"them" being the elevators in my building lol

I was planning on running after work today, but I guess climbing all the floors to my apartment will be my workout instead (the 7.5 earthquake off Iwate just knocked them all out).

「家しか建っていない場所でありえない」仙台市中心部近くにクマ居座る　箱わな設置で捕獲へ　仙台・青葉区 | 宮城のニュース│tbc NEWS│tbc東北放送 (1ページ) 19日朝早く仙台市中心部に近い市街地でクマが目撃されました。クマはマンションの裏の茂みに居座っていて、仙台市は捕獲するため箱わなを設置しました。鈴木雅人記者リポート：「現場の方にクマを捕獲するわなが運… (1ページ)

Looks like the bears are awake in Sendai 🐻

newsdig.tbs.co.jp/articles/tbc...

Like “heterodox,” the term “viewpoint diversity” is a dog whistle everyone should be aware of. Fundamentally anti-intellectual and anti-academic efforts to platform people with dubious credentials and/or “research” in the name of (typically ultra-conservative) agendas, masked as “academic freedom.”

Could the term they're looking for be "loanword adaptation"? At least, that's the one I think of wrt the process of making a new loanword "fit" (morphologically, phonologically, etc) into a new linguistic environment.

*Seeing power lines in Japan* wow just like in Serial Experiments Lain!

*Seeing a staircase in Japan* wow just like in Kimi No Na Wa!

*Seeing a small room in Japan* wow just like in The Tatami Galaxy!

*Seeing a depressed person in Japan* wow just like in Welcome To The NHK!

Here's Why Crying Uncontrollably In Your Car Before and After Work Is Actually Good for Your Productivity: Business Insider

You'll be pleased to know that it was exactly as soft as it should have been.

A wall installation featuring a large red cow ("akabeko"), a traditional craft from Fukushima usually made out of wood. The one on the wall has a soft, squishy butt, with text next to it reading "touch!"

For anyone who needs it, there's an akabeko with a touchable butt (lol) at Shimbashi station in Tokyo.

A sign explaining the ages appropriate for the playground and for parents to supervise their kids. Bilingual German and French.

A sign telling people not to smoke near the playground. Bilingual French and German.

A sign with cool facts about T-Rexes. German only.

A sign with some information about raccoons. Bilingual French and German.

Rules and regulations: French and German
Scientific information: Mostly German, sometimes bilingual German and French
Language used by workers (overheard): Lux

(Also, language used by Hannah with workers: Lux, except when I forgot what I was doing and said something in German instead)

Text on the side of a playground structure that reads in Luxembourgish, "Déi wierklech cool Gesondheets Mutuelle."

Text on the side of a playground structure that reads "Frësch Eeër."

A giant playground story book that reads in Luxembourgish, "De Ris Geet op D'Rees."

Signboard explaining this entry to the story De Ris Geet op D'Rees, written bilingually in Luxembourgish and French. Text in accompanying comic is in Lux only.

A highly informal analysis of the linguistic landscape of Parc Merveilleux in Bettembourg, Luxembourg.

Decorations: Lux
Fairy tale stuff: Lux, French, also occasionally German (not pictured)

(cont.)

A very simply drawn cartoon of a very round and green smiling frog squatting down and holding a ouija board. The background is blue and the text reads ‘fuck ChatGPT. I’m asking ghosts’

Mood for 2026, (the artist is Ainsley Drew, on Instagram)

The last two times I've been in this hospital waiting room, they've been playing Massan (which as the only white person here, makes me feel a little >_>), but now it's all coverage of the US militarily harassing the Middle East, which is definitely not an improvement.

How far back in time can you understand English? An experiment in language change

If you liked this experiment, I published a full piece today in the same vein: a text that gets 100 years older with every section, from a modern blog post to a medieval chronicle.

It's a single story spanning 1000 years of English. See how far you get.

www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/how-far-ba...

Honestly we should have all known we were in a dangerous global decline as soon as Hollywood struggled to make a new movie about Blade

Happy 40th anniversary to "The Legend of Zelda" (released on February 21, 1986).

I definitely saw Ben-Hur at least three times, specifically in Latin class.

This thread shows a deliberate defunding of U.S. science, engineering, social science, innovation, and education excellence. It’s a U.S. national security, competitiveness, and economic disaster.

I didn't really mind election cars in Tokyo because they didn't seem to be much louder than anything else, but up here in Sendai, they've got to be at least 30db louder. I couldn't even hear my own headphones at max volume over the one I passed on the street today.

if you’re tear gassing little kids you lose your job, you get arrested, tried, and jailed

simply no other option in a civilized society, these goons must face consequences

(Dude suddenly stops pushing his broom across the floor of the Death Star)

Does this look like a big laser to anyone else

Iran Protest Death Toll Could Top 30,000: Local Officials According to two senior officials of the country’s Ministry of Health who spoke with TIME.

"As many as 30,000 people could have been killed in the streets of Iran on Jan. 8 and 9 alone, two senior officials of the country’s Ministry of Health told TIME—indicating a dramatic surge in the death toll."

time.com/7357635/more...

Text messages and a moved SUV: How the government’s case against a Chicago woman shot by a Border Patrol agent fell apart | CNN A wide grin was plastered on Marimar Martinez’s face Thursday as she thanked her attorneys outside an Illinois courtroom and told reporters, “I’m just blessed. I’m happy.”

Marimar Martinez was the first US citizen shot by ICE.

They claimed she was a terrorist. Said she was brandishing a weapon.

They lied. Video footage exonerated her and showed the ICE agent shot her five times.

He bragged to other agents “five shots, 7 holes”.

A 🧵 of ICE abuse

There will be many people in media and gov't saying "I can't fathom how [insert thing that the U.S. has an extensive history of doing] could just happen like that" and I need you to really think about *why* this is infuriating and why maybe the systems that enable these patterns aren't the solution.

Wake up. Have a sip of water. Check if WWIII started. Brush teeth.

Calling all the PhDs I know to make monumental annoyances of themselves (and honestly, who better)

Jisho has long been an incredibly valuable website for learning Japanese - huge range of definitions, well sourced, and no ads. It's an honor that my silly little slang dictionary is now part of it. Can't wait for the full launch of the new version (plz bring back the dark background Kimtaro 🙏🙏🙏🥺🥺🥺)

The American Dialect Society has chosen its word of the year: slop…used as both a freestanding noun, and a productive suffix! Check out all the words we nominated at the link! And while I nominated “that’s AI” (and it won for most useful), there’s no fake news here!