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developed by JhackAbout Skeptikai
Skeptikai defends science and exposes pseudoscience. Living in Japan also allows for an interesting opportunity to discuss fascinating stories that go unnoticed elsewhere. Psychological phenomena and intriguing cases from around the globe are also regularly highlighted.
The Psychological Science of StorytellingIt hit me about two years ago, sometime after I started this blog. Somewhere between the…
Islamic Blasphemy and the “Freedom” to Choose your Own ReligionIn the last few weeks, Muslims from Bangladesh have been going crazy trying to fight back…
Inattentional Blindness and the Invisible ViolinistIf a tree falls in the forest and no one's around to hear it, does it make a sound? It…
Hamas-Israel Ceasefire Ends as Gaza Schools Drop Sports for Military TrainingI have been following the news regarding the ceasefire between Israel and Gaza that…
Are Vocal Homophobes Really Just Homosexuals in the Closet?Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who…
Why Haven’t We Found the Missing Link in the Fossil Record? Science Answers!War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. -George Orwell If evolution is…
Bollywood Zombies and The Westernization of Indian Pop CultureGo Goa Gone, the first Western-style zombie flick to be made in Bollywood, was just…
Hungary Solves Homelessness by Finding Places for All… in Jail?The brilliant move of Hungary lawmakers to criminalize the act of being a homeless person…
The 2013 Pigasus AwardsEvery year, the James Randi Educational Foundation gives awards to recognize the special…
Did Jesus ‘Want’ to be Nailed to a Cross?I'm pretty sure the answer to the question in the title is "no," but there are many things…
Tag Archives: twitter
Japan’s Social Network Wars – Facebook Beats Twitter and Mixi
It’s official – Facebook wins. The American-based company struggled to make an impact in Japan at first, but now it seems as though Japan has warmed up to Facebook. Their only real competition was Mixi – the MySpace of Japan (which came out before Facebook) – and Twitter. They both had a good run, but it seems that the island has spoken, and Facebook won’t be surpassed by either of them.
Posted in Culture, Japan, Technology
Tagged facebook, mixi, social networking, twitter
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The Social Network Wars in Japan – Mixi, Twitter, and Facebook
The popularity of Facebook is growing to such proportions that it has some people worried that it’s “killing local social networks around the world.” Indeed, as you can see from the map above, the number of users is staggering. And this map is over a year old, so it does not take into account the publicity that came after the release of “The Social Network” in 2011. In fact, that film was a big factor in what made the website more popular in Japan. But now that Facebook’s popularity is increasing, the question many people are asking is: What is the future of social networking in Japan?
Posted in Blogging, Culture, Japan, Technology
Tagged facebook, social networking, twitter
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Japan, the “Twitter Nation,” Shatters Twitter Record Yet Again
As I have mentioned before, Japan is the “Twitter Nation.” In 5 short years, a fifth of the Japanese population were on Twitter, and as of October 2011, 14% of all tweets were in Japanese. That explains why the image above is so brightly lit within Japan – it’s a map of Twitter activity (i.e., the blue white dots denote locations of tweets). Twitter is such a popular part of the Japanese culture now that practically everyone in the young generations are using it. This explains why something as mundane as a movie on TV broke the previous record for tweets-per-second (TPS). You can also thank Japan for re-breaking that record 3 weeks later.
17 Most Tweeted Events of 2011 (You’ll NEVER guess #1)
2011 was an impressive year for Twitter. (Beyonce is pregnant!) Many people, myself included, started taking Twitter seriously this year, and the numbers of users continue to increase, with no sign of letting up. (She’s pregnant!) Since the year is almost finished, there have been many people who have been saying that the biggest event of the year is… yes, Beyonce being pregnant. At least in terms of the number of people talking about it. (Pregnant!) But the year is not finished, and there has already been something that not only beat the record number of tweets per second, but absolutely demolished it. So let’s look at the most Tweeted events of the year.
Posted in Aggregators/lists/rankings, Culture, Japan, Legal Issues, Media, NewsManga, Translations
Tagged celebrity, crime, movies, sports, twitter
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Skeptikai Notices (Sep11) – 9/11, Hackers, Psychology, and more
9/11:
The international news media has been writing extensively about 9/11, because of the 10-year anniversary of the incident. I couldn’t possibly reproduce all of the articles about it, but here are some of the pieces that stood out for me…
Internet archive shows Sept. 11 coverage – A website has gathered international news broadcasts on the 9/11 attacks, totaling over 3,000 hours of television. This is useful for researchers, and it’s interesting to compare the news from different perspectives, from America, to the UK, to Japan, etc.
Posted in Aggregators/lists/rankings
Tagged authority, bioethics, crime, hacker, haiti, homosexuality, LulzSec, twitter, war
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Skeptikai Notices (July25) – Japan, psychology, news
Japan
Fukushima Plant ‘Successfully Stabilized,’ 131 Days After Tsunami – Finally, plugging the reactors at the battered Fukushima Power Plant is no longer a goal. I mentioned last month that they had started implementing a promising new water system, which works by decontaminating radioactive water while cooling the reactors. Now, TEPCO may achieve a cold shutdown within six months. This is great news, but it’s still important to remember that cleanup efforts will continue for years. The damage from the tsunami seems like it went on forever. In fact, recent research has found that in places like Miyako, the tsunami reached 40.4 meters.
Posted in Aggregators/lists/rankings
Tagged China, Fukushima, geisha, happiness, Israel, lying, memory, new zealand, North Korea, Norway, twitter
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Skeptikai on Twitter
Since I’m constantly told how great Twitter is, I decided to join a week ago. I’m not sure how it will affect my blogging, but so far I have no major complaints since I started using it last week. I’ve been making some minor changes to my blog as well, though I can’t get facebook to sync with this website, and I’m thinking of just giving up on it. Maybe twitter is enough. Anyways, beyond the general update on Skeptikai, I also decided to look up interesting facts about Twitter. I found lots. I admit, I didn’t realize how much Japan has affected twitter; and I had no idea how much Twitter has affected Japan.