Win a state-of-the art Dyson dc36 vacuum cleaner! Or an Antelope Zodiac DAC converter that converts MP3 to mighty digital audio! How about romantic helicopter tours for two around Tokyo! 2 people will win iPod iTouch! Over 40 pairs of ski lift tickets to Japan's top ski resorts and much more! All for free! All you have to do is listen! InterFM Special:
Tuesday January 3, 2012 from 7:00 am ~ 11:00 am on76.1 InterFM.
From April of 2006 to October of 2009, the highest rated and most popular radio show at the time was "Good Morning Garage." "GMG" as it was called was the flagship morning show of 76.1 InterFM and was the first time in that station's history to be #1 in ratings in the extremely competitive Tokyo Morning FM radio drive time competitive slot.
L to R: George, Taro, Mike
GMG was the first time that 76.1 InterFM beat the dominant Tokyo FM radio station, J-Wave, in ratings. It was the last time also.
On Tuesday January 3, 2012 the GMG gang with Wakana san will be back for a four hour special that will also feature Feng Shui trainer Shiuma san. It's going to be a blast.
Not only that, there's tons of presents too!
One lucky winner will get a chance to win an Antelope Zodiac DAC converter. This fantastic device converts your crappy sounding MP3 sound files into awesome sounding digital music the way it's supposed to sound.
Another lucky winner will also win the world's best vacuum cleaner, a Dyson DC36!
Three people will win ¥5000 coupons for flower arrangements from "Hana Boukujyo"
And five people will win "Boardsmart face masks" and forty lucky couples will win free ski-lift tickets for Japan's top ski and snow board resorts courtesy of Boardsmart.
And there's much more!
The show is entitled "InterFM New Year's Holiday Special 2012 - Bam!" (featuring George Williams, Taro Furukawa, Wakana san, Feng shui trainer Shiuma san and finally, me, Mike Rogers)
Left: Wakana san Right: Shiuma san
That's Tuesday January 3, 2012 from 7:00 am ~ 11:00 am on 76.1 InterFM.
Remember a while back when I showed you a team of Tokyo University student's who had invented an iPad clone for $7! They sold them out within hours. See that story here with photo's: The $7 dollar iPad Look-a-Like Made in Japan.
This morning, I stumbled upon this extremely interesting video about a guy who has come up with an idea that he calls, "The Poor Man's iPod." Regular iPods cost anywhere between ¥4,200 ~ ¥20,900 (about $54.00 USD ~ $270.00 USD)... This Poor Man's iPod (the smallest ones) can hold about 15 songs for $5...
His idea uses a Thumb Drive to store songs to play on your car stereo. Since Thumb Drives have gotten so cheap these days (and are getting even more inexpensive soon) this seems to have potential... Perhaps back to the old days when we had cassettes with our fave artists in a box? One Thumb Drive for your favorite Rock artist, one for dance, one for ?
The Poor Man's iPod
Interesting, no?
Many have said that Apple could be in trouble because Steve Jobs is gone and Steve's replacement is a clone (meaning no new ideas or initiative). Maybe so.
Perhaps this isn't a earth-shaking new idea or even profitable, but it is a new idea and it shows that this guy is thinking...
The Japanese government keeps enacting new laws to "protect the public" but they are actually new taxes to help municipal governments cover their fast growing red-ink. Here is another story about a new law that was just enacted about two months ago..
In yesterday's news report, Japan took a huge jump towards the victor in the title of Nanny State of 2011 by ticketing a cyclist for viewing photos on a cell phone! She wasn't talking on a cell phone, she was viewing photos!!!???... This is really getting ridiculous. But the devil is even worse in the details. Read on!
Police have charged a teenager for using a cell phone while cycling, in the first such case of its kind in Japan, Nikkan Gendai reported on Wednesday.
Around 9:30 p.m. last Sunday, a patrolman in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, cited a 15-year-old female high school student for a traffic offense. The girl had been riding her bicycle while viewing images on a cell phone and repeatedly disregarded warnings to desist viewing the phone.
The cop was yelling at this girl to stop looking at her cell phone? Hell yes, she'd ignore the cop. Who wouldn't? I'd think he was nuts.
"Don't look at me! Don't you F*cking look at me!"
The incident marked the first time for Kanagawa police to invoke the revised traffic ordinance, aimed at discouraging so-called “nagara unten” by cyclists who talk on cell phones or listen to music players while in motion. It went into effect on May 1.
“She apparently thought cyclists were not subject to traffic regulations,” the source was quoted as saying, adding that violators may be fined up to 50,000 yen.
Catch that part: "...listen to music players while in motion...." This means drivers of cars, bikes, whatever. Next obvious step is to make it a fine to wear headphones while jogging or walking on crowded public sidewalks. But wait a minute!!! What law did this girl violate? She wasn't listening to music and she wasn't talking on a cell phone. She was allegedly looking at photos!!!
Any competent lawyer should be able to throw this crap out in a second... But it won't go to that. This girl will pay the fine and the cop will go on his merry way interpreting the law anyway he sees fit. Is this arbitrary or what?
And, get serious, ¥50,000 yen (about $600 USD) for looking at a cellphone or listening to an ipod while driving or riding a bike? Really? This is "protecting the public"? Doubtful.
Still, Japan only fines people for dumb laws. The penalty for uploading a lip sync video to Youtube in the USA would be a maximum five years in prison. Japan may be f'ed up with these idiotic laws too, but we're still way behind - and a much freer nation - than the USA is.
But being a freer nation than the USA is not much to brag about these days. This cell phone while cycling law is ridiculous.
These kinds of stupid laws are supposedly enacted by the government to "protect" the public but they are defacto another tax and a new way for the government to collect monies from us.
It is the same with seat belt laws, motorcycle helmet laws, smoking laws, and a whole litany of other ridiculous laws that the government creates ostensibly to protect us (From who? ourselves, of course).
In the case of seat belt laws or helmet laws, it should be obvious to anyone who is still awake that we don't need these types of laws to "protect us" as there is such a thing as "insurance" in case something happens to us... And if some guy wants to drive his car without a seat belt, is he hurting you or me? Why are we being taxed to stop a guy like that? It's absurd.
Everyone knows that not waring a seat belt or a helmet might be dangerous. Everyone knows that using a cell phone while riding a bike might be risky, but - with or without these laws - people will still do it. And why not? It is their life. Putting a fine on this girl, for example, certainly will not stop her from riding her bike and using her cellphone, she'll just be more careful to make sure the gestapo doesn't see her doing it next time.
"Papers please!"
If we really want to prevent accidents, then let's take this type of nanny state mentality to its logical conclusion and outlawall behavior that is even a tiny bit risky as that way we can alleviate all accidents and abolish accident, car, boat and fire insurance forever.
Of course, that is an impossibility.... But it is an excellent way to raise revenues!
People who do not see the absurdity of these taxes disguised as laws to protect society shouldn't be surprised when the new taxes come in on other ridiculous stuff, like, say, using a headphone or iPod like device in a public place.
Say, great idea! In order to "protect" us the government institutes a new tax on little white earbud headphones and uses the money for research to prevent hearing loss!
Laugh now, if you will, but you "heard" it here first.
This blog started out as a blog about Marketing, Media and Japan. But as time went on, and due to the March 11 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster and the foaming-at-the-mouth rantings of people who were claiming that we all were going to die, I switched the focus of this blog to blasting those clowns out of the water. Now, I see where I have to refocus on writing about just how messed up people are and how f'ed up their priorities are.
People in the west are talking about their health, safety and the environment. They are "getting back to nature", "natural", "eating healthy", "living right" and "exercising", etc., etc. People complain and moan about things like nuclear power and killing dolphins and the environment, etc. all the while they stuff their faces with processed foods, drive their cars like idiots, and do all sorts of things to their bodies that will kill them years before their time and way before any nuclear radiation will.
But I continue to flog a dead horse.
Actually, I am on vacation in Hawaii now and have come to observe another very curious behavior of people these days. This behavior cannot be good for you but you see people doing it all the time. This behavior has been proven to cause high blood pressure, heart disease and even birth defects, yet people still do it regularly.
Hawaii has scenic beauty, natural forests, beautiful unspoiled beaches. Clean. Cleanliness. Unpolluted. Healthy. Natural.
Yes. Healthy and natural... Excepting for the 65% of all people over 30 years old who are overweight here. 80% of the people over 40 are obese.
Very healthy, except for the people.... But those are the unhealthy.. There are some healthy ones. At least they look that way. Those are the the young and beautiful people who are keeping their bodies fit with exercise....
I walk along an empty beach. There's no sound except nature; the wind, the waves, the birds. Silence. It is heaven to a person who has spent over three decades in Rock music as a musician and at a Rock music radio station. On the beach here I have only the sounds of nature; it is heavenly silence and extremely calming and very healthy. My stress levels drop to zero.
Also, on these quiet beaches, runners go by every morning on their daily jog. While doing something great for their bodies, they do something terrible for their minds. They all do the same thing: They wear headphones.
Everyone knows the benefit of natural sounds. Everyone knows the benefit of silence. Everyone knows that sound pollution is a cause of many physical and mental disorders. Yet these people, surely surrounded by man-made industrial noise all day, choose to spend their quiet time alone blasting loud music into their ears.
Go figure.
Here's what Wikipedia says about Health Effects from Noise Pollution: Noise health effects are the health consequences of elevated sound levels. Elevated workplace or other noise can cause hearing impairment, hypertension, ischemic heart disease, annoyance and sleep disturbance. Changes in the immune system and birth defects have been attributed to noise exposure, but evidence is limited. Although some presbycusis may occur naturally with age, in many developed nations the cumulative impact of noise is sufficient to impair the hearing of a large fraction of the population over the course of a lifetime.Noise exposure has also been known to induce tinnitus, hypertension, vasoconstriction and other cardiovascular impacts. Beyond these effects, elevated noise levels can create stress, increase workplace accident rates, and stimulate aggression and other anti-social behaviors.The most significant causes are vehicle and aircraft noise, prolonged exposure to loud music, and industrial noise.
Why do people do good things for their body while doing such bad to their physiology and mind? Why do people appreciate the beauty of nature, yet they seem to not be able to appreciate the sound of nature?
It is quite odd the damage that people will voluntarily do to themselves. I'm not saying that listening to headphones is always bad. I think it might be fine to relax in contrast to, say, a ride on a packed commuter train. But when you have the rare chance to listen to nature, you'd be wise to take it.
Of course, in this article, once again, I will be attacked as some sort of "non-expert" but, like I said, over three decades in music as a paid professional makes me an expert and one of the few people who have made a good living in music.
When music is your business and it is how you live, trust that you come to appreciate the health benefits of silence and natural sound.
I have no TV or stereo at my home and I certainly don't carry a stereo in my pocket.
There's enough man-made noise pollution as it is. If I can hear nature and silence, I will choose that whenever and wherever possible. For your health, you should too.
