Off-Grid Alchemy

I'm "Hafu" so that helps. But ever since I first visited Japan in 1992, I've loved the people, culture, onsens, and of course...the food! Everything is so different yet, so familiar to me. Of course there are things I don't like too, but thats true of any country and less relevant to me when I'm visiting somewhere. It took me a while to appreciate some of the nuances of the culture, even though I have family from that culture. Again, true of anywhere but perhaps a little more so in Japan. Much of the experience resides beneath the normal communication layers of other countries and languages. I am praying Japan can maintain its magnificent culture going forward. To lose it or dilute it would be a crime.

アメリカの兄弟達 あなたが日本を好きになったきっかけはなんですか？？ 教えてください！

@japan_nobunaga These people are sick. It's a disease. Once you see it thst way it starts to make more sense.

My hands are shaking writing this. A small Japanese flag, the size of a paperback book, tied to the bumper of a city bus on a Japanese national holiday in 2026. And online, someone is calling it "discriminatory." A flag. A bus. A national holiday. In Japan. In Paris, the tricolor covers every boulevard on July 14. Nobody calls it discriminatory. In Texas, every porch flies the Stars and Stripes on July 4. Nobody calls it discriminatory. In London, the Union Jack drapes Buckingham Palace for the King. Nobody calls it discriminatory. Only here. Only our flag. Only on our own holidays, on our own buses, on our own quiet streets. I keep asking how we got here. I do not have an answer. That flag is not too loud. The shame trying to silence it is.

@tanpukunokami I had a nice glass of 25 there. Great tour, too

PSA for whisky lovers in Japan: this might be the hardest tour to get into. Yamazaki Distillery — where Japanese whisky was born in 1923 — runs distillery tours by lottery only. Lottery entries open about two months out. Here's what I've found: ∙ It's Japan's first malt whisky distillery, founded by Shinjiro Torii — the founder of Japanese whisky-making. ∙ The site sits where three rivers meet, on some of Japan's softest waters. ∙ Yamazaki has won "Supreme Champion Spirit" at the International Spirits Challenge three years in a row (2023, 2024, 2025). It's the first brand in the competition's history to do that. ∙ The 80-minute MONOZUKURI tour is ¥3,000. Includes a guided walk through fermentation and distillation, plus a tasting of rare whiskies you can't buy in stores. ∙ Usually one English tour per day. Japanese tours run several times daily. ∙ Lottery demand is high. Slots fill fast. ∙ Plan B: the Yamazaki Whisky Museum is free, no lottery — just advance reservation. The tasting bar inside lets you sample rare whiskies you can't buy in stores, from around ¥4,000 a pour. ∙ 10 minutes on foot from JR Yamazaki Station, between Kyoto and Osaka. One catch: the gift shop sells out fast. If you want a bottle, hit the shop before the tour, not after. Even without the tour, the museum alone is worth the trip.

The Japanese are having American BBQs… Our greatest ally, and it isn’t close. 🤝

@magataotao Thats been the commie playbook since ever since. Make the zoo look pretty to the outside world.

You Westerners who visit China for a holiday, to study, or to work — you really think you can lecture me on what China is actually like? What a joke. Unless you’re a Chinese citizen living here as an ordinary person, your outsider perspective doesn’t count. The Chinese government is simply using you as convenient propaganda tools to sell a fake, polished image of the country. Half the Chinese population still earns only about RMB 1,000 a month — roughly AUD $200. Rural villagers’ retirement pension is just RMB 200, or around AUD $40 a month. This is the reality of “socialism with Chinese characteristics” under the Chinese Communist Party. The only people who are truly rich and powerful are Xi Jinping and his inner circle.

Amazing 😂

Arbitrage

In the Japanese system, government played the roll of "coach, not captain", as Ohmae used to say. But there was still a lot of social engineering going on from a young age in Japan. Some of it very good (in fact as a westerner I can say, certain aspects of Japanese society could be argued to be "peak society"), and some of it not so good (thinking out of the box, self actualization etc are far more difficult). One of the benefits of X is you can challenge these built in perspectives and update the OS. -Then take what is most beneficial.

🇯🇵 Something I'm noticing more and more on X. When we were young, we were told that the Western world looked down on us. But almost all of the anti-Japanese posts come here from developing countries. I have to say that being on X has made me much more pro-Western.

@SenWarren Except you called it a "win" didn't you? 🤷🏻‍♂️

Spiking fuel prices from Trump’s war was the nail in the coffin for twice-bankrupted Spirit airline. FWIW, JetBlue merger failed because a judge, appointed by Ronald Reagan, said the deal was illegal. Republicans are desperate to shift blame from higher costs hitting families.

@SenWarren @JetBlue @SpiritAirlines @JusticeATR @USDOT I guess this is what "winning" looks like for socialists?

I've warned for months that a @JetBlue-@SpiritAirlines merger would have led to fewer flights and higher fares. @JusticeATR and @USDOT were right to stand up for consumers and fight against runaway airline consolidation. This is a Biden win for flyers! apnews.com/article/jetblu…

🚨META’S SMART GLASSES ARE RECORDING YOU IN YOUR MOST INTIMATE MOMENTS.. AND SENDING ALL OF IT TO WORKERS IN KENYA WHO WATCH EVERY SECOND.. THEN META FIRED 1,108 OF THEM FOR TALKING ABOUT IT.. Swedish journalists discovered that footage from Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses is being sent to a facility in Nairobi, Kenya.. Where workers manually watch and label everything the glasses capture.. Not AI watching.. Humans watching.. Over 30 workers confirmed what they see every day.. People in intimate situations.. People on the toilet.. People undressing.. Credit card numbers.. Banking passwords.. Private messages on phone screens.. All completely visible.. One worker said.. “I don’t think they know, because if they knew they wouldn’t be recording”.. Meta marketed these glasses as “built for your privacy”.. “You’re in control of your data and content”.. The AI features cannot function without sending your footage to Meta’s servers.. There is no local option.. If you use the AI.. Your private life leaves your device.. Swedish journalists visited 10 retail stores.. Every single sales rep incorrectly told customers all data stays on the phone.. Not one knew the footage goes to Kenya.. Meta claims face-blurring protects identities.. Workers say it barely works.. Faces fully visible in low light, fast movement, complex backgrounds.. People in your bedroom.. Fully visible.. To strangers making $1.50 an hour.. Workers said the facility was “saturated with content that could trigger enormous scandals if leaked”.. So the company put them under constant camera surveillance and banned personal devices.. Workers surveilled to prevent them from leaking the surveillance footage they were watching.. Then the investigation went public.. Meta terminated the entire contract.. Claimed Sama “didn’t meet our standards”.. Sama fired back.. “At no point were we notified of any failure to meet those standards”.. 1,108 Kenyan workers.. Fired.. Six days notice.. Labor activists called it retaliation.. “The workers who trained the AI saw everything.. Owned nothing.. And lost their jobs the moment they spoke about it”.. 55% of these workers report clinical distress.. 52% meet thresholds for major depression.. They earn $1.50 an hour.. Meta made $56.3 billion last quarter.. The head of the Data Labelers Association said it best.. “It is African Intelligence powering European intelligence.. Which they are now calling Artificial Intelligence”.. Meta has sold 7 million of these glasses.. Targeting 10 million by year end.. A class-action lawsuit has been filed.. Kenya’s courts ruled Meta can be sued directly.. 200 former workers are pursuing a $1.6 billion claim.. 7 million cameras on 7 million faces.. Sending everything to the cheapest labor market they can find.. And they called it “built for your privacy.”

absolutely incredible elizabeth warren is a fiscal terrorist playbook is simple: virtue signal about policing the rich while really only hurting the poor

@offgridding welcome back, brother!

@offgridalchemy I have been gone too long! cool new name.

I know I’ll never be a social media expert. I’m an engineer, after all. While I’m here, I’ll share an uncommon perspective. I’m not just drawn out of the studio, every day, to the land here, but to projects most tech people would find primitive. I read once that Seymour Cray would dig tunnels for hours in the sandstone around his property in Chippewa Falls. For me, when I am not in the woods, I’m often working on ponds. This one has been years in the making, and I am not even close to done improving it. I realize not many people will get this, and I am okay with that. I’ll be out by the pond planning this year’s projects and checking to make sure the fish made it through the winter. It’s a place for wildlife, rain catchment, top-quality irrigation, mosquito control, a skating rink, and simply a beautiful place to be around. What is completely outside your normal work/business that you love to keep up on?

Bana göre otizmin zirvesi bu.

@dailystoic I guess Marcus Aurelius would have had TDS? 🤷‍♂️

Ryan Holiday's Response to Ivanka Trump

honestly, pretty nuts

Okay today's courtroom sketches are really getting out of control

Fed balance sheet expansion

Marco Rubio realizing he’s a junior analyst at J.P. Morgan now