Christmas time is electric. And with the ever-popular Christian tradition of celebrating a most holy event ripped from the Pagans, quite naturally Japan and its multitudes of Buddhists are getting into the holiday spirit.
Actually... there's nothing wrong with a bunch of Buddhists celebrating Christmas... Buddhism is after all a philosophy and not a religion... at least in its purest sense.
The fact that Japan likes to celebrate Christmas is interesting. All the fun without all of the Christian guilt. Who could blame them?
Japan likes its holidays and sea creatures. Yummy.
Anyhow... ever since the March 11, 2011 9.0 Magnitude earthquake caused a deadly tsunami that for all intents and purposes took out a major nuclear reactor, Japan has been a tad low in available electricity.
Yes... Japan was forced to ration its electrical power.
Now... the following story either has something to do with that, or its just simply a highly successful publicity stunt.
The Enoshima Aquarium in Kamakura, Tokyo is powering its Christmas tree by using an electric eel. I know... shocking.
There's just too many odd-sounding things with that last sentence, but Japan - It's A Wonderful Rife will march forward like the good little toy soldier he/it is.
Yes... this aquarium facility (not just a fish tank in a home) is using an eel to generate electricity to power the lights on a two-meter high tree. Wicked. Apparently the eel is not putting out a tremendous amount of electricity for a continuous light, but there is enough juice to allow the lights to flash.
If you look closely enough, it appears to be flashing in Morse Code. It flashes:
... .- ...- . --- ..- .-. . . .-.. ...
Hmmm... using my handy dandy Morse Code to English dictionary, the Christmas tree appears to flash: 'Save our Eels".
Stupid eel. There's only one eel creating the power. A plural is unnecessary.
The brain capacity of the eel aside, this particular electric eel has been at the aquarium for five years and is used to promote eco-awareness.
Whenever the eel moves (Editor's Note: Isn't that always? No... eels don't have eyelids, but do go into a rest mode for hours and hours. I wonder, though... do electric eels dream of electric sheep?), a pair of aluminum panels gather up up to 800 watts of electricity.
"We first decided to get an electric eel to light up a Christmas tree and its top ornament using its electricity," explains Minawa Kazuhiko (surname first), a PR person with the Enoshima Aquarium. "As electric eels use their muscles when generating a charge, we also thought to get humans to use their muscles to light up parts of the tree and power Santa."
Yup... not content with just a Christmas tree, the aquarium added a robot Santa Claus that also helps power the tree AND helps a jolly robotic old St. (MALFUNCTION!! MALFUNCTION!! SKYNET IS ACTIVATED!!) Nicholas sing and dance whenever a person steps hard on a pad.
That's so cool.
It makes this writer want to toss another article onto the old yuletide blog and sing that old Japanese Christmas song we all know so well:
When the moon hits your eye
Like a big-a pizza pie
That's a moray.
Somewhere eating unagi on rice,
Andrew Joseph
PS: You guessed it... unagi is the Japanese word for 'freshwater eel' - my absolutely favorite Japanese food. Does that shock you? It shouldn't. The fattiness of the eel (singular) makes it taste just like Santa Claus roasting on an open fire. Now that's zen.
PPS: On an unrelated note, the U.S. military is looking at mothballing its nuclear submarine fleet in favor of using some really big eels.
PPPS: How's my singing? I used a SOLO KARAOKE booth to practice!
PPPPS: This blog entry is terminated.
Actually... there's nothing wrong with a bunch of Buddhists celebrating Christmas... Buddhism is after all a philosophy and not a religion... at least in its purest sense.
The fact that Japan likes to celebrate Christmas is interesting. All the fun without all of the Christian guilt. Who could blame them?
Japan likes its holidays and sea creatures. Yummy.
Anyhow... ever since the March 11, 2011 9.0 Magnitude earthquake caused a deadly tsunami that for all intents and purposes took out a major nuclear reactor, Japan has been a tad low in available electricity.
Yes... Japan was forced to ration its electrical power.
Now... the following story either has something to do with that, or its just simply a highly successful publicity stunt.
The Enoshima Aquarium in Kamakura, Tokyo is powering its Christmas tree by using an electric eel. I know... shocking.
There's just too many odd-sounding things with that last sentence, but Japan - It's A Wonderful Rife will march forward like the good little toy soldier he/it is.
Yes... this aquarium facility (not just a fish tank in a home) is using an eel to generate electricity to power the lights on a two-meter high tree. Wicked. Apparently the eel is not putting out a tremendous amount of electricity for a continuous light, but there is enough juice to allow the lights to flash.
If you look closely enough, it appears to be flashing in Morse Code. It flashes:
... .- ...- . --- ..- .-. . . .-.. ...
Hmmm... using my handy dandy Morse Code to English dictionary, the Christmas tree appears to flash: 'Save our Eels".
Stupid eel. There's only one eel creating the power. A plural is unnecessary.
The brain capacity of the eel aside, this particular electric eel has been at the aquarium for five years and is used to promote eco-awareness.
Whenever the eel moves (Editor's Note: Isn't that always? No... eels don't have eyelids, but do go into a rest mode for hours and hours. I wonder, though... do electric eels dream of electric sheep?), a pair of aluminum panels gather up up to 800 watts of electricity.
"We first decided to get an electric eel to light up a Christmas tree and its top ornament using its electricity," explains Minawa Kazuhiko (surname first), a PR person with the Enoshima Aquarium. "As electric eels use their muscles when generating a charge, we also thought to get humans to use their muscles to light up parts of the tree and power Santa."
Yup... not content with just a Christmas tree, the aquarium added a robot Santa Claus that also helps power the tree AND helps a jolly robotic old St. (MALFUNCTION!! MALFUNCTION!! SKYNET IS ACTIVATED!!) Nicholas sing and dance whenever a person steps hard on a pad.
That's so cool.
It makes this writer want to toss another article onto the old yuletide blog and sing that old Japanese Christmas song we all know so well:
When the moon hits your eye
Like a big-a pizza pie
That's a moray.
Somewhere eating unagi on rice,
Andrew Joseph
PS: You guessed it... unagi is the Japanese word for 'freshwater eel' - my absolutely favorite Japanese food. Does that shock you? It shouldn't. The fattiness of the eel (singular) makes it taste just like Santa Claus roasting on an open fire. Now that's zen.
PPS: On an unrelated note, the U.S. military is looking at mothballing its nuclear submarine fleet in favor of using some really big eels.
PPPS: How's my singing? I used a SOLO KARAOKE booth to practice!
PPPPS: This blog entry is terminated.
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