zichi’s arty posterous

The Immigration guideline requiring foreign nationals to be registered with government health insurance in order to have their visas renewed is to be withdrawn and sent back to the drawing board. A few weeks ago the Kobe City Assembly sent an official communique to the national government. This, as well as an overwhelming backlash from the foreign   community, certain lawmakers, as well as organizations like the Free   Choice Foundation led to the outcome.

Free Choice has been leading   the campaign to get the guideline withdrawn. Kaj Schwermer, Co- Chairman of the Foundation and Coordinator of ETJ in Osaka, reported   to the ETJ discussion list that 'Although not quite the end of the   road, as the guideline will most likely be re-written at some point,   this is a significant step forward for all of us concerned about human   rights and freedom of choice here in Japan and I would like to thank   all of those who had the courage to stand up and make their voices   heard. I’d also like to thank all the people who came forward with   suggestions on how to improve our message and gave constructive   criticism. The response to our little campaign has been overwhelming.   For all the naysayers out there who believed we were tilting at   windmills from the outset, I have three words for you: YES WE CAN!'    Free Choice is now considering tackling other problems and issues   facing foreigners living in Japan.

For more information, please see this page.

U.S. broadcaster and author Amy Goodman said she is concerned a journalist would have to undergo an interrogation while trying to enter Canada. (CBC)

U.S. journalist Amy Goodman said she was stopped at a Canadian border crossing south of Vancouver on Wednesday and questioned for 90 minutes by authorities concerned she was coming to Canada to speak against the Olympics.

Goodman says Canadian Border Services Agency officials ultimately allowed her to enter Canada but returned her passport with a document demanding she leave the country within 48 hours.

Goodman, 52, known for her views opposing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, told CBC News on Thursday that Canadian border agents asked her repeatedly what subjects she would cover at scheduled speaking engagements in Vancouver and Victoria.

'You're saying you're not talking about the Olympics?'—Canadian border agent

Goodman said she told them she planned to speak about the debate over U.S. health care reform and the wars in Asia.

After much questioning, Goodman said the officials finally asked if she would be speaking about the 2010 Olympics.

"He made it clear by saying, 'What about the Olympics?'" said Goodman. "And I said, 'You mean when President Obama went to Copenhagen to push for the Olympics in Chicago?'"

"He said, 'No. I am talking about the Olympics here in 2010.' I said, 'Oh I hadn't thought of that,'" said Goodman.

"He said, 'You're saying you're not talking about the Olympics?'"

"He was clearly incredulous that I wasn't going to be talking about the Olympics. He didn't believe me," Goodman said.

The CBSA declined comment on the incident Thursday.

Searched car, computer and notes

Goodman said her car was searched and the officials demanded to look at her notes and her computer.

Goodman is best known as the principal host of Democracy Now, a U.S. syndicated radio broadcast.

She was coming to Canada as part of a tour to promote a new book, Breaking The Sound Barrier.

"I am deeply concerned that as a journalist I would be flagged and that the concern – the major concern – was the content of my speech," said Goodman.

As part of its push to go more social, Google has been attempting to unify its various account profiles into one Google Profile. And now it’s more useful. Google’s Brad Fitzpatrick has just tweeted out that Google Profiles can now be used as OpenIDs.

What this means is that you can sign into any site that accepts OpenID simply by using your Google Profile domain. Luckily, a few months ago Google started allowing these profiles to have vanity URLs, like /mgsiegler, instead of the previous /32090329039402903. Chris Messina, a huge proponent of the open web movement, has just sent out a picture of what signing in with OpenID via your Google Profile looks like (below).

Despite its good intentions, OpenID has yet to take off in mainstream usage. The problem, it seems, is largely about presentation. Most people have no idea which of their various accounts can be used as OpenIDs, or really even what OpenID is. Google backing it a bit more with these profiles obviously helps, but will it take OpenID mainstream? Probably not.

More interesting may be the second part of Fitzpatrick’s tweet. “Also, gmail webfinger declares that now too.” It’s not entirely clear what he means by that, but it would seem to suggest that we’re getting closer to being able to use our Gmail addresses as a web ID. WebFinger is a protocol being worked on by Fitzpatrick to allow you to attach information to your email address (in this case, you Gmail address), so it can be used as a solid means of identification.

Marco Schuler’s solo exhibition at Häusler Contemporary Zürich is the first exhibition of a new series of solo presentations of young international artists who exhibit for the first time in Switzerland. New Position I, the inaugural exhibition, presents sculptures and videos by the German artist.

Marco Schuler’s work revolves around notions of physical strain and testing one’s physical limitations. Marco Schuler’s videos resemble experimental setups. The intensity of the artist’s efforts and his expressive gestures are reminiscent of rituals. In his sculptures, the artist’s body is often substituted with figurative elements.

Marco Schuler was born in 1972 in Bühl / Baden. He lives and works in Munich.

Marco Schuler: Zauberberg. Sculptures and Videos. Häusler Contemporary Zürich, opening reception, November 19, 2009.

David Hockney gifted Bigger Trees near Warter 2007 to Tate in 2008. The oil painting, his largest ever, was made on fifty canvas panels and was executed outside, en plein air. Measuring 4.6 x 12.2 metres (15 x 40 feet), its subject is a typical Yorkshire landscape, west of Bridlington. The work was first exhibited in 2007 at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. David Hockney also presented Tate with two digital photographic renderings of the painting on paper sheets in the same dimensions as the oil.

Focusing on the arrival of spring before trees have come into leaf, Bigger Trees near Warter features two copses, a mighty sycamore tree, buildings and a road curving to the left flanked by early flowering daffodils.

Hockney’s ambition to paint such a large-scale canvas posed a problem as it was impossible for him to step back and view the whole work. He began by making drawings and used these to locate where each canvas would fit in the composition. From these a computer-mosaic of the picture was generated enabling him to step back, albeit in a virtual space. Hockney was then able to take the individual canvas panels to the site and thus create his enormous work over a six-week period.

David Hockney said: ‘My picture is adaptable. You can split it in two and show one or both halves, or even a quarter of it. Or show the painting with two full-scale reproductions that would almost make a cloister.’

Commenting on the gift, Nicholas Serota, Director, Tate said: ‘Standing before David Hockney’s Bigger Trees near Warter, the viewer is overwhelmed by the beauty of the winter trees and the energy of the Yorkshire landscape. In this work he has deftly joined together the tradition of painting en plein air with digital technology on a monumental scale.’

Australia’s venomous redback spiders are on the march in Japan, where they are believed to have arrived years ago as stowaways on cargo ships, a wildlife expert warned Wednesday. The spiders, named after their fiery markings, have infested the Osaka region and are drawing closer to Tokyo, said Japan Wildlife Research Centre official Toshio Kishimoto.

A dozen people have reportedly been bitten in Osaka Prefecture alone, media reports say, including a six-year-old boy who was treated with antivenom in June, the first time the medication had been used in the country.

“Their poison is strong and they are particularly dangerous to people in weak physical condition, like children and the elderly,” Kishimoto said.

“Redbacks are becoming a common species in Japan. They are very numerous, especially in the western region, and are now often sighted in residential areas. Once the spiders spread, it’s hard to eliminate them.”

Redback bites, which inject a potent neurotoxin, have caused numerous deaths in Australia, although an antivenom stocked in hospitals has prevented fatalities more recently.

Redbacks were first spotted in Japan in 1995, around Osaka, a major port where, experts believe, they may have arrived in a container of Australian woodchips used to make paper in Japan.

Several years ago, a major redback infestation was found in the street drainage system of the city, and the arachnids have now spread to prefectures covering roughly a third of the country.

Kishimoto said Japanese people must become more aware of the dangers of redbacks, a species long feared in Australia, where the creatures are known to lurk in garden sheds, in shoes left outdoors, and under toilet seats.

“People need to be warned on how to treat them, and to be careful when they’re out cleaning ditches, and to wear thick cotton gloves for example,” said Kishimoto.

Tokyo police plan to arrest four teenagers from U.S. military families living in Japan on suspicion of attempted murder, Kyodo news agency reported on Wednesday, as tensions simmered over U.S. bases in Japan.

The four, aged 15-18, are suspected of involvement in an incident in August in which a Japanese woman riding a motorcycle ran into a rope stretched across a road in Tokyo near Yokota Air Base and fractured her skull, Kyodo said, citing investigative sources.

Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department declined to comment on the case.

Mitsuru Takahashi, who is in charge of media relations at the public affairs office of Yokota Air Base, said the four have not been arrested and they have not been identified as suspects.

"The U.S. military has heard from the Metropolitan Police Department that such an incident had taken place... We hope that the victim will recover as soon as possible," Takahashi said.

The alliance between the two countries has been jolted before by military accidents and crimes, including the 1995 rape of a 12-year-old girl by U.S. soldiers based in Okinawa that prompted huge anti-base protests.

Japanese police have also questioned a U.S. soldier about a fatal hit-and-run accident on the southern island of Okinawa.

Under an agreement between the two governments, U.S. forces based in Japan are not obliged to hand over personnel suspected of a crime outside the base unless they are charged, though they have sometimes done so in serious criminal cases.