September 2014 – Shinichiro Yano

So, unfortunately, I have not reached Australia yet. I was told and I have been thinking that American are very competent on paper job, however, it seems this is not the case for FBI. I have waiting more than 3 moths from the original request for my record. I will make a phone call them tonight to know the current situation.

This is of course unfortunate though, I am also having good time to prepare to the future. Looking back my life, maybe, I have never read such a lot of paper for my research. I could have developed my reading skill as a scientist and also I could have finished (and will finish) several papers and proposals. This is good chance to learn. And I might have several more weeks. So I will take advantage of this.

This week, an interesting thing happened to me. Since I am not that smart enough to compete many of top level scientist (They are insanely smart), so naturally, I need to find the niche market in physics to survive, in especially the study of magnets. So I have been focusing on some material which I was thinking I knew the best in the world. However, that was just my hope I wanted to cling.

I found that there is a material whose magnetic structure might be wrong. This material has been studying for 50 years something. Although just reading the papers though, I was excited to know this. So I planned the experiment and read a lot of papers very carefully. And then I happened to find the paper which is written by Chinese guy (I didn’t know at that time) at Beijing. So, I emailed to him (I can get email address from the paper) to let him know my idea for his paper. I came up with the idea to keep his study going. He thanked me and told me surprising news, which was published this week. And he said he is already collaborating with Univ. of Tokyo. Oh, I am sorry I was in America.

I was surprised to hear that. And then, I researched around this area. There were several works have done this material very recently. Some of them are close to my recent findings which I haven’t published. As for science, this thing sometimes happens. People work independently, separately, and competitively but the innovation happens almost the same time. So, I have to be in hurry to publish my paper before they can reach my idea.

Challenge? Accepted!!

http://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-job-interview-rule-2013-12

I attached the best video I watched this week. One of the most brilliant guys I know on the earth talks about job applicants. This talk is really short but he talked everything to tell who the talented one is. And this is very true. You can tell whether or not he is good at solving problems by the way of his understanding the problems. His words should be very strong, simple, sincere, and profound because he struggled with the problem by himself. This 90 second interview is worth 10 books. You can even know how to build a rocket from scratch＼(＾▽＾)／

Listening practices for busy ESLs – Audible.com 1-

The audible publishes audiobooks. Since I love to read but don’t have much time to read, listening to audio books is great help. I am using audio book for reviewing the book because listening is kind of passive action. Sometimes, I am thinking different things when I am listening and happen to skip some words and sentences. So, I don’t listen to the book I don’t know. I just listen to the book I already know the story. I will review here on this blog what I listened to audible shorter than what I write about the real book.

Talk like TED.

This book is about TED talk. The author summarized what successful TED talkers have in common. “Passion” is most important. How can I be passionate about something? I believe that people already ruled out how people can succeed. This book is written in the beginning of 21th century though, the rules should have been same. I love this sentence in this book “Ideas are currency in 21th century”

The Grouped

I read this book sometime in 2012. This book was surprising because I believe this idea is one of the first examples of big data analysis, trying to explain how people connect on the web and how people relate each other. This is the summary of these phenomena at the time of writing though, the author explains very well. And this book is very simple small book though, it is very well organized. I think most of Japanese can’t do this. I am impressed every time I read this book.

Norwegian woods

When I am tired of listening to English, usually I listen to this book. I don’t know how many times I have read and listened to. This story is kind of sad because the person died in the story who the main character Toru loved much. She committed suicide. How hard Toru tried and was patient, she chose to die. I am always thinking by reading this book, sometimes how hard I loved someone, and she might leave me. So, why not just loving, just doing what I think that is right things to do?

Think and Grow Rich

By listening TED talk, Richard St, John summarized by interviewing 500 people. On this book, Napoleon hill did that like him. I am thinking there is formula which lead people succeeded already. Even though time has changed, the words are different, what authors are trying say sounds same. I reviewed this book almost 5 years since I have read last time. I believe what he said is true, only problem is how to apply them to our life.

I am listening to Audible at the speed x3. But, when I measured actual speed, it turned out x2 times faster than normal speed. The speed x2 which app shows actually is x1.5. So, please be aware when you are listening to them at limited time. I reviewed 4 books here and I will write here again what I am reading. The review I am going to write here is not literally “review”, just my impression about the books. As I said before, we can’t listening to everything on the book when we are listening to audiobooks.

Investing in Japan

I would love to talk about investing. As you know, Japan is the second largest economy in the world based on the capitalism, liberal, and democracy. Many people have said Japan’s lost 20 years. But the truth is that Japanese economy is very active even though the working population is decreasing and the country is ageing. I believe Japan experienced everything from the modern bubble economy to aging society first in the world. And as you could see, the unemployment rate have never been worse than 5.5 percent, Japan is trying to keep the equality of wealth in nation.

I will keep update what is happing in Japan, how we are innovating technology and future. Today I want to start you should not miss. Today I would love to write three areas I think it is promising in Japan.

Robotics: Japan is biggest robotic market in the world in 2012. Japan especially is good at industry robot but, in 21th century, Japan is going to go no industry robot. Softbank (TSE:9984), you might know this company because Softbank bought Sprint (NYSE) and tried to buy T-Mobile (NYSE). The Softbank is now 2^nd largest company based on following Toyota (TSE:7203), and Softbank is basically company for information technology, but it is going to get into the robotics. Since Japanese have dream, there is famous anime “ATOM”. ATOM can help people with his good heart. And Softbank published Pepper serves people in their home just around $2000, we could buy it like we buy laptop computer. I also want to introduce Yasuzka-denki (TSE:6506) has introduce first industry robot in Japan in 1977 and had leaded robotics in Japan. The company will celebrate 100 years since foundation 1915. I am expecting excellent strategy and contribution for the next 100 years.

Aviation: MRJ (Mitsubishi Regional Jet) is going to start be sell, MRJ is for jet 70 or 90 people. Mitsubishi heavy industries (TSE:7011) is the company used to make “Zero” fighter. We lost the World War II, since then Japan stopped making fighter and airplane. However Mitsubishi is going to use this technology and DNA again, for good purpose this time. Also, I am glad to share HONDA Jet is going to sell production model after they get the approval from FAA (Federal Aviation Administration), just $4.5 million which 15 percent faster and cheaper and 20 percent spacious compare with the conventional small sized business jet. Japanese company could get into this area that will be great. Because making airplane market is hart to get into but once a company could get into the market, the company should be very profitable as Michael Porter says.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wWVLyppx2A

Tourism: As I mentioned before, the tourism in Japan is expanding. The number of tourist who came to Japan in 2012 was 10 million. Expanding more than 25 percent, we will expecting 20 million by the 2020 which is the year Tokyo will hold Olympic For the tourism, how about Hoshino Resort RIET (TSE:3287)? Japan didn’t have enough expensive places to stay for rich people, but they can provide. They are running 30 properties of ryokan and hotel.

Also, there are huge amount of excellent companies in Japan, Tokyo exchange market. And we are expecting a lot of IPO this year and next year. I will try to keep update, I am wondering if I could add my technical analysis of these stocks here. While, I would like you to take look at Japanese stock market.

To be honest, I think that there are two biggest problems in Japan. One is deflation and the other is ageing. It seems we will overcome deflation thanks to Abenomics, now the problem is the company raised the salary for workers. And I said that the aging society is problem though, we have chances because many countries in Asia are aging as well. To fight our struggle will be applicable to the future Asia. We could do business. Next time, we are going to look at Top 10 Company based on market capitalization in Tokyo stock market.

The book review No. 23: A short history of nearly everything.

I would love to thank God, give me a chance to take this book. And I seemed I was ready to enjoy reading this book. Bill Bryson describes the science from Big bang to Life. I am very impressed by this book and him. I am excited, I am not sure, how hard I have to learn to write this level of book. But, I am excited now.

You can enjoy each topic, carefully chosen and its good introduction in this book. He is good at writing motivate you read the topic. Actually, this book is relatively long, like 500 pages. But this writing is very inspiring. You will realize you read faster than you usually do.

I just am excited to read. Many physicists have been contributing to the science. A lot of geniuses were there our history. Each big innovation in science sometimes is not triumphant in short term but beautiful in long term. Sometime I am struggling for science not to have enough achievement though, I can see my work in long term now. Even if I do my best today but end up nothing today, I have tomorrow to pursuit as long as God gives me. I need to be careful to go up each scientific process, but I don’t need to be trapped by them. When I am tired, when I feel failing, I could see long term. Let’s challenge tomorrow again.

So as a scientist, I have 2 things I am pursuing. One is the study of magnetism. The other is development of experimental techniques.

The magnetism: In short, the physicists who are working for magnetism are trying to answer two questions. One is “What is the magnetic structure like?” The other is “Why is the magnetic structure?” There are many kind of magnetic structure though. I will use two of them here. The ferromagnetism which is every spin aligned in the same direction in the material, antferromagnet in which every spin aligned alternately in the material and we have several more kind of magnetic structures. Once we know the structure of magnet, the next thing we would love to know is why they aligned like this? To know this we hit one of spin in the material and make wave. By looking close at this wave we could know how the spins are connected.

Neutron scattering experiment techniques: I am using neutron scattering to study magnetism. Neutron is very useful study of material. Since neutron has no charge and so small. So it can penetrate inside of materials. And also neutron have spin, this spin have interaction with the spin in the material. Because, the spin is the source of magnetism, neutron can be strong tool to study magnet directly. I am also responsible for the development of experimental techniques. The neutron scattering has almost 80 years of history. However, we have still lot of things to do.

I am excited to read this book. Of course, I am a professional scientist. My first responsibility is to find out the origin of magnet by using neutron scattering techniques. But, I realized, I also want to know the history of this science. Like a puzzle game, what part of pieces I am going to fill for the collection of knowledge of science. And then, I would love to pass on the map for the next generation. I am enjoying science now. I really love to do that.

Book Review No.22: The sun also sets.

This book was written in 1989 by Bill Emmott who was Tokyo bureau chief of the economist. It is said that this book anticipated the bubble economy happened to Japan in 1989. At that time, He pointed out the problem Japan had that people overlooked. As Japanese, I have complex feeling because he pointed out everything very clearly. Why couldn’t Japanese do this? It may be because the people believed what the people wanted to believe.

And also when I was reading this book, I am not thinking about Japan. It seems there are a lot of similar problems are happening in China. And there is also difference, China also is ageing though, the problem is they are not rich enough to start aging society. To be honest, I can’t believe statistic from China but some says the fertility rate in China is 1.18, and too many man compare to the number of women because of one child policy. People want a boy for first born child because he has to run their family. The aging in China is much faster than that of Japan. I know how hard this aging society because Japan is now facing. I don’t know how China will be able to fix this. Also, there are a lot of promising things in their future, I would love to talk this later.

I believe that Bill Emott is brilliant. Unfortunately and surprisingly, he explained very well Japanese society and economy. Many things he pointed out became true in Japan, such as the problem about women work force, aging society, Japanese as reluctant to leader, and so on. Almost every problem, we are facing now was pointed out this book already. Why couldn’t Japanese fix these?

So then, I am very angry with the older generation of Japanese. A lot of problems he pointed out have never been solved. They just left this problem for our generation because they didn’t take things seriously. But, I want to change. I would never run away from the problem we are facing now. Our generation will stop this.

While honestly speaking, I believe Japanese can manage many problems described in this book. I am an optimist and I think Japanese can fix almost all problems, except this aging society. This is biggest problem in Japan. There are several options to save, Japan should do everything. Frist step we could do is raising up fertility rate, we need to set up the society women are comfortable for working and having children. The second step is immigrant. Japanese is not taking immigrant officially, but the government started.

However, I am not sure immigrant policy is good for Japan. I don’t think immigrant policy in like Canada and Australia went well. I believe ever the U.S has a lot of problems with immigrant. But, basically the immigrant policy in the U.S. is working well, that is one of reasons the U.S. is strong. They can collect world’s best talents. Talents want to go to the U.S., because they have chances, they have opportunities, they have education, and they might get investment.

I hope that Chinese people are reading this, if they don’t and they are arrogant enough to believe they are doing well. That is relief for Japanese people. We don’t need to be afraid of rising of China. Because we know what would happen and the problem we are working now, we can do business to fix because we will already have already fixed that problem. To avoid, please read this, Chinese people!!

It’s bottom neck!! It’s always!!

I believe that everyone knows well what the experiment physicist doing though, I am trying to explain now how the study of physics is going. The study is going like these simple steps,

Coming up with ideas
Checking what people already knew or have done
Planning the experiment
Doing experiment including the development of new instrument
Analyzing data including the development of analysis methods
Knowing what I could prove and can’t
(Sometimes) discussing them with theorist
Submitting paper, getting critiques from referee(s) of paper, and answer
Publishing paper and making presentations

Easy, hah? I am an experimental physicist. Penney would say “Is that all, is that so simple?” And then Sheldon would say “That’s why Yano (Lenard) does”

To enjoy physics, I need to be confident enough to do these steps. I am thinking always that “bottom neck” of this process and also trying to improve the quality and speed of these steps. As you know, if you have a bottle neck one of these steps, that step determines your productivity. And if you don’t do these processes higher than the standard of science community, you are nothing. As a scientist, I am careful, not to stuck somewhere on these processes.

These days, I was working on mainly step 1-3. I was preparing the proposal for the next experiment cycle which is the first half of 2015. Since I am using reactor, my study and the proposed experiment need to be approved by facilities. I am mainly using Japan (J-PARC, Tokai, Japan), U.S.A (SNS, Oak ridge national laboratory, Oak ridge, Tennessee), and Australia (ANSTO, Sydney, Australia) to complete my study.

Also my responsibility will be to review other scientist’s proposal who will want to use the machine I am in charge of in Australia. One thing I am totally excited is this reviewing process. I will read these proposals very carefully to criticize, assess, and judge to determine whether or not we make them use the machine. By doing so, I will learn a lot. Can you believe this? I could review top level scientist’s ideas earlier than anyone else. I will have to read a lot though, how can the wonderful job be for the future of my science career?

So then, I am reading a lot of papers to write proposals. And I always regret I had started this much earlier though, I am excited to do these 1-3 processes. I happened to find the problem which had never been solved. But, since the problem is old, actually one of the oldest problems which many textbooks already use these as an example, I have to be very careful to say “I have something to accomplish on this problem” But if I succeeded, that would be a considerable contribution to physics. Why not trying?

While, I will finish several more paper before I go to Australia which is step 8 and 9. My goal for 30’s is making these processes my habit. I would love to do more, and I will make every step better, deeper, faster. By doing these, I will have “Passion” to love and enjoy science. This is the most important. Some people say about step 8 is the only goal for scientist so called “publish or perish”. I understand that though, so why then enjoying the every steps to publish? Scientists have to publish anyway!!

Book Review No.21: The third world to first. The Singapore Story 1965-2000.

This is the memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew who became prime minister of Singapore in 1959 at 35 years old, Cambridge educated, and third generation of immigrant from China to Singapore. Singapore has been lucky enough to have this man on their country. He is strong, diligent, smart, open minded, reliable leader and a man of vision. I have any doubt Singapore is one of most competitive countries in the world because of him and the people.

He talks about what he had done to Singapore, and then talks about the relation between Singapore and the countries and their leaders. When I read this, I was thinking whether or not I could be prime minister by 35 years old. Most people might say “please wait”, I would say “please wait”, but he did. Of course I am scientist, I don’t need to be a politician but why shouldn’t I learn this attitude how we could contribute our own country. The country which lost this kind of men has to obsolete.

Since I am Japanese, I was interested in the section talking about Japan. I realized that we young generation of Japanese had to take over everything from the older generation of Japanese whatever they had done good or bad.

For the bad side, I was reluctant to believe what Japanese had done to Asian countries. The cruel and brutal Japanese army had threaten to and beaten Asian people. Lee Kuan Yew says we did not apologize. I disagree with this though, at least this book changed something what I had believed.

On the other hand, for the good side, we could take over the richness the older generation left us. And I am proud of Japanese who came back from full of ashes in our country caused by air raid and nuclear bomb. Japanese have complex feeling for American about this. And also Japan has invested a lot to Asian countries to industrialize the country. Lee Kuan Yew was insightful enough to ask Japanese industrialize, not give soft loan to Singapore. Singapore had succeeded, and then Asians realized the value of training and knowledge, and were more likely to cooperate with Singapore and Japan.

Sometimes I say to Asian people, we should see the future of ours, that’s why we are here. We are here to create. That is the only thing we could do for now instead of complaining each other. At least, we are not complaining American anymore. I personally am responsible for the development of Asian physics. I am happy to serve the Asian physics when they need me. I promise I will do my best.

Unfortunately, I found this book at used book store and it was sold at just $1. Do you believe this? If many Japanese don’t read this book, Japanese shouldn’t have right to lead Asian countries. Japanese, please read. Not only this book, we have to read a lot more. I believe the strength of Japanese and the quality of education to survive this global world as Lee Kuan Yew believes us.

How to read the whole bible in three month for the first time.

I have read the bible for three months. This is my first time to read the whole book. Do you know how many words are in the bible? Old Testament 773,682 words and New Testament 138,020 words in total, this is surprising number. New believer, some of readers, or English learner might want to know how I could finish reading the bible. So, I am here. Fortunately, when I finish reading the bible was the day my mother got surgery and she is fine now.

For English learner like me, reading 1 million (is around 10 books if you count as books) is first goal to build his habit of reading. This first 1 million words is very important, you have to be very careful to start reading the whole bible otherwise you might lose your enthusiasm for English or Reading.

Don’t stick to perfectionism

Reading whole bible does not mean understanding the whole bible. Some of ideas you might not be ready to understand, so leave it. Don’t stop some point you don’t understand. You will be back there when you are ready. Fortunately, even when you get older, the line would never change. The God’s word script always will be waiting for you.

Apply it in your life

The bible doesn’t teach what to do, how to do it where we are living in this world. I suggest you try to apply it in real life. You would notice how hard these actions are. Surely you would struggle with, but by doing so, you would become more interested in what people had done in the bible. Did they do something we did not read? Your desire to know better the bible makes you a more demanding reader.

Find the group

You need to find friends who are also Christian, willing to share what they read. If possible, the meeting with group should be held regularly. By discussing what you read you would have better understanding the bible and you might know what friends are thinking and feeling about the scripture. And then you could review after discussion when you read the bible again.

Go to a church

This is obvious, isn’t it? To attend a church is good time for knowing the bible better. By listening to preach in a church you will know where to read and how to read, and what to read. A preacher teaches you what the script means.

Make it habit.

Read every single day. And you had better decide when to read. What time does this work for you? For me, lunch time is good. I usually take lunch around 12 p.m. and then I read the bible until 13 p.m. Why do I read on lunch time? It is just because that is the time works for me.

Keep your record and set goal

Whatever version you read, each day you can keep record. And then, you can set your goal. For me, reading within three months was appropriate goal. Do not set inappropriate goal otherwise you could not keep up with your goal or you could never finish reading. I suggest you to read the bible with 3 months for first time.

Promise to Friends

If you have good Christian friends, you can talk to her/him. You would promise to her/him when you start, by when you will finish. Your friends would encourage you to read and you will be responsible for finishing reading the bible.

Is there anything that works for you to read the bible? If you have your idea, please tell me. I want to share. Be happy!!

Coffee Break for ESL – TV program –

I will recommend Japanese ESL to watch TV program with DVDs because the character speaks natural speed with better pronunciation in TV program. DVDs are very cheap in the U.S., so if you are in the U.S. I will recommend you to buy them, if you are in Japan, you may rent them from TSUTAYA and then if you really like it, you can buy them.

I thing you can watch TV-program when you are tired and bored with learning English. But, if you want to improve your English skill, I will ask you to do following,

Listen to them when you are free

You can watch the TV program at home. And then, if you could understand what the story is, you can do listen to the TV program by using iPod or portable music player. I bought the software which allows me to get .mp3 file from DVD just for voice. And I listen to them during walking or cleaning.

Try the dictation

Do you know dictation? You listen to the material and write the material down. By doing this, you could listen to the material so carefully and you will improve your listening skill. Since you have to write down what exactly the speaker said, it is one of the hardest training. This is same thing like taking the music down in the music notation. And you might find transcript to check what you write down on the web.

Repeat your favorites

You will have many options to watch. The first thing you really have to is finding the best TV program for you. And then repeat again and again until you almost remember everything from actor’s or actress’s speaking, pronunciation, grammar, slung, vocabulary, accent, everything.

These are TV program I like, you might want to try. You might ask me about the contents if you are interested in.

The big bang theory: The TV program is about the 2 physicists and blond girl. To be honest, I am not sure that everyone loves this problem. But as a physicist, I love this story. It is very funny because physicist life really is like.

Pretty little liars: This is for girl teenagers. Allison (She is the leader of girl’s group) might be killed at the night. Since her four friends were sleeping at that night, they don’t know what happened. The accident has changed their friendship though, 1 year later, the story starts when they got weird text from someone who introduced herself “A”.

X-files : X-files are always my favorite. When I was high school student my dream was to be FBI agent. But, I soon realized that I am not an American. I don’t know when I decided to be a physicist. I was so excited to go to Washington D.C. to see FBI headquarter building.

Lost: The plane crashed into the island. There are a lot of survivors who have various backgrounds. As you can guess, the island is weird. Can they survive and leave from this island? To be honest, the finale was unacceptable for me. Haha.

Terminator Sarah Connor series: I am truly disappointed with the end of this program. They made just 2 seasons, and the story have not finished yet. I don’t know why Terminator John Connor’s side is teenage girl though, Terminator is always fun because it stimulates my curiosity for the future.

HEROs: The story about the people who has special talent, such as leading mind, space and time traveler, precognition, and so on. There are many Japanese on this DVD, so you can enjoy this DVD with Japanese accent. This might be the best for start for Japanese.

Month: September 2014

31 days of visionaries

Struggle to understand