Guillermo González Camarena developed a system for color television in “un modesto taller-laboratorio en el sótano de la casa de sus padres” (a modest workshop and laboratory in the basement of his parents’ house), according to the ILCE, the Latin American Institute for Educational Communication.
According to the Gaceta UNAM, he patented it in Mexico in 1940 and in the United States two years later. Another source gives 1940 for both patents.
On the night of May 3, 2021, an elevated section of Line 12 of the Mexico City Metro collapsed. Twenty-six people died. The Norwegian firm DNV analyzed the collapse and found four failures: in the design, in independent certification and supervision, in the installation of bolts, and in maintenance and inspection.
The report pointed to responsibility in three city administrations, those of Marcelo Ebrard, Miguel Ángel Mancera and Claudia Sheinbaum. Sheinbaum, then head of the city government, rejected DNV’s third report as “tendencioso y falso” (biased and false). In October 2021, prosecutors announced homicide charges against ten former officials, among them the head of the original construction project.
Doctor Yellow is the yellow inspection train of the Shinkansen. About once every ten days, it checks the state of the track and the overhead lines.
The JR Central train ended its inspection runs in January 2025 and retired. JR West aims to end inspection with its own Doctor Yellow in 2027 or later.
An engineering drawing in Japan carries a hyōdai-ran, a title block. A drafting guide from the publisher Nikkan Kōgyō Shimbun lists what it can contain: the names of the designer, of the checker, the kenzu-sha, and of the approver, along with the draftsman and the date.
The guide adds that JIS, the Japanese Industrial Standards, does not prescribe the format of the title block. Each company sets its own.
Kansei kōgaku, kansei engineering, is defined by Nagamachi Mitsuo, professor emeritus of Hiroshima University, as a technology that turns kansei, human feeling and sensibility, into concrete design content. The Japan Society of Kansei Engineering was founded in 1998.
Honda paid attention to the sound of the closing door on its kei car, the N-ONE. In a statement quoted by the news site Norimono News, Honda recalls the saying ii kuruma wa doa no shimaru oto ga chigau, a good car has a different door-closing sound. It adds that the sound may also be a barometer of quality.
Another Honda statement in the same article says that even in a kei car, the sound of the door is one of the points that affect customer satisfaction, although it cannot be expressed in numbers.
When the Tōkaidō Shinkansen opened in 1964, its top speed was 210 kilometers per hour. In 1992, with the new 300 series trains and the first Nozomi service, the top speed rose from 220 to 270 kilometers per hour. On March 14, 2015, it was raised again, to 285 kilometers per hour. It was the first increase in 23 years.
JR East began developing an IC card system for tickets in 1987, the year the company was founded. Through the 1990s, it repeated development and testing. On November 18, 2001, the Suica card went into use at the automatic ticket gates of 424 stations in the Tokyo area.
A profile of Honda Sōichirō, the founder of Honda, on the site nippon.com describes him at work: he allowed no compromise, and he would strike people. It sums him up as a warm back and a strict hand.
Surveys for the Yamba Dam began in 1952. In September 2009, after a change of government, Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Maehara Seiji said that work on the main structure would be halted.
On December 22, 2011, a meeting of the ministry’s political leaders decided to continue the project. The dam was completed in March 2020 and began operating in April 2020, 68 years after the surveys began.
The decision to stop was itself reversed. The project went on to completion.