expired soon. This expression was allowed since I did not ask him to sponsor me. What a delicate manner it was! Anyway, thanks to his sponsorship, I could be a member. Chris had worked hard as the secretary for, I guess, over 30 years for the club. He has been a big guy in the club. I am feeling thankful to him whenever I meet him on the radio. He might be the only sponsor for me, who is still alive. So every QSO with him means a lot to me.

During the QSO this afternoon, he has had a phone call, which kept him off the air for a minute or two. He explained he should bring his wife to a hospital. She has had a Holter ECG for a week. It was the time for her to attend to the hospital bringing the monitor. He told me it had not been anything serious to her. I suspected she might have arrhythmia or mild angina. Without explaining that, he went off quickly. I hope she won't turn out to have any serious problem.

His CW is always crisp and rhythmical. I always enjoy listening to his great fist. I would hear from him before he and his wife leave for Florida, his 2nd home, in Oct.

7/15/2014

Any other possibilities?

The BOJ has determined to continue the unprecedented quantitative easing. I would say they could not take any other choices than this policy. Once they finish easing, the national bond of Japan would devalue. The interest rate would be lifted resulting in the collapse of the governmental finance.

Going on this financial policy, it would mean the government gives rise to some sort of bubble economy, whether public or private. The bubble will be ruptured sometime. Again, it will cause the collapsed finance and devastated economy. 

Any other possibilities?

It may be the time when we should consider of sustained economy. Ever lasting growth of economy is an illusion.

7/13/2014

Friendship with hams in the neighbor country

Before the IARU Championship started yesterday, I had called CQ DX on 40m. A chinese called me. Niu BH4BFS from Shanghai. I won't usually respond to callers in the neighbor countries like China when I particularly call CQ DX. Niu sounded a bit different from the other chinese who always quit as soon as exchanging reports and the other stereotypic informations. His hand key was rounded with smaller dot dash ratio than the others with very sharp dots and strained irregular hand keying. It was a music to me.

Niu has asked me what I meant with "age" when I sent him my age. Introducing the output power as 500W, I was again asked what gear I was using. He sounded very curious about me. He was anxious to converse with me. He seemed to have a spirit of "Tell me your story". I felt that attitude toward the others in QSO when I made this exchange with him.

When he started responding to me, it always took him a minute or two. Telling me "SRI SRI", he went on that silence. He seemed to read all what he had copied and to translate it to his mother tongue. He seemed to have understood of my age, my equipment and antenna and my looking his photo on his page in QRZ.com. He was a 38 year old guy, running FT897 with a V shaped dipole. His attitude to try to converse with me has made me moved a lot. I am sure that was what he pursued in this hobby. It was quite new among the chinese operators so far as I know. But there is still a change in their operation attitude.

In my experience, the most chinese hams would finish a QSO in contest style as I told above. It always made me disappointed so much. I even suspected there should be some regulation there that would have prohibited them from talking long with the japanese or other foreign hams as it used to be in the communist countries in the last century. There could be a remnant of strictly regulated age over there. But, nowadays, there are new hams who would like to open the window toward the outer world like Niu in China. There is still a barrier of language between us. They would overcome it very soon. Curiosity and open mindedness would help them to learn English as well as code ability.

At present, the chinese diplomacy could be regarded a territorial expansionism by the neighbor peoples. Some people insist that we should be more armed and even get ready for any invasion by them. Between Japan and China, there have been an unhappy history of our invasion to China. The revisionists in Japan won't accept the fact as it is. In China, the head of the government seems to take advantage of the sentiment of the people against Japan as a means to deceive the people from their political dissatisfaction. It is necessary for us to accept the reality as it is. We should overcome the gap and misunderstanding with persevering discussion and negotiation. War often occurs when the peoples won't understand each other and fear against the other overwhelms rational understanding. Pivate diplomacy through ham radio may be of importance in this respect. It won't make any immediate effect on the relationship between our countries. However, it would give us a firm base for better relationship in the future.

7/09/2014

Father's 10th anniversary

It is the 10th anniversary of our father today.

My sister has sent me a note on this event yesterday. It says, as getting older, she is recalling of our parents everyday. The older we became, the closer we felt our parents, as she said. There must be many things we could not understand in our lives until we reach their ages.

She has written about a memory with our father. When she was a small child, he used to make baskets for farming for his job. It was the day of poverty. She went to the basket making place with him. In the evening, coming back home, he carried her in a basket on his back. On the way home where our mother prepared supper for them, they have sung a nursing rhyme. A song to tell us to go home since it is the sunset. It says, in the crimson sky of sunset, let's come home since crows sing. Being swung in the basket, she saw the bright colors of the sunset. She thanked him for having been our father.

It is only a trifling memory within a family to the other people. It is still a fact that tells us the life has been delivered from him to us with his love and effort. We are thankful to him.

In addition, at this point of the age, I should mention of his experience in the WWII. He has compulsorily recruited to the army in 1939. He had to spend a few years in China as a soldier. He has had experiences that the war could be so cruel to people as well as to soldiers. He seemed to have seen and, possibly, to have been involved in the irrational as well as inhuman events over there. He has spent his precious 6 years of his twenties in the war. Since the war was over, he has had a firm belief against any movement toward arming. throughout his life, it has been one of his own problems who was responsible for the war. He was against the emperor system, which was one of the major causes having lead our country to that devastation. What would he say knowing the political movement for the right of collective self defence at present? It must be a nightmare for him which leads us to another war abroad.

My sister closed her mail telling us to have a family reunion for the memory of father in the near future. It would be a nice chance to see her and the others at a place and to recall all we owe to father.

Our father with my daughter. Father might be a bit over 60 years of age. He has enjoyed farming in the yard like I do right now.

7/08/2014

Being grateful to be able to live.

It has been a burning hot with mid summer sunshine today. I felt almost burnt with the sunray when I went out for gardening. In the daytime, I enjoyed talking friends abroad on the radio, reading books and playing cello. I have spent sometime in morning and evening pouring water to vegetables and pulling weeds there. Breeze flew touching and cooling me gently. I felt I was blessed with life again.

Centuries ago, the great Buddhism teacher, Kukai, who has spent years in the mountains in Shikoku for ascetic discipline to establish the pilgrimage there, told in the end of his life that he would enter the mountain and rest  there eternally. Could I tell that I would rest in the soil forever when I am dying? I really hope I could accept the last moment of my life as he did. Maybe, however, I should be confused and flustered at the crisis of my life. May I be able to remember I have been supported and have been blessed to live in this way at that time.

The blessing from our yard farm.

 
 
A part of our garden.
 
 


7/04/2014

Bouillabaisse

This dish was for dinner tonight. Featuring tomato and potatoe harvested in my yard farm. My wife loved it very much.

7/02/2014

Music activates our emotion


2014 Mar;15(3):170-80. doi: 10.1038/nrn3666.

Brain correlates of music-evoked emotions.

Abstract

Music is a universal feature of human societies, partly owing to its power to evoke strong emotions and influence moods. During the past decade, the investigation of the neural correlates of music-evoked emotions has been invaluable for the understanding of human emotion. Functional neuroimaging studies on music and emotion show that music can modulate activity in brain structures that are known to be crucially involved in emotion, such as the amygdala, nucleus accumbens, hypothalamus, hippocampus, insula, cingulate cortex and orbitofrontal cortex. The potential of music to modulate activity in these structures has important implications for the use of music in the treatment of psychiatric and neurological disorders.