Real US, topics from John

Important and interesting topics are mostly from friends abroad!

Dec. 2022

Junior-high entrance exams in Japan. What is the “standard deviation?”
- A standard deviation (or σ) is a measure of how dispersed the data is in relation to the mean. Low standard deviation means data are clustered around the mean, and high standard deviation indicates data are more spread out.
Level of school teachers in the US. (not payed enough/ to be doctors and lawers)
Should US limits the number of foreign students, like Chinese, Korean and black Africans? But, how to define “white American?” (me)
Trump’s popularity and next election? Joe Biden will challenge to the next election. (John)
Weather in Vermont

Wary of China, Japan unveils sweeping new national security strategy
Washington Post, Updated December 16, 2022, 6:00 p.m.

Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida attended a press conference at the prime minister’s official residence in Tokyo, Friday. In a major break from its strictly self-defense-only postwar principle, Japan adopted a national security strategy Friday declaring plans to possess preemptive strike capability and cruise missiles within years to give itself more offensive footing against threats from neighboring China and North Korea.　

DAVID MAREUIL/ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOKYO — Japan on Friday unveiled sweeping changes to its national security strategy and a major ramp-up of its defense budget, a dramatic shift to shed its longtime postwar pacifist constraints as it grapples with increasing security threats and risk of war in the Indo-Pacific.
Wary of the growing military threat posed by China, North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Japan is poised to take a tougher stance to defend itself and improve its capabilities to do so.

Among the notable changes is the move to acquire ‘’counterstrike’’ capabilities, or the ability to hit enemy bases with long-range missiles and coordinate with the United States in such circumstances, and an increase of its defense budget to 2 percent of gross domestic product over five years, making it the third-largest in the world.

It was my big surprise, a photo taken by me near the White House in 2010 revealed the data, the date and place of the photo taken!