Financial crisis

Our government has created a supplementary budget up to 21 trillion JPY, that is, about 130 billion USD. The total budget this year rose more than 136 trillion JPY, that is, approximately 860 billion USD. This size of budget is the largest ever. It is for fiscal stimulus, as they say. Increased military spending is most conspicuous. Almost doubled from that a few years ago. The budget for social security or farming is increased slightest. Considering of the on going inflation, this means almost reduction for these expenditures.

They say the revenue has been increased a bit. But it is mostly due to the inflation. It is just nominal but not substantial. Not as much as the expenditure. The government doesn't have any other means than issuing national bond to cover the increase of expenditure, I am afraid. The bond already issued is amounted more than 1000 trillion JPY. About 150 trillion JPY bonds are refinanced every year. The bonds yield rates, mainly of long term ones, are increasing to the extent they have never experienced. Higher interest rates would deteriorate the finance of Bank of Japan, which results in weakening of our currency as well as increase the expenditure of bond interests of the government. 

I am afraid the scenario we could picture in the near future could never be so hopeful. More than 70% of the people are applauding the present government. I wonder if they are aware of this financial crisis or if they are too stupid to acknowledge of the present situation. 

The most pessimistic scenario we could draw is as follows;

 THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL SYSTEM JUST BROKE IN TOKYO

Japan’s 30-year bond yield hit 3.41% today. That number means nothing to you. Here’s why it should terrify you.

Japan owes 230% of everything it produces. It’s the most indebted nation in human history. For 35 years, they kept the lights on by borrowing at near-zero rates. That era ended this morning.

Here’s What Just Happened

Core inflation is running at 3.0%. Government bond yields are spiking to levels not seen since 1999. China just conducted its 25th military incursion near Japanese waters this year. Japan is now forced to spend 2% of GDP on defense … nearly 9 trillion yen annually.

The Bank of Japan is trapped between two impossible choices: raise rates and trigger a debt collapse, or keep rates low and watch inflation destroy savings. They chose door number two.

Why You Should Care

Every major bank, hedge fund, and institution on Earth has borrowed yen at cheap rates and invested it elsewhere for 30 years. This “carry trade” could be worth anywhere from $350 billion to $4 trillion. Nobody knows the real number because it’s hidden in derivatives.

When Japan’s system breaks, this money unwinds. Fast.

The last time we saw a preview … July 2024 … the Nikkei dropped 12.4% in a single day. The Nasdaq fell 13%. That was a small tremor. The earthquake is coming.

The Math Is Simple!

Japan’s government pays interest on $9 trillion in debt. Every 0.5% increase in rates costs them $45 billion annually. At current yields, debt service will consume 10% of all tax revenue. That’s the death spiral threshold.

The yen is trading at 157 to the dollar. If it strengthens to 152, the entire carry trade becomes unprofitable. Unwinding begins. Emerging market currencies could drop 10-15%. The Nasdaq could fall 12-20% as funds are forced to sell.

What Happens Next

December 18-19, the Bank of Japan meets. Markets are pricing 51% odds they raise rates another 0.25%. If they do, volatility explodes. If they don’t, inflation accelerates and the problem gets worse.

There is no way out. Japan’s fiscal dominance is now permanent. They must keep the yen weak to service their debt. This means the free money that powered global markets since 1990 is ending.

The Bottom Line

Interest rates worldwide are going up 0.5-1.0% permanently. Not because of inflation. Because the world’s largest creditor nation can no longer subsidize global growth.

Your mortgage, your car loan, your credit card … all repricing higher. Stock valuations built on cheap money … all compressing. The everything bubble … all deflating.

This is not a recession. This is a regime change. The largest liquidity engine in financial history just seized up, and most people won’t understand what happened until their portfolios are down 30%.

Tokyo broke the world today. You’ll feel it tomorrow.

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Shanaka Anslem Perera  (@shanaka86) on X

Author & Ideologist. Exploring money, AI, science, and sovereignty. Mapping the collapse and the reconstruction of order. Data driven insights.

The reason for existence of my blog if any

I have kept this blog for 14 years and the other in Japanese for even 19 years. Astonishing myself is to know how long I have kept them. My father used to keep diary and was a diligent writer of letters to friends or family members. I might be inherited with that trait from him. Even though I have written little about my private life in the blogs, they are a kind of diary to me, where I record what I am concerned about, comparable to my father's diary. 

I sometimes wonder how to do with these two blogs in the future when I could hardly continue them. They should be put an end when I could not intellectually keep them. I still, however, would go on writing something until the time limit. 

The main reason is just, as told above, to keep personal records of concern for me. I realize of forgetfulness more and more as I get older now. These blog posts often bring me back to the days when I wrote them. There are topics which I totally forgot. Remembering old things through those posts is not only making me feel nostalgic but also is helpful to me to consider of the situation around me at that time. I have not expected this when I started these blogs.

As told above, I won't hesitate to delete these blogs completely when I am not capable of keeping them. But memories of old friends, either in ham radio or not, are precious for me. Some of them should be remembered by others as well, I often think. Too sad their memories are being lost as time goes by. 

Recently, the words professor Totsuka has come on in mind. Only 8 years since I posted this;

 https://nuttycellist-unknown.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-words-professor-has-left.html

It is not easy for me to execute "writing/reading/listening more carefully as well as deliberately". I would try.  "To be enlightened in life is not to die well but to live well." This motto is even more difficult for me. The less the life span left for me is getting, the more I should be diligent to live. 

It is a freezing morning here.   

Beethoven 9th by BFO conducted by Furtwangler

It is already December close to the end of this year. Around this time in a year, I was often listening music at the dorm room of the university. More than half a century ago. 

Beethoven 9th symphony played by Bayreuth Festival orchestra in 1951 was one of the  pieces which we, me and a room mate friend, used to enjoy. We have prepared an audio set with speakers of Sansui those days. It was the days we both had joined the university orchestra together. 

  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHDXdbSWu0E

This performance is exceptionally tense up as well as the atmosphere was. This music is to sing out loudly for the unity of mankind. I still wonder if we have progressed that way since those days or even since the time Beethoven composed it.

It has passed half a century for now. This performance still brings me back to those days. The dark and quiet dorm room. The symphony started like the moment of universe creation. 

Quiting drinking

It's been several days since I quit the habit of drinking beer early in the evening everyday. It has been a refreshment for me after having worked hard in the garden/farm. I could not help recalling chatting cheerfully with Ellen W1YL around our sunset. I was always with a glass of beer then. I have never been a heavy drinker. Only 350ml can a day. 

But ALDH2 subtype might be heterozygote of ALDH2*2 in my case, that is, the alcohol metabolism is slowed with ALDH2*2 allele. This variant, quite popular among mongoloid, could be inducted by alcohol intake but still slows the metabolism of alcohol resulting in aldehyde accumulation which could damage arterial endothelium and/or neuronal tissue etc. It is known to be a carcinogen as well. Since I have drunk alcohol often since young days, I am getting less intolerable to alcohol than before, except for recent years in elderly. 

There are a couple of reasons why I decided quitting drinking. Getting older, I am not feeling as high with drinking as before. I thought I was getting worse with alcohol metabolism. Usual a can of 350ml is often felt too much for me recently. That was one reason why I decided quitting drinking. Secondly, I had sleep disturbance at least partially related with alcohol intake. Shallow sleep and frequent awaking at night. It is well known that insomnia is a risk factor for dementia. I have become more conscious of that problem since I have a family history of senile dementia, that is, my mother's case. 

It is only "a several days long trial" but I am feeling better as for sleep. No change as for early rising. Maybe, the biological clock within me has deteriorated as a consequence of aging. However, sleeping much deeper without drinking is quite helpful to me. So far, no rebound nor withdrawal symtoms yet. 

A few years ago, it has elucidated alcohol is carcinogenic without threshold. If any cancer related with alcohol develops with me, it should be already occured. But for younger people, it should be a problem in some time interval. No threshold is a important factor esxpecially for young people.  

  

Recently, a couple of articles have revealed the relationship between alcohol intake and  arteriolar sclerosis.  

This study shows in cross sectional autopsy cases, alcohol intake is associated with arteriolar sclerosis due to hyaline degeneration in dose dependent manner. It should be noted even moderate intake is associated with it. This arteroloscrerosis should be related with the neuropathology of dementia. The cross sectionality is a limit factor of this study.

https://www.neurology.org/doi/10.1212/WNL.0000000000213555

More recently, another study regarding the same subject has published. They observed 1600 cases for 16 years. It has revealed the alcohol intakers are susceptible to intracranial bleeding due to arteriolar degeneration. It is not a cohort study of longitudinal observation

but is still warning alcohol intake for intracerebral bleeding due to arteriolar hyaline degeneration.

https://www.neurology.org/doi/10.1212/WNL.0000000000214348

These studies are enough to carry on my decision to quit drinking. I fully understand drinking would free us from variety of stresses. To quit drinking or not depends on how we would live our lives. In my case, it seemed a right timing to do so. 

47th anniversary

 It will be our 47th anniversary of wedding tomorrow. As written before, we have played "Apres Un Reve"  of Faure, Chiaki at piano and me with cello, at the wedding party. It is really like a dream that we have spent this 47 years together. Being around or over the healthy life exectancy, both of us are apt to have ache or other aging signs/symptoms at various parts of body now. It reminds us of our parents at our age. We will learn and live after them. And may we grow old together until we leave the earth.

At the campus of medical school hospital we started serving residency. She was expecting a baby.

We celebrate the day with humble sushi for the dinner tomorrow.

  

As for use of the artificial sweetners

Artificial sweetners are widely used in various foods or beverages. The manufacturers insist that the sweetners are of help to reduce the caloric intake. They are actually very powerful to flavor foods and beneficial for the manufacturers. 

However, there have been a variety of questions regarding use of this kind of ingredients. Artificial sweetners won't give sufficient feeling of fullness, so that it won't be of much use for dieting. 

There have been debates on its carcinogenicity for years. WHO used to appeal against its use due to probable carcinogenicity, even if it is not concluded yet. 

The following article says it has adverse effect on developing dementia based on a large scale and long duration epidemiological study. It is only an observatory one not controlled. There could be confounding factors influencing the result between high and low intake groups. It still seems highly likely that the artificial sweetners are related with development o dementia. 

Last year, our administration office determined a guideline on the description on food items as for the artificial sweetners use. It has not forbidden to use the artificial sweetners but forbade describing that "the item contains no artificial sweetners". The reason is that such items with the description shown above could look of high quality. What a non sense!

The administration is inclined to behave in capitalistic logic, that is, to priotize people's health over the benefit of the artificial sweetner manufacturing industries. We should be rational and intelligent by ourselves as for such as this artificial sweetner issue. 

Development of dementia is a long lasting and multiactorial process. We should avoid any factors responsible for that in daily life. At least, I have been careful not taking any foods containing artificial sweetners.

Gonçalves NG, et al. Association Between Consumption of Low- and No-Calorie Artificial Sweeteners and Cognitive Decline: An 8-Year Prospective Study．Neurology. 2025;105:e214023．doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000214023

Peacefulness in the farm

Again too far apart from the last renewal of this blog. Getting cooler or even more chilly day by day, it has been the best season for me to seed or plant vegetables for the coming winter. It has kept me busy in addition to pulling the weeds in the lawn etc. 

This is another spontaneously grown white radish. There have been several radishes grown to bear seeds, which were spontaneously seedled this spring , I guess. I was surprised to see this one grown so big without any care. It will be a material for Oden later.

This splendid growth of this radish made me convinced that seeds from certain kind of vegetable grown at a place would do so well at the very same place as I wrote in a previous post. No sign of disturbed repetition of cultivation.  

Onion seedles planted in grass mulch. Onion seeded by myself are not growing well enough to seedle yet. These seedles were purchased at a shop last month and temporarily planted at another place. More than 100 seedles were planted. Even though this kind would last long possibly until the winter in 2026, who would consume them?

Tiny young pea plants are budding from the seeds harvested this spring.

Spinach is also budding successfully. This lot has been seeded a week ago when it was pretty cool. Covered with non woven fabric and watered enough, these tiny buds came out. I was suspicious that they might not come out in this prewinter weather. But they sure did. You may laugh at me being moved at these tiny plants coming on the soil in the farm.

Marie gold is fully blooming. It has not bloomed in the hottest season but has come out when it got this cool. Lovely flowers. It has been planted to prevent a kind of nematode which disturbes growth of tomatoes. This year, unfortunately, tomatoes were not successful due to a kind of bug aspirating the fruits and leading to decay. It is another question how to avoid it without using insectcides. 

 

When I sit on the soil of the farm, a kind of peacefulness difficult to express by words sometimes overwhelms my mind. A famous farmer of natural farming told we could sense ourselves as a part of the flow of lives when working in the farm. That peacefulness might be related with such an internal perception even if we feel it as it is or not. In that sense, we could be totally free from any attributes given by the others or even our wish or demand for any thing in the world. When convinced with this peacefulness or relief, we might overcome the problem of our death. We just live in the flow of lives and would return to the other phase of life in nature when dying.   

Being a psychiatrist

Recently, I have been corresponding with my brother quite often. We share the same memories in our young days. A lot of things to talk about. Such as on our parents, the training days as doctor, present socioeconomical issues, the prospect on the coming elderly days and so on.

He is now 72 years old and is working at a prefectural hospital  as a psychiatrist in Iwate Prefecture a few hundred km north of here. He has been the only brother whom I have been proud of since his young days. Intellectual, affectionate to family members, others and possibly to his patients as well.

He repeatedly complained that he had felt deeply tired while working at the hospital of late. At first, I thought he had been stressed at his plan of retirement in next September. Yes, he has finally decided to retire. I asked him if I guessed it right. He answered no. He has been burdened with the patients' worries and anxieties. Psychiatric patients are often in hardship in life and poverty in the community in addition to the problems pertinent to their illnesses like delusions and/or illusions etc. Psychiatrists try to understand what they think of and to keep distance from it as well at the same time. 

In my brother's case, since he has been too compassionate others including his patients, he could not stop being devoted to them wholeheartedly. It is a kind of drawback as a psychiatrist. He should do with it, a natural character for him. Even an ordinary person may experience to the same kind of being burdened by those psychiatric patients.  

      

I would have majored in psychiatry when I decided to become a doctor. One reason was that I was influenced by works of V.E. Frankle, Karl Jaspers and so forth those days. I have acquainted with a family with several psychiatric patients as well and innocence of youth has made me feel I would be of help to those people. But in the faculty, the bed side training in pediatrics has lured me to working as a pediatrician as the patients were so lovely and a lot of them could recover quickly when given proper treatments. 

I don't really know what has lead my brother to his profession. Since he has not changed his speciality and is going to end his career as a psychiatrist, he might have felt it was worth working for those patients. If I am allowed to say, he has been crucified with his profession while he felt that worthiness. 

It won't last forever but will end in next September. I hope he will get it through by any means. I thought I could have been in his position if I chose psychiatry. Hearty gratitude and cheers to psychiatrists struggling in their profession indispensible in the society! 

Renovation of my room

It has been a project, candidly a reluctant one, for me to renovate my radio shack into a den. The big study table which I used at the former office and was left unused for sometime. Bringing it to my room here was the main thing of this project.

It has been done yesterday. Exactly speaking, the move of the table was successfully done.

The table used since 2011, a humble dinning table, used to replace the older one  which had been destroyed by the big earthquake in 2011. The broken table has let the radio gears slipped down on the floor. I became apathic and it took a week or so to things recovered again. 

Having been attached to that old dining table, I still wanted to remodel the room with the radio gears taken away. I still would like to come back on the radio with smaller set up. But it might take me a bit more time. I wanted to get the table tidy without a lot of radio apparatus and cable wires on it.

First, I packed my lovely keys into a box. A vibroplex bug made in 1949. a gift from Don WB6BBC, another Vibroplex purchased recently, a Begali paddle, a gift from Bill W6QR, a straight key named HK3 by Hi-mound, the only radio item I still keep since my teen age days. Other than these, there are Schurr paddle, a gift from Joe DL4CF and a Mercury paddle. The keyer is MM3 by AEA I got in '80s, which I loved its shape of Morse codes so much I have never used the other keyers, internal or external. My lovely companion in ham radio life. Hopefully, I would reopen it and place everything at right place soon. Of course, I have put cushioning material between the items in the box.

 

Even if I renew the station license, it would be quite difficult for me to satisfy the requirement. I have lost any will to do with the bureaucratic system. The amplifier should be given to someone who could utilize it. In case of coming back, I would keep FT2000, at first, a book end.

And my study table looks like this. You may laugh at the cables coming in the room. I would get them disposed of very soon. A few plaques of the JIDXC I got decades ago and a plaque of FOC may be saved from being trashed so far. At first when I saw this table set here after a long time, I felt impressed a bit. But in a few hours, everything looks same as before. 

 It was a kind of end of life planning for me. There are a lot more to do for that. One of them is whom my cello is taken over to. It was a most important thing for me in my forties through sixties. I should look for someone who would play it as a life companion. 

One of the unexpected result from this renovation is that I could reach the audio system much easier. I may listen to a lot of music from now on. I have found several QSL card requests from overseas at shaded area. I should reply to them as well. Wondering if those senders are still enjoying radio.

So one of the projects is almost completed. 

Spontaneously growing carrots

At a corner of my small farm, there are a number of carrots growing completely spontaneously. There were carrots grown there last year, which flowered this spring, have shed seeds and have sowed them around themselves. These carrots are from those seeds.

Those spontaneously grown plants are told to grow well at the place. I don't know how it occurs. It is still well known "mycorrhizial fungi" around the plants are working together with the plants, transferring nutrients from the plants to the fungi while the former accepting such as phosphorus from the latter. That synbiosis is essential for the plants. 

The fungi invades the plants in a way and its genetic information is let in tha latter. They say the genome could be contained in the seeds. That may be why the newly grown plants from those seeds are adapted well to the soil. I was excited to read about this mechanism. Mother nature has provided such a deliberate system.

Hopefully, they will grow and would become materials for dishes this winter. 

If the real world is provided with the same synbiosis for human beings, I wonder if we are living on it or ostracizing, killing each other. 

 

Autumn days

Fall seems to be changing its position to winter very soon. It will get below 10 degrees C early in the morning here in a few days. I am hurried up sowing the seeds of winter/spring vegetables now. In next month, onion seedlings will be planted. Then I will be free from farming for a while.

A couple of days ago, hearing from my brother that they are not very well, I have visited an old couple in a town of 30 minutes drive. The husband, 85 years of age, used to get married to our cousin decades ago, who passed away all of sudden at her pretty young age. She was kind to us and used to often help us for chores starting our residency at a med school almost hal a century ago. When she got serious intracranial bleeding, she was referred to a med school hospital I was working. Being only a pediatrician, I could not do anything for her but just watched how she was tried to be rescued at the ER. It turned out in vain. They have had 3 daughters by then. I recently heard one of their granddaughter had become a med student.

Years have passed when he got remarried with another lady, his present wife. She, a woman of good will and kindness, used to help us with my parents and our kids for years. Since both of us were working busily as doctors, her aid for my old parents and for house chores was really appreciated. 

The husband told he had had complete AV block which urged him to be equipped with heart pacemaker a couple of years ago. He was smiling to tell me it would work for a decade. The wife was more serious with congestive heart failure. She looked rather pale. She said the heart output had been only a fraction of normal. She seemed to get tired easily while doing something. She told me, with faint smile, it won't be too long before she would be called to heaven. 

Both of them have been christians since their young days. It has become difficult for them to attend to a church due to health issues. They have not asked for any help by the local  administration, which I could hardly believe. They have a daughter working a nurse not too far away. It seemed she had been visiting them for help, even though not too often. 

Handed them my cell phone number and mail address, telling them to call me when they need any urgent help, I quit their home, which was beautifully cared for with grass and flowers. I promised them to bring vegetables grown in my garden farm sometime in the near future.

I regretted not having tried to get in touch with this old couple for such a long time. We had been helped so much by them when we needed their help. It is our turn to do so for them. 

And at the same time, I felt both of us were getting into the same chapter of life as they did. Warm autumn days in life won't last too long.

Lying politicians and fascism

The major political party, LDPJ, in our country has elected Sanae Takaichi for its president. She is a direct lineage of former prime minister, Shinzo Abe, in political vision as well as political ethos. Their expansionary fiscal policy with quontitative easing in "another dimension" has ended in total failure, at least in my view. The debt monetization resulted in over 1000 trillion JPY government debt. Half of it has been imposed to the bank of Japan, which makes it quite difficult to do with the ongoing inflation. 

Takaichi is prone to lie in various situations. In politics, they should sometimes keep themseles mute about certain topics which is kind of silent lie. Such lying could be allowable in some cases. In Takaichi's case, she willingly tells lie for her profit. 

Since she has run for office in '90s, her culliculum vitae told she had worked as a congressional fellow in the US in her young days. It has been questioned and, recently, it turned out her name was not in the roster of congressional fellows in the past. When she worked as the Minister of Internal Affairs and Communication, she assumed that a paper published from the ministry had been a fake and, telling that in the House, she even told she would resign not only the minister position but also the Member of the House of the Representatives. However, even after the paper turned out authentic, she never did either. There are plenty of such cases with her. I am afraid such politicians prone to lie for their benefits would lead our country to wrong way.

Nowadays, there are a lot of populism politicians in power all around the world. It seems like a historical process that people are accepting and even applauding them. Brexit was an example and so is the ongoing mess in the Trump administration. In such an age, we should appreciate what Hannah Arendt told about lying and fascism as follows;

 Hannah Arendt, in The Origins of Totalitarianism, explored how truth can be systematically eroded until people lose the ability to think for themselves. She observed that totalitarianism thrives not through persuasion or conviction, but by breaking the link between words and reality—by turning people into beings for whom truth and falsehood no longer matter.

She noted that the goal of totalitarian education was never to instill belief, but to destroy the very capacity for belief. When people no longer know what to trust, when facts become interchangeable with fiction, the ground of moral judgment collapses.

Arendt wrote:

“This constant lying is not aimed at making the people believe a lie, but at ensuring that no one believes anything anymore. A people that can no longer distinguish between truth and lies cannot distinguish between right and wrong. And such a people, deprived of the power to think and judge, is, without knowing and willing it, completely subjected to the rule of lies. With such a people, you can do whatever you want.”

Her insight remains unsettlingly relevant. When truth is corroded, it is not replaced by another belief—it is replaced by confusion. And confusion, left unchecked, becomes the perfect soil for control.

Hannah Arendt (1906–1975), a German-born historian and philosopher, spent her life examining how freedom is undone not just by violence, but by the quiet decay of truth itself.

Mahler unsuitable for a night cap

Insomnia has been a friend to me. It is told to be a predisposition to be dementia. I could not help worrying about it. Sometimes, sleep pill helps me as already told somewhere in this blog. On the other hand, I am unwilling to take such a med. Then, I listen to some music. Tonight, it was "Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen" by Gustav Mahler. I used to play it twice at different orchestras, once at the university and the other time much later in fifties of age. I always love the last song "Die Zwei blauen Augen". The story of broken heart at the sweetheart's wedding ends with this funeral march. Mahler has composed quite a few funeral marches in various works like this or in the 5th symphony etc. Each is quite impressive. It is well known he has been struggling with own death throughout his life. Through beauty of music, he seems to have pursued the solution of the problem of death. 

After "Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen", there was a few Lieders put in the source. One of them was "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" after a poem by Rueckert. This piece handles directly the problem of death. It sounds like peace which we might arrive at death. I always wonder if he has found any solution or the way to it when he finished the 9th symphony, the culmination of his music activity as a composer.

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTqbTP5qy7k

Anyway, it was not a right choice for a night cap. 

After taking a pill, I may listen to Bach on headset in the darkness. 

Fall potatoes

Potatoes are grown twice in a year. Spring and fall. The fall seed potatoes should have shorter resting period than the spring ones. If the resting period is too long, it would take weeks to have them sprouted. They won't grow before it gets frosty.

This year, I have forgotten purchasing the short resting potatoes. Reluctantly, I have planted some potatoes harvested this spring. They are told to have intermediate range of the resting period. I have chosen those already budding on the surface.

In a couple of weeks, even though I was doubtful it would happen, some of them are sprouting out. Much grass compost around them. Hopefully, they may bear new potatoes by November. I am moved to see new lives are being born as expected.

 

Sweet potatoes have been harvested. Pretty big ones. In a week or so of ripening in the oom air, they will get even sweeter. 

Other winter/spring vegetables like onion, green onion, radish, broccoli chinese cabbage are being planted. The last session of weeding is also done all around the property.

It is too rainy today and not suitable for farming. I would spend the day listening to Bach's keyboard music. A peaceful fall day.

Faure's requiem again

Recently, I have been listening to Faure's requiem before going to sleep. The source is a performance by Orchestre de Paris conducted by Daniel Barenboim. It was recorded in 1974. Barenboim was around 32 years of age then.

As always told, this requiem is fairly lyrical. As if not done with the reality of death. Faure's 2nd son has told in his biographpy that Faure was not concerned about distress of death but was taking death as a blessing to get apart from the world full of anguish. It was an expression of the back side of his pessimism.

This Barenboim's performance sounds a bit different from the usual explanation of this requiem to me. Even though it is basically beautiful, I feel, it is oriented to expression of toughness in death. That impression comes from  rather slow tempo with exaggeration of bass part, especially of the organ. Solemnity due to such perormance sure betrays our preconception for this music. 

I wondered for what young Barenboim had conducted this piece in this way. It was only his 2nd recording with the orchestra. He must have had a definite motivation to choose and  perform this requiem in this way. Bringing an innovation to this music? 

All of sudden, I realized it was a year later than his wife Jacueline du Pres had turned out to have multiple sclerosis. It is a fatally destined illness. Both of them have enjoyed playing chambermusic a few years earlier with their company like Ithzak Perlman,  Pinchas Zuckerman or Zubin Mehta. It has been left as a heavenly pleasant recording somewhere. Through Barenboim getting married with dU Pres, they have spent the happiest time in their lives. But Jacqueline's illness attacked them into abyss of absurdity. It may not be wrong to assume Barenboim has put his thought at that time into this recording. 

This is not the recording I listen to. It was a bit later than that. The same orchestra conducted by Barenboim. Around 1980.

 

 

Barenboim has left remarkable achievements in music. I always admire, in addition to a lot of marvellous performances as a pianist as well as a conductor, his efforts with West Eastern Divan Orchestra to unite Israeli musicians with Palestanians. He has suffered from Parkinsonism himself and is slowly taking his exit from his career as a musician now. What is he thinking of this requiem now?

Lithium could be a new treatment for Azheimer's disease

There is no decisive blow of treatment for Alzheimer's disease yet. Monoclonal antibodies against beta amyloid have been used in clinical medicine with limited success, that is, only reducing the progress of the disease to an extent. They could cause pretty serious side effects including cerebral bleeding. So no definite choice of treatment yet.

Here is an article in Nature which could sets off  a new horizon for the treatment and/or prevention of Alzheimer's disease. Lithium could be such a medicine as it says from the standpoint of pathophysiological findings in mouse as well as of human pathological data. Lithium carbonate has been a drug for bipolar disorder for a long time. But it has only narrow width of concentration for treatment and could cause serious complication with overdose. Lithium orotate is introduced as a substitute. Lithium won't matter patent and, if lithium is proved clinically effective to prevent and treat Alzheimer's disease with double blind study, the medication of lithium won't cost so expensive as the antibody med or other forms of cutting edge drug. It would be another advantage of lithium med. 

 Aron L, et al. Lithium deficiency and the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. Nature. 2025. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09335-x

If lithium med is proved to be of use, hasten to publish it in the market. Millions of people must be waiting for it. John AC4CA should have been one of them since he had his wife Jackie suffering from Alzheimer's disease and was always concerned about any new treatment.

     

A new variant Nimbus positive

 Two or three days later than my wife, I have developed typical symptoms of Nimbus. Runny nose, wet cough and most strikingly severe sore throat as they say like swallowing razor blade in the throat. Yesterday, even it was a national holiday, a friend of ours, Dr. Cho has had his office running for COVID cases. My wife was correctly diagnosed for new variant of COVID by him.  My test result was also clearly positive as shown in the photo below. My wife has been prescribed 5 days of Paxlovid. As Dr. Cho told her, med for a day could be diverted to me, not having come to see him today. Of course, I would give it back to her tomorrow when consulting his office.

Ever since the pandemic started in 2020, we have been very cautious not to be infected by the virus. This new strain Nimbus has strong immunity evasion. Fortunately, as WHO says, there are no serious comlications reported in the world.  

Through this tiny experience, I have learned a few things;

As an elderly, I have felt weakness. I was not sure if it was due to my age or this contagious illness. I was surprised not to feel feverish. I was just staggering. It might be due to weakness of COVID or feverish condition 

The fight against COVID is almost endless even though the newly evolving strains are less pathogenic than the previous ones. WHO observation is encouraging to us. But there could be serious mutated strains prevailing in the future.

The super big nation has withdrawn from WHO. Was it a good decision, I wonder. It would impede the lives of the people not only in the US but also in the world. If the US supports WHO in this settings, I am sure the US will be given credit by people around the world. 

PS; I should have remarked with the result that it won't necessarily mean the pathogen was Nimbus. But our symptoms and epidemiological data in this area mean Nimbus as the pathogen.

I am also heartily grateful to Dr. Cho for his enthusiastic service for us. Even though he is not on the air any longer, he was a ham with a call sign of 7N2JZK.  

A thousand of autumns

It is my wife's 73rd birthday today. Soon, It will have been more than half a century we spent our lives together.  

 My wife's name, Chiaki, stands for a thousand of autumns in Japanese. Her parents have wanted her for a long time, it means. I know how much she has been loved by them. 

A couple of years ago, before closing her practice, at the reception room.

She has recovered from the episode of subacute thyroiditis with steroid tapered off for now. So far, she is busy attending a sport gym and caring for flowers in the garden. 

We are stepping into the last chapter of our lives. No one knows when our lives are put an end. I would do as much as I can for her in order to tell her parents when we meet in the heaven that I have tried to make her happy. 

Until that time, let's grow old together! 

Heat wave and grass mulching

As already told, the heat wave and drought have been quite harsh this year. The highest temp in a day has been over 35 deg C for a few weeks. They say even summer vegetables won't grow if the highest temp goes over 35 deg C. All the green beans have been withered. So did from 30 to 40% of sweet melons. Others have also been weakened despite of some watering once a day or so. Some professional farmers are watering their vegetables with continuous irrigation system. It is not a pratical idea for an amateur like me. 

I have tried grass mulching again. Carrots need much water until budding when sowed on soil. Home grown carrot seeds were sowed once with total failure even watered twice in a day. Then I put some grass mulch on it while watering in the same way. They were successfully germinated as this photo shows. Of course, the mulching has been taken off when buds were recognized.

The seeds of carrot are well known for being photophilic. I was afraid the mulching would have disturbed germination hiding light reaching the seeds. But it didn't matter. Seems the sunray in summer was strong enough to get through the mulching. I am happy those home grown seeds would grow to be harvested in several weeks. It is a step toward self contained farming. 

 This is the rose with grass mulching I have posted a few days ago. Putting further grass beneath its branches around, the soil has been pretty wet even in the hardest sun shine. There are new leaves grown on branches as well as some new flowers. The grass would become compost in some time and nourish the tree in the future.

On the other hand, global warming which has brought about this heatwave should be handled with as soon as possible. Before we are over the tipping point. I was convinced about it again this summer.

A pleasant encounter 4 years ago

 Looking for any own description on Langsamer Satz by Webern, in my other blog in Japanese, I found a post on a happy meeting with Paula K9IR on 20m CW in 2021. Jim W9VNE seems to have introduced this blog to her. As she said, this blog has inspired her to consider starting violin again in her upcoming retirement. She told me she had played it in her teen age days. Stories on music and cello in this blog has invited, as she said, to do so. It was a delightful surprise to me. I have, as the post says, enthusiastically mentioned about that poignant piece by Webern to her at that time. It has occupied my mind then. Ham radio has been such a pleasant hobby and through such a QSO with her, it was the most brilliant hobby to me. 

I have written about that Webern's piece twice in this blog. It was composed when he met his wife in the future and made hiking with her. He thought he would go with her hand in hand even in rainy days, that is, in the days of hardship in life. He had thought about possible unhappy days at the time of the height of happiness.  

Music such as Bach, some chamber music of Beethoven, Brahms, Faure and many more, always bring me contradictory impressions at the same time. An example is Bach's Suite in h minor. In its ouverture, we hear something joyfully festive and, at the same time, sadness. The latter accentuates the former. This double meaning in some music which sound poignant may be a universal characteristics of music. It is always even mysterious to me. Good music must be resonant to us in the deepest emotion. I might have told this story in another post in the past. Listning to this Langsamer Satz by Webern, I am convinced of this consequence music gives to our mind. I might have mentioned of the same thing in the past. How Webern has composed this piece might correspond to the essential process music elicits.  

It is a bit sad for me not to be able to go on talking about music on CW with her. Someday, I might have a chance to discuss about it on line.

I just wonder if she has started playing violin again.

Listening a few different sources of this piece, I am sure this one by Belcea String Quartet is the best. Most emotional and haunting. Even though I have already posted it on another post.

  

 

Grass mulching

It has been a harsh and blistering summer this year. Before the weather bureau declares it was the hottest summer ever, we knew it had been here. Water melons have half matured but the other half was withered. Some of pumpkins were dried as well. Ocra or paprika was failure as well. Tomatoes were decayed by the heat wave as well as attack of bugs. Egg plants were only exceptions. They have been harvested at regular interval and have been cooked with soy sauce, vinegar and sugar. 

I found this rose was wearied and was almost withered. It is my wife's territory. But I decided to give much grass mulching around it. Then, I have been pouring much water in morning. It has revived as this photo shows. The grass will be decayed and would work as compost for the rose. I realized the egg plants which survived well had been given grass mulching beneath as well. These two cases may prove that grass mulching would really work fine in such a heat wave and drought. 

 I have been practising this grass mulching for several years. This year, I have learned it was really working in the heating drought. In some cases, even live grass, so far as they won't disturb vegetables to grow, could help soil remaining humid. 

Every year, I am learning something from one to another. But I wonder how long I could carry on farming in this way. Farming longa, vita brevis. 

In order to overcome populism

This attitude in education is important. In order to overcome conspiracy which undermine our minds and to eliminate authoritarianism in politics. Both are prevailing in the present world through populism. 

I have not expected to see Bertrand Russel's words shining as a proverb of wisdom after half a century pause since my young days. His works for pacifism, especially anti nuclear arm movement, still remain unforgettable achievement to me.

Quote;

 “Education is conceived more in terms of indoctrination by most school officials than in terms of enlightenment. My own belief is that education must be subversive if it is to be meaningful. By this I mean that it must challenge all the things we take for granted, examine all accepted assumptions, tamper with every sacred cow, and instill a desire to question and doubt. Without this the mere instruction to memorise data is empty. The attempt to enforce conventional mediocrity on the young is criminal.“

— Bertrand Russell, as quoted, in Ronald William Clark, The Life of Bertrand Russell (1976), p. 423