Snowfall

It has snowed a lot yesterday. This amount of snowfall rarely occurs here. In northern areas, they have had too much snow and 45 people were killed in accidents due to snowfall yesterday.  Until the end of next month, we might have massive snowfall for a few more times. Yes, massive only in our standard.

Ume flowers seem to be ready to come out. It means spring is not too far from now. I should prepare planting such as potatoes and other spring vegetables. Hilling the farm with compost plowed into the ridges.

Winter won't last long. We should get ready for spring.

 

Prof Isoyama's memorial day A concert of a high school alumni orchestra 26 years ago

Yesterday, 8 years ago, Prof. Isoyama has been fatally injured falling on an icy road on the way back home from a chorus competetion working as a judge in suburb of Tokyo. It was so snowy as today. A couple of weeks later, he has died. He must be 72 years of age and had made excellent works on J.S.Bach. A week or two before that accident, he has published the dissertation on Johannes Passion which was credited the doctorate later.

I have been greatly influenced by his another book on Matthew's Passion, which I repeatedly read from time to time. Other than reading his books and attending a concert of Matthew's Passion in Toyama where he gave a short lecture before the performance, all I have known his activities was through his blog. I knew of his serious injury and consequent death from the news his disciple made there. Almost all of these topics have been written here in the previous posts like this;

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/229771691402494724/5236348433992853847

I have mentioned of his high school in Nagano and possible relationship with the orchestra of that school, even though I have not definite evidence showing it. He seemed to be captivated by classical music, most likelily, J.S.Bach. He has majored in aesthetics at Tokyo University and has become one of the most renowned researcher in Baroque music.

As I told in this blog, it has been one of the sweetest memories that I was invited to a concert of the high school alumni orchestra by a friend of mine 26 years ago. I also mentioned about her a few times as a chamber music company since med school days. The concert master has turned out to be the husband of a violist at the university orchestra whom I had known quite well. Ever since, I have exchanged the season's postcard every year, even though I have had no chance to see her in person. At this alumni orchestra, we have played the pieces of Faure and parts of Messiah together with chorus. Achievement with the music as well as reunion with old friends or seeing new friends was an extrordinarily pleasant gift to me.

Later, I knew of Prof Isoyama having graduated from the high school and possibly related with this music circle. I could not help feeling there is such mysterious relationship with all of them. I wonder if Prof Isoyama has been contented with what ha had made when he was leaving the earth.  

Among the jungle of files in this computer, I accidentaly found this photo of the concert. I was on the 3rd pult of audience side in the cello part. 

 

Reason why head copy is recommended in reception of Morse Code

Away from operating CW for some time, I might seem to have lost interests in it. No way. That hobby still resides deep in my mind. Whenever anything happens or come in sight  regarding it, I always pay attention to it. It may not be changed until I leave this earth. 

Enough about self-telling. While I was reading on generative grammar and related brain science, I happened to meet an interesting finding. 

As I iriterated in this  blog, head copying of CW is indesipensible for real communication on CW like conversation. One reason is that our working memory could handle only 5 to 7 things at a time. If we try to remember all the characters flowing in a CW message, we tend to forget those sent prior to 5 or 7 characters before. Then we grind to write down all the characters, that is, hand writing copy. It is quite different from conversational CW and hinder the latter.  

We should not write down or not try to remember the characters being sent but should try to understand what the words/sentences the message brings mean. That is the essence of head copy. The finding on brain mapping for linguistic activities tells a particular area named pars orbitalis of inferior frontal gyrus responsible for handling sentences different from the center for words, irrespective mode is concerned. In practising head copying, this area must be activated and trained. From this finding, we could tell not to copy words basis but do with what sentences are meaning. It is much easier to copy and gives us pleasure when our expectation for the following is correct.

This finding with fMRI, a kind of brain mapping, excited me a little bit. Morse code, the simplest mode of communication, could be a tool to investigate our cognitive process in epistemology, even though it is not a spontaneous languag without its unique syntax. 

Since the scientific methods like fMRI, PET or procedures of transcutaneous magnetic stimularion or of intrinsic optial signal are applied to research in mapping and functions of lingistics, there are numerous new findings accumulated. But because of limits in accuracy in location and timing, it is far from understanding in neuron level. It is still fascinating to know any new findings in this area.     

An old postcard to my father in young days

 A photo of an old postcard has been sent to me as a file in an e mail by my brother.

Brother has found it inserted in a book. The postcard is toward my father in Tokyo dated back in 1937 when father was around 20 years old. With the sender's unreadable handwriting, the name is not identifiable. But the content of the mail convinced brother he had been the person whom father had met in Tokyo and had been lead to Christianity by. Having lost his parents early in his life, as brother said, father had tried to study at a prep school and to attend to a higher education in Tokyo. 

The coup d’etat by the young soldiers in Tokyo,  the Feb 26 Incident in 1936, has increased the power of the military in politics. They have surged into the invasion to Manchuria at first and later into the entire China, even though it was destined to be defeated. Father has been swallowed up by the inevitable avalanche into war whatever he might have wanted in his life. He was recruited to the military twice and has spent a few years in China. Although he has not mentioned of his experience so much as a soldier there, he seemed to have seen the dark side of the war. 

From the church, a person, possibly very poor without any family members, has been sent to the sanatorium at this place, as mentioned frequently, my aunt had managed for tuberculosis patients in poverty. Father has visited here to see her for a few times and has seen mother working here. It was after the war when they got married and had a family. Without seeing the person who sent that postcard, father would not have had his family including myself.

As reiterated in this blog, father has been concerned what and who have caused that war which had ruined his youth. He never stopped rebuking any movements toward rearmament and war. I strongly wonder what he would say now since the ultra right PM and her cabinet would be approved in this general election going on now. They predict that in polls conducted recently.  

The person who sent the postcard to my father wrote in it that he would care for his parents and brother. It was from far north Aomori. How has he lived there around WWII? 

Impovertization as well as increased inequality of wealth going on in our country

So far as the wiki explains it, Gini Coefficient(abbreviated as GC) is a measure of statistical dispersion intended to represent the inequalities in income, wealth, consumption within a nation or a social group. It is expressed before and after redistribution of wealth. In no inequality, which is theoretically impossible, GC is 0, while, in only a theoretical situation, all wealth belongs to one person in the community, GC is 1.     　

GC before redistribution of wealth in this country has been steadily increasing since '80s. The most recent data has hit the worst, that is, over 0.6 among the OECD member countries. It has made me so surprised. It might be due to progrss of the population aging and increased contigent employment. The asset bubble in economy also might be a factor for that. The introduction  and gradual increase of the consumption tax, a regressive tax system, might be contributory to it as well.  

Fortunately, GC after redistribution of wealth still remains lower and in the mid range among OECD member countries. It may mean the redistribution of wealth, ths social security and the redistribution of income by taxation, is still functioning in our country. 

We could not be too optimistic for the inequality of economy. In fact, the people is getting generally impoverished in our country. The absurd economic easing since so called Abenomix has caused economic disparity among the people. Now, the government is steadily reducing social security benefits. Together with impoverishment due to inflation without rise in income corresponding to it, reduced social security benefits may result in failure of redistribution of wealth sooner or later. 

One of the imminent, or rather already beginning, problems is the lack of workers of nursing care. We have a public insurance for nursing care. More and more individual payments are required in it. The expenditure for nursing care workers is not abundant to pay the workers enough for specialists. The workeres, either Japanese or those from developing countries, won't continue working long time. The aging is in real fast progress in the society. They assume they could benefit from the long term care public insurance established in 2000. Its benefits have been reduced step by step by the government.  The service supplier system is not going to function soon. The workers for the service is already insufficient in number already.

The general election is going on in our country. They predict the ruling parties would win in it thanks to the reputation of the 1st female prime minister. Only few know what is going on in our country expressed with GC. The society is facing an absolute aging problem with retired people having impovertized with contigent employment throughout their lives.  

Climate change and the movement of America is ALL IN

It is well known global warming is inducing polar vortex in winter. Here. Cold wave with heavy snow fall has been noted in North America, Europe as well as our country in this winter. In summer, it will get hotter with more numerous hurricanes and typhoons. The latter tend to become larger in size and strength. Global warming exaggerates the extreme weather world wide. 

It is a hoax to insist that these phenomena global climate changes are not true. Those unscientific hoaxsters are either involved in industries which fossil fuel is the mainstay for energy. Or they are unintelligent captured by consipracy theory and/or unscience. That is only interests in money and/or lack of intelligence.

If a leader of major country which yields much greenhouse gas in the air is such a person as pictured in the last paragraph. it could be a real disaster for themselves as well as for the whole world. Predecessors have ground to the Paris Treaty to do with the global warming. But that person has decided to withdraw from that treaty without any hesitance. 

An organization named "America is ALL IN" strongly protests the endangerment of world environment which Trump administration aims for on behalf of the global industries having much benefits from it. This organization is said to cover the industries involved with 74% of GDP in the US. It is a big relief that such an organization is working in the US against the unscientific policy leading to almost unrecoverable climate change process. 

 

AMERICA IS ALL IN

https://www.americaisallin.com/

A couple of dishes

A couple of dishes cooked recently. One is pork loin stewed in tomato sauce. Tomato was not fresh unsuitable for salad. Still tasted good.

The other is pork miso soup. Radish, carrot and taro were the products of our garden farm.

Both were pretty successful. 

Inflation is quite remarkable here especially for food. I am going to grow more veggies this spring. I have purchased seed potatoes which are much more expensive than last year. Possibly one potato costs about a dollar or so. 

Not only for frugality but also for pleasure to do with living things, I would go on farming. 

Brahms Piano Trio Nr1 B major op8

Brahms has composed a number of excellent pieces of chamber music. Among them, it is his sextets or quintets with strings or strings plus another instrument which is famous and often performed. His tendency in composition for dense and thick harmony and for counterpoint may work well with those genres with multiple instruments. However, his piano trios including the famous clarinet trio are jewels as well. I have loved those trios since young days. Here is another trivial memory on his Nr 1 piano trio OP8. It is well known Brahms has first composed in 1854 and has revised it in 1889. The revised edition is more famous and always played like the trio uploaded in the last of this post. Its matureness in the style or composition technique is prominent but the breathing of youth could be audible especially in its beautiul melody.   

It was in my early twenties when I first heard this piece; the 1st piano trio by Brahms. It was the hall of Hibiya in the middle of Tokyo on an evening of early summer in '70s. The piano starts the 1st movement with grand theme which is passed on to cello. For a young cellist, this melody was haunting. I can't recall the pianist or the violinist but the cellist was, I remember, Kenichiro Yasuda in his late twenties. He has made brilliant debut as a cellist not too long before that. Placing the instrument in almost vertical position, he played it really as if dreaming. After listening it, I went for a small journey to an island. All alone. I could not recall this piece without that wandering spirit. It is still a music in youth for me.　

Almost 30 years later, I asked a violinist to play it with me. The development section was a bit tricky for an amateur cellist like me. But I got it through. The pianist was one of my old friends since orchestra days, a professional pianist as well as a teacher. She has spent time to come to Tokyo from Shinshu to make rehearsals with us for a few times. At a small concert with other amateur players, we have played it before audience. The pianist used to tell me Brahms had composed it with the chords so "heavy and thick" that she found her forearms got more "muscular" than ever. I am sure it was a kind of joke. It might mean she has made some effort for us. Still moved to hear that.

I wanted to rehearse and play it, including the other movements, again with the same gang someday . But it seems no chance for me to do that. The 3rd movement is sure poignant, calm and beautiful. I still thank two of them for letting me play the 1st movement.

I believe this trio played it bestl; Pires, piano, Dumay, violin and Wang, cello. Each musician has own unique personality in performance, quite different each other. Pires sounds seriously profound while her husband Dumay is sharply penetrating music. Singing broadly is Wang's cello. Their mixture is a kind of fascinating ensemble. I have listened to them playing this trio so many times when I was practising it 20 years ago. At my room of the office late at night. Wang played cello smooth and beautiful. I have tried to learn his rendition so far as I could from the recording. Bowing, expression, dynamic or agogigue etc. I still could picture myself practising it in my room of the office. It was quiet evening in late summer.

This is that trio. Pires has announced to put an end to her career as a pianist last year. 

While looking for this recording, I have found even hundreds of renditions by different groups. I should correct saying it is not popular. It seems pretty familiar among classic music fans and players. It is noted a lot of Japanese and Korean ensembles are playing it. This piece may resonate particularly in people of East Asia, even though it is not proven at all.  

Conclusion of the effect of acetaminophene on the fetus

This systematic review and metaanalysis have given the decisive conclusion on the effect of the exposure of acetoaminophene in pregnancy making no effect on the fetus as for autism and related diseases. 

Why and how does such as RFKennedy Jr try to change the medical findings already authorized? No background of medicine or of epidemiology with him at all. 

He and his faction seem to be entrenched in unscientific views and conspiracy. They might get certain economical and/or political interests from such behaviour.

It is a comedy as well as a tragedy for the US people as well as the world that such a person is taking the seat of Secretary of Health and Human Services. Certain proportion of the people in the US is still approving him as the Secretary. It is the issue of those people.

 https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanogw/article/PIIS3050-5038(25)00211-0/fulltext?fbclid=IwY2xjawPYxa1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEe8I6p4T2APC3XmzJ_71FC1sLGp2Z-EFbDQ9mgF-GKjBKTi7uCX2zvd6nY8IM_aem_oafs7TquLYP6z9C-TIt9mg

What corruption!

Trump is imposing new tariff on the countries which are against his attempt to occupy or invade Greenland. Needless to say it is completely wrong against the international law. On behind such tariff deals, he is accepting such a bribery from Qatar as this news tells. Qatar was excepted from tariff thereafter. Could a president make such corruption without any accusation? Not in a developing country but in the US.

That tariff would be eventually paid by the US people. It is a kind of domestic tax with high regressivity to the people aggravating cost push inflation. Do those supporting his tariff policy still approve it? It would destroy the world trade as well. Such abuse of tariff could cause another great depression in the world. They say the influence of tariff takes several months or even a year to appear in the market/society. The Marshall Lerner condition is variable according to the country applied with it. 

He has got not only a big private jet plane but also a great sum of money from Qatar. Big bribery!

Quote;

 PAM BONDI JUST WENT TOE-TO-TOE WITH PETE BUTTIGIEG ON LIVE FOX – 62 SECONDS OF SCORCHED-EARTH FINANCE FURY THAT LEFT TRUMP’S “BILLION-DOLLAR BRIBE SHIELD” IN FLAMES

𝙁.𝙐.𝙇.𝙇 𝙎𝙏𝙊𝙍𝙔: https://quixara.info/.../pam-bondi-just-went-toetotoe...

No warm-up. Pam Bondi, Trump’s new personal attorney, sits stone-faced in red blazer.

Pete Buttigieg walks straight past the host, grabs the second chair, and stares her down like she owes him blood money.

Pete opens fire:

“Pam, your client took $2.4 billion in ‘consulting fees’ from Qatar while selling them tariff exemptions. That’s not business. That’s bribery with extra steps.”

Bondi doesn’t blink: https://powerpeak.forum/.../pam-bondi-just-went-toetotoe...

“Prove it, Mayor. Those are legal payments, fully disclosed, and you’re smearing a president because you can’t win an election.”

Pete leans in, voice rising:

“Disclosed? In the Caymans, maybe. I’ve got the wire transfers right here. Keep defending your bribe bag, Pam, while American farmers eat dirt.”

Bondi slams the desk:

“Show the receipts or shut up! You’re a sore loser peddling fake scandals!”

Pete smiles like ice cracking:

“Receipts drop at 9 p.m. tonight. Keep the channel on.”

Sixty-two seconds of studio silence so thick the teleprompter freezes.

Host’s water glass trembles. Ratings spike to 489 million.

Clip hit X at 8:02 p.m.

By 8:30 p.m. #BondiVsPete trending 172.4 billion views.

Trump’s Truth Social: “LYING PETE!”

Pete replies with a single bank transfer screenshot: $487 million, Qatar → Trump Org, dated the day the tariffs vanished.

One showdown.

One shield shattered.

Trump’s money firewall just got torched live on air.

Beyond our common sense, handicapped children are shining brightly

The following episode of Charles de Gaulle and his daughter Anne has reminded me of a family, two borthers and their mother, whom I happened to care for at the outpatient clinic. It was in 2001. I can't remember exactly how old those boys were. The elder was in the mid of an elementary school, possibly, around 10 years of age. He was already diagnosed, with typical synptoms developed, as Duchenne type muscular dystrophy (DMD). DMD is an autosomal dominant hereditary disease with gradual onset of muscular weakness at several years of age followed by mental retardation later on and eventually turns out fatal in their tenth or twenties;at least, at that time. As mentioned later, now anti sense oligonucleotides therapy is bringing hope to the patients. The younger boy has occurred partial palsy of limbs with a noticeable mental retardation then.

The younger boy was examined for the diagnosis at a medical school hospital and turned out to be another DMD. His mother has calmly told that result to me at the outpatient. Always wearing smile on face, she never got excited. She won't scold her sons whatever they did. It was me who got shocked to hear that. She has never been upset but stayed calm with that smile. Her smile was not superficial but came out of her inner. Despite of her and family member's hardship, she remained distinguished and always smiling. I am sure she has had conflict in her mind regarding her sons' illness. She seemed to have accepted their fortune as it was. So courageous from our common sense.

In my career as a pediatrician, I have been on charge of the children with congenital disease or herditary progressibe illness like this DMD. If not all, but most their mothers were eagerly raising their children. Living to the fullest they could. It was always beyond understanding with the usual common sense. Children are a kind of alter ego, physically as well as mentally, for mothers. They must be hope and joy in life. Having children with such serious illnesses won't make themselves depressed, though. Together with the children, they were shining in life as if their children were the origin of that light. 

As if the parents, most notably the mothers were living the most brilliant moment in life with their handicapped children. The presence of those children in absurdity from our common sense seemed to make them radiate brightness all around. It was often an overwhelming phenomenon even for me.

It was one of such unforgettable cases for me. Soon they have moved to another area and won't come to see me at the clinic. Hopefully, the brothers are getting better with the most modern "anti sense oligonucleotides therapy" for DMD, which was not available those days. I only wish them peaceful and happy days. 

This is the story of de Gaulle, the famous general in WWII and later the president of France with his daughter Anne.

 ·　




　"Instead of hiding his daughter with Down syndrome, Charles de Gaulle raised her proudly, and she became the heart of his life.

When Charles de Gaulle died in 1970, he made a quiet request that surprised many. He did not want a grand state funeral in Paris. He asked to be buried in the small village of Colombey les Deux Églises, beside his daughter Anne. For him, that resting place mattered more than any monument.

Anne was born on New Year’s Day in 1928, the youngest of three children. She had Down syndrome, a condition surrounded by fear and misinformation at the time. Doctors and society often blamed parents and urged families to hide children like her from public view. For families of power and status, sending such children away was considered normal.

Charles and his wife Yvonne refused. They raised Anne at home with her brother Philippe and sister Élisabeth. There was no secrecy, no shame, no separation. She was simply their daughter.

To the world, de Gaulle was distant and unyielding. A leader shaped by war, discipline, and command. But inside his home, Anne revealed a side few ever saw. With her, he laughed freely. He sang songs, told stories, and played games. Friends noticed that the man who rarely showed emotion softened completely in her presence.

He called her my joy. Anne asked nothing of him except love, and in that simplicity, he found peace. She was never treated as fragile or inferior. She was respected fully, included always, and loved without condition.

That love did not end within the family. After the war, Charles and Yvonne founded the Fondation Anne de Gaulle. They turned a château into a home for young women with intellectual disabilities, many of whom had been abandoned. At a time when support barely existed, they chose action over silence.

Anne’s life was short. She died of pneumonia in 1948, just after turning twenty, in her father’s arms. In his grief, de Gaulle whispered that now she was like the others, finally free from the limits the world had placed on her.

After her death, he carried her photograph everywhere. He believed her presence protected him, even during an assassination attempt years later. Whether faith or fate, he never doubted her importance in his life.

Charles de Gaulle found his deepest calm not in leadership or victory, but in loving a child the world did not understand. His family showed that dignity is not about ability. It is about how fiercely we choose to care."

Another meaning of aging

I heard an old friend of mine in young days passed away from a mutual friend. No detailed info yet. It seems he died unexpectedly. 

My aunt, having managed the sanatorium at this place and closing it decades ago, moved to a new place unknown to her. He was a neighbor to her there and always helped her since she had no relatives nor friends at all there. He seemed to have faith in Christianity influenced by her. 

In my teen age days, I often visited my aunt in summer holidays. I have known him then. He was also kind to me. We have driven around the area or have gone for fishing together. It has been a haunting memory for me. I wanted to thank him for his kindness to my aunt as well as to me. My younger brother told me he had met him there also and had been treated nicely by him.

Not much known to me regarding his life after that. He has later worked as a helper at a care facility and as staff at a hospice. That career seems to indicate what a polite and kind person he has been. I should have visited him those days. But the chance has been eternally lost. How has he lived? Any family members survived? I consequently gave questions to the person who let me know of his passing. No answer yet.

In elderly, we are deprived of own capabilities, social status or relationship with people well known to us. The last often comes on as their decease. Getting older is that process of losing things for everyone in the world. 

I almost flinched at that news of his passing. My mind still remained heavy.

 Time would solve such an emotion and sadness of loss making it accumulated it into the depth of memories. The pain would not leave me for a long time, though.  

Among things we lose in elderly, such relationship with friends or with family members should be most important, I learn it from this experience. That is why I feel his death as such a heavy and unbearable loss. The ultimate aim in our lives should be such a relationship. Such as social status, wealth or capabilities are not essential but fleeting in life.   

It might be a bit too late for me but it is worth realizing it. It is another meaning of aging. 

Stan K5AS

It is the 78th birthday for old friend, Ron, K5XK. I have left words to congratulate it on his facebook page. I might have another chance to mention about Ron later. Whenever recalling of him, another guy, Stan K5XK came up in my mind. He was a neighbor to Ron and has shared a lot of ham radio activity with him.

It was '80s when I often talked to Stan. A big gun from Ark. Early in '80s, when I came back on the air, I was at a resident dorm of a med school hospital, I put up only a 14AVQ, a popular multiband vertical from Hygain, on the roof, and was running barefoot there. It was like a miracle for me to be able to chat with Stan in Ark. then. Later, Ron told me in the mail of Stan's passing on Oct 2010 that he had owned two big towers and monobanders. That was the reason.  Soon after sun set, 40m started opening to the mid south US. His big signal came on in such an occasion. It must be very early in the morning there.

I know little how Stan has grown up and has lived. I knew a little bit from our QSOs how he had lived in his last years. When I often met him, he was caring for his wife with certain chronic illness. Having lost her, he all of sudden started attending to universities studying anatomy or psychology to pursue his interests. I believe he had legs amputated due to diabetes as Ron's mail told below. He was on a wheel chair by that time. Whenever we met on the radio, he always told how he had been studying the subjects of his interest. He always told me what subject or theme he would do with in the next semester for the next challenge. His positive attitude toward life always astonished me. 

I had been off the air for almost a decade then and, when coming back after such a long hiatus, was surprised what a joy ham radio could bring me with such a simple set up. Ron told me Stan used to mention about me whenever he saw Stan. That story also moved me not least.

In '90s or so, however, it has become less frequent seeing him on 40m early in our evening.  And in 2011, I have received the following mail from Ron telling of Stan's SK.

Quote;

 Our mutual friend Stan, K5AS, became an SK in October, 2010.

Stan was a wonderful friend and we always talked about you
until the very end. His mind was very keen until his death,
but his body suffered from diabetes and peripheral neuropathy,
which led to the amputation of both legs several years ago.
But he continued to be very mobile, driving his specially
equipped wheelchair, automobile (modified for handicapped ]
driver), and he drove himself to ham club meetings. But,
despite many efforts, he refused offers of help to put up
small "stealth" antennas at his retirement home. After
enjoying two 75' towers and monoband yagis for many years,
he realized that his DXing days were over.

Unquote; 

So that is the story of this great guy. I also thank Ron for letting me have acquaintance with him. It is a memory for me when ham radio was brightly shining. 

An old mother cared for by daughters in Shinshu

I have a distant relative living in Shinshu. She used to live in the old sanatorium our parents worked and I was born, that is, exactly this place, immediately after the WWII. She is a faithful person believing in Christianity and went to get married to another Christian farmer living in a countryside in Shinshu, the mountainous prefecture far away,

at that time, from here, several years after WWII.

My mother and our other family members have been friendly to her and her family Ms, the initial of the family name M. In my university days, it was a routine for me to visit them on the way from or to the orchestra camp site held in Shinshu every summer. I have enjoyed hiking to the mountains nearby with Ms' daughters. The family members were all kind and faithful. The nature around there was so beautiful. I felt time was going on so slow I could forget things going on in ordinary life.

Ms' house is located on a slope of a big valley, a side of Great Rift Valley in Japan. Looking over the valley;  

    

M' old house, with the family having been engagd in farming for generations. This photo was taken 15 years ago. They have lost the husband and his sister since then. Now only that old lady, a distant relative for me, is living there. 

Precisely talking, that old lady aged 102 years now is living with the youngest daughter aged 70 years, who has own family in close neighborhood. The other day, when I gave a phone call to her wondering how her mother had been doing lately, that daughter told me that she had been caring for her mother at this home. I was almost falling from the chair. Her mother is now bed ridden but still is reading books etc on her bed. Three other daughters, each working away from home or having married at different places, are coming to substitute her duty for a day on different days in a month. I was truely surprised to hear that.    

In addition, that 4th daughter is still doing farming by herself. Except for an occasion of such as planting or harvesting rice plants which requires her husband's help, she said she had been doing everything by herself. She won't use chemicals for fertilizerc. Only organic compost. She told me she had been farming that way for 40 years. Of course, we have had the same interests in farming, even though I am much more junior to her. She told this story as if nothing special. She even told me to taste her organically grown rice.

Everything is thanks to those daughters' efforts but basically their mother and her husband have raised them that way. Or should I say their belief in Christianity has worked? I only wish they would spend peaceful days at this beautiful place.

Drug wars, exploitation of natural resources and then den of robbers

President Trump insists there are smuggling cartels for drugs in certain countries. That is why the US would invade and correct it.  

But drug abuse is a highly domestic issue, isn't it? If they could eradicate production and transfer routes of a drug in other countries, there will be another like fentanyl. There are persisting people intoxicated and addicted with drugs. They would look for a substitute if a drug is off the market.

If the society leaves the domestic problems under the drug issues not solved, the situation won't be improved with whack-a-mole strategy against drug abuse.

I know it is only an excuse for Trump to exploit such as oil in those countries. But I still wonder if Trump supporters approve his excuse to invade the other countries. Such invasion would make a lot of innocent people victimized and the evil intention to exploit natural resources in the other countries is realized against the international law.

Trump or such as Stephen Miller in the US government declares only the power is right in the world and those with military power win there. The result is that the world would become a place of "the war of all against all". Or "den of robbers".

Do you want your children or grandchildren to live in such a world? If the war extends to that of nuclear weapons, no one would survive. Do you approve that?

PS; In a recent press conference, Trump told "I don't need the international law. What determines my decison is own mind." Now we know why he has been close to the dictators like Putin. So those supporting him must want to live under dictatorship. 

A society where law enforcement personnel shoot ordinary people on the street

It was a tragic event that a lady was shot by one of the ICE personnel in Minnesota. For news or report mentioning on that, there are always certain number of people pressing the smile or laughter button to those posts in Facebook. Not so many but 10 or 20% of the total. In addition to this tragedy, that sarcasm also surprises me a lot.

I wonder what they are thinking of that tragedy. A government officer murdered a civilian on a street. Are they drunken? They are so called MAGA people, aren't they? At least, they seem not to feel any pain or distress at the situation. They don't know they could be the next target for shooting.

The excuse ICE had made was "self defence" It was also terrible. It could never be ratified at all. In such a situation, how could an ICE shoot a civilian without any arm? A "law enforcement" member shooting ordinary people could never be excused. If anyone excuses that way, he/she should be a psychopath.

Now soverignty of a nation or independence of a people could be easily jeopardized with military power in the world. Hobb's world seems to appear in the world. It should be denied by any means for the next generation. 

I didn't expect to live on such a world. The generations of my parents and older have lived through the terrible world wars in the last century. We and younger generation should fight against the dictatorship based on populism and greedy capitalism. Or the mankind civilization may be perished with another world war. Those dictatorship leaders in the world, for our happiness, are in danger themselves and won't live too long. When the turmoil is settled down, we should empower and authorize such as the United Nations and progress disarmament in the world. A lot of people are dying with paucity of medical services in the world. We should spend the expenditure more for such purpose. Right of collective self defence and generalized deterrence are the only way for the next generation to survive in this world. Action of sarcasm should be denied.

Motet "Versa est in lectum" by Alonso Lobo

Last spring, I have had a great reunion with a good old friend of mine, a few years younger and one of the orchestra company in the med school days. I might have mentioned that before. 

He used to play violin at the orchestra and a usual member of small ensemble with me in it. I have first met him at a summer camp of the orchestra in Shinshu when he was a freshman. I heard a few good violinists had joined it. He was one of them. At the very first moment of seeing each other, he was playing a prelude of Well Tempered Klavier of Bach at a lobby. When I watched him playing it, he told me he had mastered it by himself possibly when I asked about that to him. He added it was not so difficult even for me and asked me if i would try it. That was the unforgettable first ever meeting with him. 

Knowing we had the same kind of taste for chamber music, we have played such as Clarinet Quintet by Brahms, the 1st piano trio by Mendelssohn or the 3rd piano quiartet by Brahms and so forth, even though mostly some movements of those music. It was just performance by amateur players but still very precious experience for me. Around my graduation, we have promised to play Faure's piano trio and he has prepared the score with beautiful cover. But our busy days as doctor have kept us apart for years and have not given us a chance to play it yet.

He has been an excellent neurologist and spent days as a faculty staff at a med school. About 20 years ago, when I planned an ensemble camp in Shinshu with friends, he spent time with us for a day or two. 

He stood at a railway station near the camp at night, where we promised to see each other there all after over twenty years. I wondered if I could recognize him all after that interval. In the darkness, he stood at the exit of the countryside station and looked all the same as the time of the university orchestra days. A tall and a bit shy looking guy with curly hair. We have enjoyed playing the 1st movement of the 1st piano trio by Mendelssohn at the camp. It sure brought me back to the university days.

The next reunion was in the last spring as told above. Another two decades have passed. No music rendition this time. Just a few glasses of beer and hot spa at a local hotel. At that time, he told me he had been impressed at a couple of Renaissance acapella religious music. One of them, he is mostly impressed, is Motet "Versa est in lectum" by Alonso Lobo, a spanish composer in late Renaissance. He has even sent me a CD of this music a few days ago.

 

He had to retire early due to a health issue, not directly fatal but long lasting. He has been working as a part time doctor at a hospital near to his home in Tokyo. The motet's lyrics is a well known scripture in the Book of Job, so far as I investigated. It is Job30:31. He seemed to have told his wife to play it at his funeral. 

The motet sounds quiet and beautiful. Soothing the listeners' mind. Somewhat nostalgic bringing our mind to an old place where we have grown up, even though the basic mood is still pathetic. I wonder how he has been listening to this piece.

Sen. Sanders' discourse and prediciton of the war in Venezuela

Sen. Bernie Sanders says it all as follows.

If I am allowed to add a few more words to his discourse, the US government is in a critical situation as for its astronomical amount of debt, 38 trillion USD, adding 2 trillion every year to it. That may be why Trump administration should behave thhis way.  And I always wonder if they have nothing to do domestically for the war against drug. If the domestic problem that a lot of people go on abusing or depending on drug remains the same, they won't be able to solve the drug issue.

Trump's new imperialistic attitude toward neighbor countries may be highly detrimental to the confidence and credibility of the US in the international society. If the Trump administration goes it on, the world would fall in a chaos of Hobbs Libertarianism and eventually in another world war.

 

If this invasion to Venezuela by Trump should turn out any successful for some time, there will be a hectic anti American struggle by the Venezuelans over there. American people could not avoid it. Haven't they learned that in the Middle East and Asia in the last century? And I am afraid the US government would behave harsh to American people as well. Drastic inflation would be inevitable with the supremacy of USD fallen in the market.

Exercise will save us

There are dogwood trees along the street west of our property. They please us with beautiful light pink flowers in spring. A lot of fallen leaves are on the sidewalks in fall. Those leaves are drifted at a corner of lawn of our property along the sidewalk. 

These photos were taken in Apr 2020. There is a meter wide lawn before the azaleas along the sidewalk.

Dogwood trees are not the topic of this post. I have brought the heavily piled leaves of the dodwood trees to a portion of farm on a uniycle carrier this afternoon. It could never be a heavy work even for me. But after off the farm work for weeks, it was a real heavy duty for me at present. Bad lumbago! I was wondering if I should stop that but, I don't know why, I got it through. 

Leaving them on a lot 1x10m, where I am going to plant potates this spring, I sprayed rice bran and soil lightly there. The leaves would become good compost by the time I plant potatoes. 

While sitting on a small chair and spraying them to the ridge, I have fallen into a shallow hole, 20 or 30cm in depth, and, alas, could not stand up from that supine position! Looking around there and confirming no one looking at me, I stayed there for a moment and stood up slowly somehow, with my jeans and upper wear fully muddy. Only for a minute or two but I felt it so long. I realized, at my age, no exercise could deprive me of such ability of motion quite easily. Senility is surely looming to me! Even in winter, I should carry on exercise, I learned. My wife, an enthusiastic sport gym attendee, told me, repeatedly standing up from the position sitting on a chair could be an exercise to stand up. I may follow her advice. Forgot taking photos of the ridge and the hole I fell in.

The topic is not ending yet. After that farm work, I am feeling less pain in the back now. And even feeling a bit lifted up now. That may be why I am writing such a lengthy post at present! Now I would go on exercising!

Ham radio camaraderie friends, I am finally reaching the main topic of this post now. Throw away mic and key, go out of the radio shack and start exercising.

A recent paper in ProNAS says, even in a finding with rodents, aerobic exercise could enhance repartioning of glucose between tumor tissue and skeletal/cardiac muscle tissue.

Of course, the latter increased while the former decreased. The exercised mice with tumor lived longer. This might fit to human. 

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2508707122

In another paper, moderate degree exercise, 5000 to 7000 steps a day, is good to prevent progression Parkinson's disease in human study.

Moreover, the effectiveness of exercise is emphasized by a specialist as "Exercise may be the single most potent medical intervention ever known".

https://nuttycellist-unknown.blogspot.com/2025/01/exercise-may-be-single-most-potent.html

It may sound too much exaggeration to lead to the belief in exercise from my falling in a hole experience. But it might be of importance for ham friends staying up at ham shack withoug much exercise. This is the conclusion of this post. Thanks for reading it through.   

 

A luddite being agonized with internet settings

I have another blog in Japanese, which I have kept for 19 years. When I started it, I had some time free in my duty at the private practice and wanted to publish what I thought about my profession and hobby. Ever since, I have kept it almost everyday. At first, re medical service and legal issues against so called "malpractise" which were mostly incorrect from the standpoint of medical profession. At that time, I have started playing cello again after a long hiatus since med school orchestra days. Playing in orchestras or smaller ensembles was another topic. Later on, I was more concerned about politics. The movements to prewar nationalism in our country has forced me to do with political issues there. Economy was the infrastructure, I understood those days. Quite few memories within my family were there as well.

Yesterday, with a deranged Google Chrome, everything should be initialized. A hard work for a luddite in IT. The last issue was that blog. It was impossible for me to access the admin page. This morning, I could make it with another version of Google Chrome. Last night, I was sweating imagining that I could had lost every posts in that blog. The content was not so precious at all but was still indispensible for me. Having read the content back, I found a lot of things I almost had forgotten completely. Especially on old ham friends. Now I decided to put the past log into an HDD even  though I know it is not a perfect media to memorize the vast log in the past.   

When I had difficulty to access the admin page, I thought the end of life could be comparable to it. I should get both ready for now. 

Another challenge is to make use of my very first smartphone. I am using it as a hand held phone only at present. The display is too small for me. I still need to get used to it for some particular purposes. Development of IT is not so handy for an old luddite like me, I am afraid.

This blog in English could be the only private media left for me in the future. I would make it as affluent as possible. For that purpose, your feed back as comments is always welcomed.

"Mozart at the Gateway to His Fortune: Serving the Emperor, 1788 - 1791"

I have run across with this video clip of Mozart's Requiem in Youtube. Wiener Philharmoniker conducted by Karl Bohm. Recorded in 1979. I have got a CD of this requiem with the same orchestra and conductor recorded in 1971. I don't remember when I got it. Maybe around 1980. Bohm was a famous conductor those days. He conducted with least action. Profound and solid sound still he draws from the orchestra. 

It is often believed that Mozart has composed this requiem in the weakened condition in his last year of life. An excellent music researcher, Christoph Wolff, says in his work titled "Mozart at the Gateway to His Fortune: Serving the Emperor, 1788 - 1791" that Mozart has reached a new viewpoint for new style as Mozart's wife depicted, that is, the solemn pathos style. After passing of Emperor Joseph II, who had not been motivated for religious music at the Imperial Chapel, under the era of next Leopold II, Mozart was willing to take the position of music chief at St. Stefan Cathedral. Mozart was at the gateway to the success of new genre. Fortune has forced him to leave this requiem and even 140 fragments unfinished.

Thinking of this story, I could not help being overwhelmed with this music. 

 

"Peace. Peace on Earth"

 The Trump administration has made attacks to Caracus Venezuela and, reportedly, has captured the President Madulo and his wife to be taken away out of the country.  Trump's claim is to eradicate the drug trafficking in and from Venezuela to the US. Its legitimacy is highly questionable from the standpoint of the Charter of the United Nations. No one could overthrow any regime in a sovereign nation with military power whatever the regime might be. It is the same invasion which Putin has made in Ukraine.

It is highly suspected the Trump administration aims at the oil concession in Venezuela which has been nationalized by Maduro. If the Trump administration intends to let Machado, a neoliberalism politician against Maduro, take over the power, it reminds us of  Pinocheto in Chile in "70s". Trump has ordered air bombing against ISIS in Nigeria recently. Both Venezuela and NIgeria are countries of massive oil production. 

Being asked about the New Year's resolution, Trump used to answer "Peace. Peace on Earth". It sounds too vain and meaningless. The US would lose credit in the intenational society if the people would approve this "operation" by the Trump administration.

PS; Trump said they would "administer" Venezuela until the next regime starts. It would cause a big mess in the country and cost the US so much.                                                                            This "operation", not war as he claimed, has been against the Charter of the UN told above but also against the US constitution since it is clearly a war to the other sovereign nation.    It would be an example of exoneration for the other authoritarian leaders to invade their neighbor countries for their interests. 

A Happy New Year

It is the most brilliant and beautiful morning today. Sun is shining in the sky without any cloud. In that sunray, everything looks bright and vivid in the cold air. It is worth of the motto "In Praise of Spring".

New Year's resolution is to be broken in the end of the year. Actually, I have never conquerred Matthew's Passion as I wished in the beginning of the last year. Still learning it with a book written by Prof. Isoyama. I am also ambitious to go on studying economy and politics. Deterrence by military forces could often be an illusion. Especially regarding nuclear weapons, it could bring the end of the human civilization. There are a lot of music pieces which I should listen to. Endless horizon to go over in my life. 

I still worry about the military conflicts at various places in the world. Economical inequality is still expanding all over and resulting in inflation to astronomical order. In some countries, authoritarian politicians are staying as their leaders. They are often greedy and egoistic. Serious problem under it is that some people are approving them. Is it a populism or lack of intellect?  

Not falling in pessimism, I would like to study more about them and to do anything whatever I could do. I could never be compared with Archimedes myself at all but, as he has lived the last day on earth with calmness as well as eagerness to study, I would be as calm as possible on the last day on earth while going on studying and/or farming as if it lasts forever. Living the day as if it is the last day for me in calmness and as if such days will last forever to learn things new to me. 

For the last but not least, in daily life, I would avoid factors other than aging or genetics leading to Alzheimer's disease or Parkinsonism such as nanomicroplastics, PM2.5 or lack of moderate amount of exercises. It is indispensible for people of our age or even younger. 

Wishing you all a healthy as well as happy new year.

This is the music I went to sleep with last night.