| ▲ | Japan's cherry blossom database, 1,200 years old, has a new keeper(nytimes.com) |
| 170 points by caycep 5 days ago | 26 comments |
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| ▲ | brainless 2 days ago | parent | next [-] |
| Unlocked article (found on Reddit): https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/17/climate/japan-cherry-blos... Data points: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/date-of-the-peak-cherry-t... |
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| ▲ | hbarka 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| > Initially, they didn’t have much luck. No other researchers at Osaka Metropolitan University, where Prof. Aono worked, would be taking over his record-keeping, Hiroko Nishino, a university spokeswoman, wrote in an email. I’m surprised that there was lackluster response. For this kind of honor, you would think that there would be a flood of responses. I am attributing it to bad marketing. |
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| ▲ | nxobject 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | Part of me also thinks: yes, but is there any money/compensation attached to this? Honor, sadly, doesn't pay for grad students or soft money researchers. | | |
| ▲ | thaumasiotes 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | > Honor, sadly, doesn't pay for grad students Are you kidding? Grad students are well known to receive trivial monetary pay. Most of their pay is in honor. | | |
| ▲ | goodcanadian 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | They still need to eat, and that trivial monetary pay component must come from somewhere . . . | |
| ▲ | rat9988 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | Not really, there is a promise of a better career in the future. | | |
| ▲ | tantalor 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | That's the honor | | |
| ▲ | thaumasiotes 2 days ago | parent [-] | | No, that would be deferred compensation. The only problem with that theory is that it isn't real. Grad students aren't working for the promise of a better career in the future. | | |
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| ▲ | barry-cotter 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | Depends on what they’re studying and where. If you’re a PhD student English Literature at Directional State University most of your compensation is consumption value, not the promise of a career[1] or pecuniary compensation. [1] For the huge majority of PhD students in the Arts and Humanities there are virtually no jobs in their fields and it’s not that much better in the social or exact sciences, though there is at least some extra academic demand for their skills. There are very, very few fields outside academia where a doctorate is a necessary qualification or close to it and those are ~all a terrible investment if what you want is a remunerative career; things like biomedical research where you do a doctorate, then a postdoc and then get a job paying what an MBA from a top tier business school gets their first year out. | | |
| ▲ | nxobject 2 days ago | parent [-] | | Advice I got from an ex-cancer biologist working at a devices company: get your masters, and get out. PhD programs will always be there, but compound interest won’t. |
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| ▲ | gregjw 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | Not usually how things work in Japanese culture | | |
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| ▲ | dfxm12 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | It could also be that doing the work isn't held in as high esteem as you think. |
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| ▲ | renewiltord 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| You're supposed to keep an apprentice, man! |
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| ▲ | aaron695 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| [dead] |
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| ▲ | epolanski 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Japan's cherry blossom truly are wonderful, but I'm not gonna lie, I've seen as beautiful elsewhere, especially in central Europe, Poland especially. |
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| ▲ | haunter 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | Agreed. Classic case of the “Thing vs Thing, Japan” meme https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/thing-japan | | |
| ▲ | TuneCode 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | Hahaha! I'm from Japan, but I totally agree.
Honestly, I often find other cultures even more charming in many ways. | | |
| ▲ | nkrisc 2 days ago | parent [-] | | The unfamiliar usually is, especially when you aren’t there to experience the less obvious negative aspects of a given culture. Outside of Japan, Japanese culture often gets put on a pedestal but it of course isn’t without its own issues that aren’t apparent to outsiders viewing from a distance. |
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| ▲ | LadyCailin 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | Except Place doesn’t have amazing vending machines and konbini like Place, Japan does :D | | |
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| ▲ | avadodin 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | They are just Japanese cherry blossom in Poland anyways. Many trees of the same family are also stunning in bloom but the Japanese cherry blossom is celebrated not only for its beauty, but also for the fleeting nature of it. I'm not sure how that translates as the tree is moved to a different climate where it doesn't belong. | | |
| ▲ | epolanski 2 days ago | parent [-] | | Sendai/Tahika have extremely similar weather to large parts of central Europe. |
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