Pioneering an initiative to support former prison inmates as they reintegrate into society, Nara Prefecture has launched a fully funded foundation that provides both job training and housing. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/05/20/japan/society/japan-inmates-rehabilitation/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #japan #society #nara #japaneseprisons #justiceministry #agriculture
"An archivist’s job is to ‘keep the receipts.’ What happens when they can’t do their job?"
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/04/18/arts/trump-national-archives-archivists/
"If archivists lose their jobs, 'archives don’t take care of themselves,” Wisser noted. 'If I want to inquire about a decision that my government made, I need more information, and if there’s nobody minding the shop, then I’m not going to get to see that.”
I was also interviewed for this article; TIL it went to press last month!
'Join National Archives experts for our annual online Genealogy Series on our YouTube channel. This educational series will teach participants how to use federal resources at the National Archives for genealogical research. Sessions are intended for everyone, from beginners to experienced family historians.'
Our full report on the Signal logging app:
TeleMessage Markets Signal Archiving • Enter the API … And Gravity Forms • Hosting Questions & FedRAMP • The #WordPress Puzzle: This Seems Absurd • #SignalGate and #NARA Records Retention
The writer, Gabriella Cantor, pointed out the obvious #ConflictOfInterest: The archivist is supposed to ensure that other #FederalAgencies, including the 2 #Rubio is also leading, preserve records. Now, with the addition of the White House #NationalSecurity Council [#NSC], that becomes thornier.
#Trump fired head archivist Colleen Shogan in early Feb in an apparent act of #retribution against the #NARA. Leaders of the agency had raised concerns about Trump’s holding onto boxes of #classified documents at his home in Florida after he left office in 2021, though Shogan was not involved in that episode.
4 days before Shogan’s firing, #Rubio announced he was the acting administrator for #USAID, as #ElonMusk …& #PeteMarocco, a political appointee in the #State Dept, were gutting the agency.
#MarcoRubio, Secretary of Everything
Secy of #State. Acting administrator of the #USAID. Acting archivist for the #NARA. And now interim #NationalSecurity adviser to #Trump.
…the proliferation of titles raises questions about whether #Rubio can…juggle all these positions, especially under a president who eschews the traditional workings of govt & who has appointed a businessman friend, #SteveWitkoff, as a special envoy handling the most sensitive #diplomacy.
#idiocracy
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/us/politics/marco-rubio-national-security-secretary-state.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=p&pvid=D03FBB43-851F-41D0-A7E9-D1B244315B7A
Cute Deer in Nara, Japan 
Wall Art Prints: https://matthias-hauser.pixels.com/featured/deer-in-bloom-nara-park-japan-matthias-hauser.html
#deer #animals #japan #nara #wildlife #photography #nature #spring #art #mastoart #fediart #wallart #Fedigiftshop #AYearForArt #BuyIntoArt #ArtMatters
Manyō Shokubutsuen (萬葉植物園) opened in 1932. It was created to house the 300 variety of plants found in the 'Man'yōshū' (万葉集-759), Japan's oldest extant collection of poetry.
There are gardens dedicated to wisteria, camellia, irises and grains.
3) Over 200 wisteria trees (20 varieties) grow in Kasuga-taisha's 'Manyō Botanical Garden' (萬葉植物園 'Manyō Shokubutsuen'), but the most treasured grows beside the shrine's Nan-mon gate.
The 'Sunazuri-no-fuji' (砂ずりの藤 'Sand-brushing Wisteria') is estimated to be 800 years old!
Along with Nara’s Sarusawa-ike (奈良・猿沢池) and Shiga’s Ishiyama-dera (滋賀県・石山寺), Ōsawa-no-ike was counted 1 of the Heian period's 3 famed Moon-Viewing Spots.
Nowadays the pond is most famed for the sakura and momiji trees (around 650 in total) that line the banks.
@mike_edwards they can be pretty aggressive if you have crackers (and try to be funny with them), from what I saw. Then again they will bow too (which my kids returned)
Street Musician Sings Plays Shamisen Japan 1870 Suzuki Shin'ichi
#19thcentury, #Gose, #Japan, #Minstrels, #Music, #Musicians, #Nara, #Photography, #Shamisen, #Singers, #StreetMusicians, #SuzukiShinichi
Vintage ◦ Classic ◦ Historical | Art ◦ Design ◦ Inspiration | Restored ◦ Enhanced ◦ Remixed
Prints, T-Shirts, Stickers, & More by @rocketshipretro via RedBubble → https://bigplanetprints.com/go/V0uczh
American Oversight v. Hegseth, Gabbard, Ratcliffe, Bessent, Rubio, and NARA Regarding Military Actions Planned on Signal Messaging App
Docket Number 25-0883 in District Court for the District of Columbia.
Lawsuit filed against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, DNI Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Secretary of State and acting Archivist Marco Rubio, and the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration concerning news reports that journalist Jeffery Goldberg had been added to a Signal group chat among those containing potentially classified information about active military operations.
Read the complaint on American Oversight or on Document Cloud. This suit has to do with the Federal Records Act and the Administrative Procedure Act requiring the preservation and recovery of records created using Signal for a group-chat discussion of planned and active
military operations from March 11, 2025, through March 15, 2025.
The US National Archives Catalog will be unavailable on Saturday 29 March 2025 from 8 AM - 8 PM (Eastern) and may be intermittently unavailable on Sunday 30 March 2025 until 11 PM (Eastern), due to maintenance and search engine updates.
Notice published in the "National Archives Catalog" newsletter issue titled "Celebrities in the Catalog"
#USNationalArchives #NARA #NationalArchives #Research #Geneadons #Histodons
@histodons @genealogy @geneadons
https://archives-20973928.hs-sites.com/celebrities-in-the-catalog
The shrine was likely founded by Agatainukai-no-Michiyo (県犬養三千代 655?-733), mother of Empress Kōmyō (光明皇后), to enshrine her family ancestors (she was the first of her clan to hold the name Tachibana).
Empress Kōmyō then moved the shrine to the capital Heijō-kyō (平城京 the old name for Nara).
Complementing Higan (彼岸) is 'Shigan' (此岸), meaning the 'Near Shore'. Higan is the Pure Land (the World of Buddha), whereas Shigan is our world (the World of the Living). At equinox day and night are of equal length, and thus the world is in perfect balance.
Originally the spring equinox was taken up by a Shintō festival called 'Shunki kōrei-sai' (春季皇霊祭), created in 1878 and centered around imperial ancestor worship.
In 1948 this was repackaged as a day for admiring nature and all living things.
On Feb 7th, #Trump sacked the
head of #NARA, the agency that maintains the ofcl texts of the nation’s laws, & whose motto is “the written word endures.”
>110k govt pages have gone dark in a #purge that one scientist likened to a “#DigitalBookBurning,” & which has proved as frightening in its imprecision as in its malice.
The Records Preservation and Access Coalition is hosting its second Family History Hill Day on Wednesday 9 April 2025.
RPAC advocates and others in the genealogy community are invited to attend the event and meet Members of Congress and their staff in Washington, D.C.
Our focus in 2025 will be on funding for the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
@geneadons @genealogy @histodons
#FamilyHistory #Genealogy #Research #NARA #NationalArchives
https://www.recordsadvocate.org/come-to-dc-register-for-family-history-hill-day-on-9-april-2025/
