Have you noticed what word the sales people at Shibuya 109, the Kiyoto “maiko” and night club hostesses use to refer to older women to avoid saying “obasan?”[…]Miu: Oh, wasn’t there some minister who got in trouble for calling women “reproductive machines?” Me: Exactly. That mentality. There are lots of women in their 30s and older who truly dread being called “obasan.” If it hasn’t happened already, then it could happen any second. Horrors! Miu: Moment of metamorphosis. Society decrees you useless for preservation of the species. Me: I like being obasan. I am proud of being obasan. Miu: OK, obasan. Me: Obasan is a title that you earn as a woman when you grow older and wiser and better.[…]Me: Women should be proud of being obasan. Miu: Of course. Me: Obasan Power! Miu: That’s a good way to put it. Me: But all you see in the Japanese media much of the time are obasans rushing to bargains, gossiping, taking flamenco lessons. Miu: What’s the solution? Me: I’m not sure. Data show Japanese women are choosing not to get married and not to have children, even if they do by some miracle get married.

To take the Cat by the foote, and therewith rake the coales out of the Ouen.

This senior-junior, giant-dwarf, dan Cupid.

As one of its engineers blogged in 2012, Google was transforming itself from an “information engine” to a “knowledge engine.”