Five Bullet Wednesday - BioScandal, Lawyers, and Cat Dogs (Patreon)

After effects---
I held off getting adobe suite for a long time because I just didn’t have the time to learn it.
For now anything I do in after effects I export to a vid file and then import it to Final Cut Pro and do all my final editing there. If premiere (which I haven’t used yet) is anything like after effects then I’d agree with MKBHD that FCP is simpler but much faster. So far I’ve got easy ease down. There's a lot of fun things you can do in After Effects, but I'll have to resist doing too much flashy editing so it doesn't get too distracting

Podcast I enjoyed---
“The Portal” with Eric Weinstein - “19: Bret Weinstein - The Prediction and the DISC” (I think it should be titled something like Why my brother deserves a Nobel Prize for finding that most drugs should be more toxic than we think they are)
I’d never heard of this podcast but my friend recommended this episode to me. Really interesting story about how the host’s brother, Bret, (at the time, a graduate student at the University of Michigan) guessed early on the reason mice seem to have such weirdly long telomeres. And, the reason their telomeres are so long is not because that’s how mice are, but has to do with where the those specific mice that were examined were living. And, that this means drug trials are grossly underestimating how toxic most drugs should be. And, a Nobel Prize winner stole his idea and presented it as her own during probably the most important lecture of her life.
Really worth a listen.
The start of the podcast is mostly the older brother Eric (managing director of Thiel Capital) telling his younger brother Bret (biologist and evolutionary theorist) why he’s an idiot for not propagating his research and ideas more aggressively. The main story starts at 00:48:44

Technical point that didn’t make it into my video---
For those of you who saw the heme-chan being afraid of the heme oxygenase sword, I was actually planning on talking more about that in the video. Here’s two paragraphs that I cut out:

“Free heme” is toxic thanks to its oxidant properties - sounds pretty scary, but heme often comes linked to a protein making it OK[R] So, the heme you get when you eat meat comes linked to a protein forming myoglobin or hemoglobin. But meat’s myoglobin or hemoglobin is broken down in your stomach[R], which liberates the oxidizing, toxic free heme.

But your body has to deal with heme all the time even if you don’t eat meat. Your red blood cells have a lifespan of 120 days and then the red blood cell carcass has to be processed and recycled. That heme in the red blood cell is degraded by an enzyme and this in fact produces two potent anti-oxidants[R] - carbon monoxide[R] and bilirubin[R]. In fact, there is a disease called Gilbert’s syndrome where people’s skin can turn yellow because of so much bilirubin building up in their body. People with Gilbert’s syndrome seem to have a lower risk for various age related diseases and one idea is that it is thanks to the antioxidant properties of bilirubin.[R]”

I wanted to emphasize that yes, when people say heme (free heme) is oxidizing and cytotoxic, they are correct. So, when you ingest heme, a protease is breaking down hemoglobin or myoglobin and out comes heme. But, heme catabolism is an interesting process where that heme is actually turned into two things that are considered “potent antioxidants” in the literature. I don’t have enough evidence to say that there is a net antioxidant effect from ingesting heme and didn’t want to be misunderstood as saying such. The idea was to help people understand that just because heme is “cytotoxic” (true) and a pro-oxidant (also true) doesn’t mean the body hasn't developed an elegant means for dealing with it. Your body is producing literal poison all the time during normal metabolism. However, thanks to enzymes like Catalase, it is dealt with.

Lawyers in Japan ---
A little over a month back I collided with someone while on my bike as he stepped out of his truck. My cheekbone hit his cheekbone, though I was going slow after just leaving a stop light and was able to brake before we hit. So although it didn’t feel like even enough to leave a bruise on me, I was worried about him as he was much older than me. It looked like he was in pain, but he had no injuries. I apologized and later I brought a gift over to emphasize the apology (kind of a custom in Japan). He was very nice and understanding that it was unavoidable and he didn’t want to press the matter. It worked out, but this had me curious about Japanese law.

Apparently, in the eyes of the law a bicycle is considered a “light” vehicle (same designation as kei car - the smallest highway legal passenger cars. Very tiny, kei car trucks look like a strong enough gust of wind on the highway could knock them over.) So, this would be dealt with in the same way as when a car hits a pedestrian...  

Anyhow, I found myself watching this video, which had a pretty interesting point: A Japanese lawyer, called a bengoshi in Japanese, is not actually a “lawyer,” but rather something different. The guy, Timothy Langley, is saying like we sushi instead of “raw fish on rice,” we should be calling Japanese lawyers bengoshi rather than “Japanese lawyers.” Langley says that just like lawyers, bengoshi are trained to interpret and apply the law, but their profession is in Japanese court procedure. He says he’ll often have foreign executives say they hired a bengoshi but aren’t getting much collaboration or actionable advice from the bengoshi. The reason for this, he says, is that “their role in society is keeping things calm and moving, and applying justice for the benefit of society as they see it -- not you, the client.”

He explains that the 32-petaled gold chrysanthemum appears in only 3 places in Japanese society. The first by the emperor by the imperial household, the second on the lapels of Members of Parliament and the third on the lapels of bengoshi. “So when you look at it in this way, it appears as though they answer to none other than the emperor - not to the Ministry of Justice or any other government agency. Their role in society is keeping things calm and moving, and applying justice for the benefit of society as they see it -- not you, the client.” I interpret that as their job being to make sure you follow the law, rather than using their understanding of the law to provide advice that will benefit whatever you’re trying to achieve.

Another interesting thing is that, as far as I understand, foreign nationals cannot become bengoshi by law. Foreign nationals can only become “Attorney at foreign law,” gaiben, and “can only give advice pertaining to the law of their home jurisdiction, and cannot draft legal documents or represent Japanese clients in intrastate matters or probate matters without the assistance of a qualified bengoshi (attorney at law).”

In fact,  Timothy Langley completed schooling at a Japanese law school, and then attempted to sit for the Japanese bar. (Apparently one of the first foreign nationals to do so). They stopped him and the only reason given was, “We can’t let you take the test, Langley-san… because you are not Japanese.”

Tanukis---
For the longest time I thought Tanukis were just mythical creatures that appeared in folk tales, cartoons and Super Mario Bros 3. Ironically I found out, not in Japan, but in the Netherlands that it’s an actual thing. In my defense, I assumed tales of raccoon-like animals with gigantic scrotums couldn’t be based off of a real animal. You’ll often run into statues of them in Tokyo if you pay attention.

The Japanese raccoon dog sounds more like a cat dog. “They vocalize by growling or with groans that have pitches resembling those of domesticated cats. Like cats, the Japanese raccoon dog arches its back when it is trying to intimidate other animals; however, they assume a defensive posture similar to that of other canids, lowering their bodies and showing their bellies to submit.”