My new favorite youtube video

motion graphics + npr personalities + bruce = awesome

Crime perpetrated by Japanese elderly spiking

NPR ran a fascinating report on spiking non-violent crime committed by the elderly in Japan.

Statistics have shown a 5-fold increase in crime among older folks.

They interview journalist Michael Zielenziger – the author of Shutting Out the Sun: How Japan Created Its Own Lost Generation – about the phenomena.

Zielenziger talks about the long-term economic collapse, lack of governmental support, and poor social infrastructure.

He also talks about a 79 year old woman who stabbed a young woman in a Tokyo shopping district and was quoted saying, “I had no place to stay and wanted the police to take care of me.”

I found a little bit online the stabbing here.

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Zielenziger was the Tokyo-based bureau chief for Knight Ridder Newspapers for seven years.

Here is a synopsis on the book from his web site:

The world’s second wealthiest country, Japan once seemed poised to overtake America. But its failure to recover from the economic collapse of the early 1990s was unprecedented, and today it confronts an array of disturbing social trends. Japan has the highest suicide rate and lowest birthrate of all industrialized countries and a rising incidence of untreated cases of depression. Even more troubling are the more than one million young men who shut themselves in their rooms “hikikomori”, withdrawing from society, and the growing numbers of “parasite singles,” the name given to single women who refuse to leave home, marry, or bear children.

Fighting Pirates with an Ipod

Morning Edition featured a pretty interesting company started by a former British Army Pilot.

Anti-piracy Maritime Security Solutions

They put 3 guards on the deck of your ship who ward off pirates with non lethal means.

The guards, who are all ex royal marines, use barb wire, water cannons, and other devices to deter pirates from targeting their ships. They don’t carry guns.

One of the devices is a standard mp3 player that is hooked up to make a god-awful noise once pirates get within earshot.

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I can’t help but think this is how MacGyver would do it.

Morning Edition

I was pretty stoked listening to Morning Edition on my way into work today.

They aired a piece by Chicago Public Radio on the Governor of Illinois having to fill Obama’s Senate Seat, which is open this Sunday.

In covering the story, they didn’t interview somebody from the Chicago Tribune or the University of Chicago.

They interviewed a journalist/blogger – Rich Miller (www.thecapitalfax.com)

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It’s a pretty good piece.

The Governor’s been surrounded by scandals and his approval rating is lower than Bush’s but he’s a little more popular now that he gets to pick Obama’s replacement.

NPR's New CEO

The new CEO is a she. (I think that’s a first for NPR…) And she has NO RADIO EXPERIENCE.

I’m excited.

Gawker’s posted her memo to NYTimes.com staff.

Here she is talking about doing online video for NYTimes.com:

Sounds like she’s got a lot of experience doing online news as well as long format programming for cable.

I wish her luck with NPR politics. She’s stepping into a pretty charged situation.

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If you never have, check out NYTimes video site, they have some good stuff (unfortunately it looks like you can’t embed):

http://video.nytimes.com/