Hasta La Gadget!

Japan’s gaffe-prone deputy prime minister has said Tokyo could learn from Nazi Germany when it comes to constitutional reform, prompting a rebuke from a Jewish human rights group.

In a statement on its website late Tuesday, the US-based Simon Wiesenthal Center called on Taro Aso to clarify his comments that Tokyo, which is mulling a change to its pacifist constitution, should look to the way the Nazis quietly adopted reforms.

“First, mass media started to make noises (about Japan’s proposed reforms), and then China and South Korea followed suit,” Aso was quoted by Japanese media as saying in a speech Monday to a conservative think tank.

“The German Weimar constitution changed, without being noticed, to the Nazi German constitution. Why don’t we learn from their tactics?”

In response, the Jewish rights group said: “The only lessons on governance that the world should draw from the Nazi Third Reich is how those in positions of power should not behave”.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, the Japanese government’s top spokesman, on Wednesday declined to answer media questions about the comments, saying “deputy prime minister Aso should answer that question”.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party has said it wants to revise the US-imposed pacifist constitution to define Japan’s defence forces as a full-fledged military force, amid territorial tensions with neighbours China and South Korea.

That has stirred strong emotions in Beijing and Seoul which have long maintained that Japan has never come to terms with its militaristic past.

Aso, who is also Japan’s finance minister, is known for his sometimes uncomfortable remarks, including saying earlier this year that elderly people should “hurry up and die” to avoid taxing the country’s medical system.

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Dr. Abraham Verghese explains how to take a patient's pulse at the beginning of an exam.

(Credit: Screenshot by CNET)

Not all doctors’ bedside manners are created equal, and while it’s an area of medicine that perhaps cannot be taught, seeing the way an experienced physician examines his patient, through the physician’s own eyes, might be as good as it’s gonna get for med students.

So thinks Dr. Abraham Verghese, a Stanford doc who was recently experimenting with Google Glass in his Stanford Medicine 25 initiative, which includes a series of hands-on workshops and videos to teach 25 patient-exam techniques.

In the video below, Verghese wears the glasses while explaining how he likes to initially approach his patients with a handshake that segues seamlessly into taking their pulse via the wrist. The instructional video shows two simultaneous perspectives — one from a camera a few feet from the doctor and the patient, and another (slightly shakier) perspective from the specs.

While there’s nothing particularly groundbreaking about what Verghese is attempting here — shoot, a helmet cam would probably suffice — it’s the first step toward integrating the glasses into the exam room, privacy issues aside. And… [Read more]

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A county Republican Party chairman in New Jersey had some harsh words this week for Hispanic labor leader Milly Silva, the newly tapped running mate of the state’s Democratic candidate for governor.

“Poor thing,” Jose Arango, the chairman, said of Silva, who is the executive vice president of labor union SEIU 1199. “It’s like picking my secretary. She’s a very nice person. The union likes her, but even in the union she’s vice president. She hasn’t been a committeewoman.”

Arango added, “It’s like the guy in CVS with no expertise who suddenly gets promoted to pharmacist. It’s like the guy saying, ‘I work at CVS, I can be the pharmacist.'”

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More on Chris Christie

If you’ve been caught with your pants down, or even just unaware, then here’s the scoop — Alexa Ray Joel is Billy Joel’s daughter, and she’s super lovely and pretty and talented. Don’t want to take my word for it?

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Facebook today introduced embedded posts, a new feature that allows people to bring the public stories they find compelling on the world’s biggest social network to their own blog or website. Embedded posts may contain pictures, hashtags, videos as well as other content. People who view the embedded post on a user’s blog or website will be able to like it or share it directly from the embed itself.

To get an idea of how this would work, take a look at the screenshot of a post that was published by Andy Murray on Facebook after winning the 2013 Wimbledon Championship. If this particular post is embedded by someone on their website or blog, visitors landing on that particular page would be able to like this post from there. If the post contains hashtags, they can be clicked within the embed to discover similar content on Facebook. Right now, a handful of media organizations are being given the ability to embed public Facebook posts. These include the Huffington Post, Bleacher Report and PEOPLE. Facebook says that broader availability of this feature is coming soon.

Like It , +1 , Tweet It , Pin It | Facebook Introduces Embedded Posts original content from Ubergizmo.