Rob Fahey

@robfahey.net

764 Followers 150 Following

CTO at VETA (https://veta.co.jp), where we’re building data science tools to tackle social issues. Recovering academic (formerly at Waseda). Occasional journalist. 🇮🇪/🏳️‍🌈/He/Him

A meme format from Arrested Development. Two characters are speaking; one asks the other, "how about we try to win back votes from a populist right-wing party by publicly legitimising and agreeing with their agenda?" The other responds, "well, did it work for those people?" The first character replies, "No, it never does, I mean, these people somehow delude themselves into thinking it might, but... but it might work for us."
The author on the aforementioned boat in Tokyo bay. Wine cooler not pictured. Joy and satisfaction at not being anywhere near a zoom meeting very much pictured.
A poster for a theatre production of The Tempest starring Sigourney Weaver.
A fairly lavishly decorated Christmas tree (we are not doing minimalism here) that’s quite obviously too large for the small Japanese apartment it’s been wedged into.
A view of the mountains in Hakone, with the trees displaying bright red and yellow autumn colours.
An iOS Lock Screen with a black and white misty picture of the Cliffs of Moher in the background. My calendar widget has helpfully abbreviated the next class I’m teaching to “Quantitative Anal”, which is especially egregious since that’s one field in which I think we can all agree that a Qualitative approach is superior.
The cover of Alanis Morissette's 1995 album, Jagged Little Pill, which is honestly just wall-to-wall absolute belters and has been a regular source of ear-worm tracks for me for TWENTY NINE YEARS oh god I'm so old.
Three videogames on a coffee table - Silent Hill 2, Metaphor ReFantazio, and Dragon Age: The Veilguard - waiting to finally be played at some distant and possibly fictional point when I actually have free time again.
A chart showing the turnout rate and total votes cast for the LDP in every Japanese general election since 2000. The 2024 figure for the Proportional Representation ballot is the lowest in the party's history.
The front page of the Nikkei newspaper, with a large headline about Japan’s governing coalition losing its majority.
Irish President Michael D. Higgins with his dog Bród, who was a very big Bernese Mountain Dog and also an extremely good boy.
A screenshot of the conference schedule entry for the panel “Comparative perspectives on the radical right in Europe and beyond”