Archive for the 'Life, Culture & Politics' Category

Inspiring Chinese woman

Today’s post is somewhat inspirational and a change of the usual posts we see on tba. Today’s post is about a Chinese woman who resides in Shan Dong Province, China. Not ruining the video for you folks, I will explain the rest after you watch it below. (The video is in Cantonese/Mandarin, but the main point of the video can be understood beyond the language barrier)

Here’s the video:

Translating the main points, the armless woman is named Ren Ji Mei. She was born armless and her mother wanted to dump her into the sea, but her father decided to keep her as a ‘pet dog’ (I’m not sure what to say about this part). But as you can see, her disability has not stopped her from enjoying life. She is able to use her feet so well for so many things that some people with arms can not do. Quite a remarkable and inspiring woman indeed.

Judging from the video’s quality, it would seem that it happened quite some time ago. If anyone knows the exact date, please do tell!

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Why Japan and the Japanese are great

What Japan Thinks have compiled a survey of 20 reasons of what is great about Japan or the Japanese.

The official questions asked was:

What do you think is great about Japan or the Japanese?

The results was:

1 Feeling the four seasons
2 Diligent
3 Kind
4 Rich food culture
5 Creating leading-edge techniques
6 Courteous
7 Strong sense of duty
8 Considerate
9 Flexibly adopting new cultures
10 Good with hands
11 Awareness of wastefulness
12 Conservative
13 Subtle
14 Express things vaguely
15 Reliable
16 Look young
17 Can distinguish subtle differences in taste
18 Nice hair
19 Ladylike
20 Table manners

It’s astonishing that Anime, Akihabara or even Mt. Fuji did not make it on to the list. Maybe the survey participants were just not the otaku crowd. Some of the reasons are quite interesting to read.

I would love to hear what are your opinions! Go ahead and post it! (Or try out our poll XD)

Source:
What Japan Thinks
Picture courtesy of wallpaper.diq.ru

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Chinese Farmer Builds Home-Made Glider

Here’s a video that’s been circulating the internet which shows a Chinese farmer (I’m not sure how they know he’s a farmer since we can’t even see his face in the video) taking off, flying and landing his home-made glider (or plane, if you want to make it sound awesome).

Whoever this farmer is, he is damn resourceful, plus takes a lot of guts to fly a glider you built yourself, not knowing if it can fly or not. From the video, you can see, he only has a seatbelt for safety which is not much when you’re that high up in the air.

Nonetheless, you need to give him credit for his piloting skills, he landed pretty well and I’m not sure if he even learnt how to fly before!

Here’s the video:

Amazing stuff right?

Source:
IfGoGo via Asianoffbeat

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Japan’s Space Wedding Service

For 240 Million yen ($2.2 million) you can have your wedding in space.

Rocketplane Kistler (Space transporation provider) and First advantage (Wedding planner) are working together to provide space wedding to the masses. Your $2.2 million will buy you an out-of-this-word experience on a 1-hour trip aboard the Rocketplane XP suborbital spaceship where you will reach altitudes higher than 100 km. Not only that, the service will also provide you with:

“Photo and video album, original dress, wedding certificate and other ceremonial items.”

“Cost of transportation to and from the launch site, accommodations, a live broadcast of the ceremony to friends and family at a reception hall on the ground, and 4 days of rehearsal.” - Pink Tentacle

For those that have pockets deep enough and are looking for a thrill on their wedding day, you’ll have to wait to till 2011 which is when the space wedding service is planned for. However, not to worry, they will start accepting applications next month. You can visit their official site here (if you can read Japanese).

This remind me of Moonlight Mile for some reason. Nonetheless, it’ll be fun being the priest for that company, you’ll get to go into space more times than astronauts.

Source:
Pink Tentacle
Picture courtesy of spacewedding.jp

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Goldfish Keychain Shocks RSPCA

Not the best day for the Beijing Olympics’ image. Someone in China, Qingdao (where the Olympic sailing event will take place) has made a heart-shaped novelty plastic keychain with a living goldfish inside and Huan Huan (one of the 5 official Beijing Olympics’ mascots) printed on it.

This marketing gimmick to earn a quick buck has struck many people as cruel and appalling as the goldfish has little room to swim in and with oxygen that will run out in the matter of hours. Also to note, this will most probably damage the Beijing Olympics’ image.

The RSPCA only had the following to say on it:

“The fish would survive just a few hours, and would be lucky to make it from the manufacturers to the point of sale. This product shows a shocking lack of respect for a living thing and should be withdrawn from sale. We are shocked and appalled. It is a gimmick and shows no respect for the animals at all. We can’t understand why anyone would want to buy such a thing.” - telegraph.uk

Just think of every one of those little goldfish suffocating and dying a slow painful death! I do hope the Beijing Olympic Committee or the local officials do something about it and do it quick! I’m sure no tourist going to China for the Beijing Olympics will be picking one of these up…

Source:
Telegraph.uk via WeirdAsiaNews
Picture courtesy of telegraph.uk and picasa web

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Tokyo Sky Tree

The ever so popular Tokyo Tower has made countless appearance in movies, shows and even anime will soon have a taller and more stylish successor, the Tokyo Sky Tree.


The name itself may put some of you off initially, but the soon-to-be tallest tower in the world is just an architecture marvel. It will stand at 610 metres with its completion date planned for 2011. It’s expected the new tower will replace Tokyo Tower as the new broadcasting antenna with its superior height and equipment.


Here’s a video (in Japanese, but the video is very much self-explanatory) that explains and illustrates the towers design:

The unusual name was picked through a poll with the options of picking: Tokyo Edo Tower, Tokyo Sky Tree, Mirai Tree, Yume Miyagura, Rising East Tower and Rising Tower.

Here’s a video showing the ceremony where the new name was unveiled.

Source:
JapanProbe via Japanator
Picture courtesy of JapanProbe

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Robotic Japan?

Is Japan taking a step closer to make those sci-fi movies come true? By 2025, robots could fill 3.5 million jobs for the aging Japanese workforce.

By 2030, Japan’s workforce is expected to experience a 16% drop. The ‘ThinkTank‘, the Machine Industry Memorial Foundation believe solutions lies in their Japanese robots as a country that does not enjoy the idea of a large-scale immigration.

These robots are expected to reduce strains on the workforce by taking care of children, old people and housework. This will also save Japan an approximate 2.1 trillion yen ($21 billion) in elderly insurance!

However before thinking too far ahead Takao Kobayashi, who works on the Japanese workforce shortage problem state that there’s still much to be done:

“There’s the expensive price tag, the functions of the robots still need to improve, and then there are the mindsets of people.

People need to have the will to use the robots.” - Reuters

To convince you that Japan has what it takes, the picture above in one of the secretary robots invented by the Japanese. Oddly enough, this piece of news remind me of Ghost in the Shell…

Source:
Reuters
Pictures also courtesy of reuters

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