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Pain Mobiles in Odaiba “Proud itasha owners from all over Japan rode up to proudly display their wheeled wonders.” In case you were curious, those cars you may have seen on the internet with the amazing anime, manga and/or video game character paint jobs are called itasha, which literally means ‘pain mobile’. Typically the cars are decorated with a combination of actual paint, and stickers. And the typical itasha theme centers on cute female characters. The fad started back in the ‘80s, with only stickers and plush toys for decoration, but has evolved into the visually wonderful results you’ll see at the link, which features a big gallery of photos from the recent ItaG Fest in Odaiba, Tokyo. (Crunchyroll – Odaiba Itasha Fest) (For the odd origin of the term itasha, see Wikipedia.) Dazzling Gallery of Hand-colored Japan Images “Farsari’s photographic work was highly regarded, particularly his hand-colored portraits and landscapes, which he sold mostly to foreign residents and visitors.” In the 19th century, strange fate brought an Italian photographer to Yokohama, by way of the American Civil War. And now, over a century later, it is our good fortune Adolfo Farsari made his way to Japan. At the link, you will see many wonderful images which give us a visual insight into what life was like during the period in the late 1800s when Japan was just beginning to open itself to the world. Farsari shot his work in black and white, of course, but then made his stunning pictures all the more eye-catching by hand coloring them. We can only speculate that, try as he might, Farsari’s beautiful hand colors pale in comparison to the colors he actually saw in the images he photographed. (My Modern Metropolis – Farsari Colors Japan) For Malaysian Man, Apology is Such Tweet Sorrow “Whilst this is a fairly harmless outcome to the case for Fadzil, it does raise more questions as to the legal implications of what we say on public forums.” Fahmi Fadzil’s heart was probably in the right place last January when he used Twitter to criticize BluInc Media on behalf of a pregnant friend he thought the publishing company was treating badly. It still isn’t completely clear if the Malaysian social activist was entirely right, or entirely wrong. But a court in Malaysia found sufficient cause to rule that Fadzil’s comments on Twitter about BluInc were defamatory, and that he must take some kind of action to apologize. So, as part of an out-of-court settlement, Fadzil has agreed to post the following tweet 100 times: “I’ve DEFAMED Blu Inc Media & Female Magazine. My tweets on their HR Policies are untrue. I retract those words & hereby apologize.” Not a bad outcome for the guy, really, considering he could have had to pay a hefty fine, or been sued by the publishing company. (The Next Web – Malaysian Tweets 100 Apologies) Forget Disneyland, North Korea is the (Second) Happiest Place on Earth “North Koreans who are completely brainwashed, repeatedly...
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