In English:
Miu: Kyoko, his wife, quit her job as a kindergarten teacher after she got married and is now a housewife.
Chika: Craptastic.
In the next panel, Chika is shown hiding her face and quivering, which is how she usually laughs when one of Miu's crazy jokes gets to her.
In Japanese, fun (pronounced "foon") means "excrement", usually in a non-polite way. So it's easy to conclude that in the Japanese version, Miu wrote funtastic, which is a pun: a semi-common corruption of the English word "fantastic" (many Japanese seem to substitute "u" for "a" and vice versa when speaking English) meant ironically.
This little fun bit has been rattling around my brain for several days, and this is the first time I remembered it when I was actually writing a post.
So the translation would be correct if Miu wrote "funtastic", though not as funny.
* * *
Apparently Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan Saheeb Skyhook tried to convert his patients to islam. If this guy had been a Christian trying to convert his patients to Christianity, the Army would have thrown him out on his ear instead of simply giving him a reprimand.
"...Saheeb Skyhook": Limbaugh used to refer to some crazy dictator with some long, complicated name by appending the quote to his name. I think it fits here.
* * *
Using HIV for gene therapy. Interesting. Since we can control the HIV infection, it gives people afflicted with adrenoleukodystrophy a chance to live a reasonably long life.
* * *
You don't need to mortgage the house to buy a decently powerful computer. The computer I play WoW on cost $670, with shipping, in 2007; and although I decided to upgrade the video card in 2009 I didn't actually need to.
All told, if you are careful about what and when you buy, you can get quite a nice machine for not a lot of money.
* * *
Obama says there are "economic challenges ahead". Such as 10.2% unemployment, or about 17% if you figure it the way the media did during the Bush years.
* * *
Reading between the lines here, it looks to me as if China is telling us to get our shit together because China is planning for wars that include space assets.
That's not really a secret, and it certainly isn't even remotely surprising. Space is the ultimate high ground; a 10kg rod becomes a lethal warhead if dropped from orbit and there is no way to stop such a weapon. The only way to avoid it killing you is not to be there when it hits.
* * *
So it's Saturday, and it sure as shooting doesn't feel like it's Saturday. I keep thinking it's Friday.
I woke up before the sun was up (went to bed at about 8:30 last night, exhausted); I went out to look at Orion and as I did I saw what had to be a satellite pass right overhead, moving from SSW to NNE.
I don't think it was an airplane: it was something so high up that it was just a point of light, and it was moving too fast for an airplane at that altitude. I went to the Internet to see what satellite it could have been.
The problem is, the ephemeride sites for satellites prune past data: if a flyby has already happened, you can't see the listing for it. (At least, this is so for the sites I checked.)
Oh well.
