December 30, 2009
December 29, 2009
December 27, 2009
December 21, 2009
December 20, 2009
Cocaine Mafia: Vanguard
Vanguard correspondent Christof Putzel travels to southern Italy to investigate how Europe's growing appetite for cocaine is funding the growth of West African crime syndicates and fueling a turf war with Italy's largest mafia organization, the Camorra.
Hau refers to Taiwan as a ‘region’
A statue of lyricist Lee Lin-chiu is seen in Dadaocheng Park in Taipei City yesterday. Lee wrote the lyrics for many classic Taiwanese songs, including Wang Chunfeng, or “Watching the Spring Wind.”
By Mo Yan-chih
STAFF REPORTER
Sunday, Dec 20, 2009
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin’s (郝龍斌) speech at a municipal event sparked protests from several pro-independence activists yesterday after he called Taiwan a “region.”
Hau’s comments came yesterday as he attended a ceremony at Dadaocheng commemorating late Taiwanese lyricist Lee Lin-chiu (李臨秋) that was organized by the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs.
“I am glad to attend the launch ceremony of the statue for Mr Lee Lin-chiu, the pioneer lyricist in the region of Taiwan,” Hau said.
Hau’s remarks sparked immediate protests from members of the Taiwan Society, who condemned the mayor for belittling Taiwan’s status.
“Taiwan is a nation, not a region! You have hurt our feelings by calling Taiwan a region,” Taiwan Society director Janice Chen (陳昭姿) and several members shouted at Hau as he left the ceremony.
Hau said he heard the protesters’ voices, but declined to make any further comment as he left the scene.
The department held the ceremony yesterday to commemorate Lee, who was one of the most important Taiwanese musicians under Japanese colonial rule along with composer Teng Yu-hsien (鄧雨賢) and lyricists Chen Chun-yu (陳君玉) and Chen Ta-ju (陳達儒).
The department unveiled a statue of Lee at Dadaocheng Park yesterday in honor of the lyricist, and will broadcast classic songs written by him including Watching the Spring Wind (望春風) at the park to introduce the songs to more people.
More activities to introduce Taiwanese folk songs will be organized next year at Dadaocheng, the department said.
University unveils green, efficient ‘MEGA house’
By Vincent Y. Chao
STAFF REPORTER
Sunday, Dec 20, 2009
Representatives from the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology unveiled a working model of a house with computerized temperature controls and other automations that promises to cut electricity bills by as much as 40 percent. The “MEGA House” is a model of the most environmentally friendly building techniques at the nation’s disposal.
They added that the house contains computers that open and close windows, shutters and skylights according to preset temperatures inside and outside the building.
Cheng Min-yuan (鄭明淵), a professor at the university who was part of the design team, said the two-and-a-half-story building could resist earthquakes of up to magnitude seven on the Richter scale.
He said seven patents were filed by the research team during the design process.
Temperature is maintained using natural heating and cooling processes as opposed to air conditioning, researchers added. Cool air, which is pumped into the building using a pipe placed 4m below ground, interacts with hot air from a specially designed “solar chimney.”
The hot or cool air is maintained through an elaborate set of 18 specially layered windows that are not only self-cleaning, but also include panels for creating energy.
Another 48 solar panels are spread throughout the house to lessen its dependence on outside energy sources.
Both these designs are expected to result in a 20 percent to 40 percent overall energy saving.
To popularize the design, researchers also embedded radio-frequency identification technology into the building materials to cut construction time to four months and save about 40 percent in labor costs.
Using the technology, which allows workers to locate the correct placement of materials, base construction should only take three days.
December 19, 2009
Minyeodeuli Suda - TV clip Korean viewers and netizens considered racist
"KBS2 is under fire from [Korean] viewers and netizens for what many consider to be racism during its "global talk show" entitled "Minyeodeului Suda" (The Beauties' Chatterbox)... The program brings together 16 lovely and unmarried young women residing in Korea to discuss Korean culture and Korean men...
All was as it should be—maybe—until lovely African-American Leslie Benfield was performing a rendition of a Korean song. It was then that one of the panel—singer Cheon Myeong-hun—jumped up on stage wearing a rasta wig and began chanting "sikameos, sikameos," a reference to a black-face routine made famous by comedian Lee Bong-won."
Japanorama - Season 1 Episode 1 Part 1
The first part of episode one of the BBC's short documentary series on Japan.
December 16, 2009
December 13, 2009
Merry Christmas!
Pass this on, so (maybe) we can prevent one more
tradition from being lost in the sea of
"Political Correctness."
To One and All ! ! ! ! !
~ Merry Christmas ~ Merry Christmas ~
Merry Christmas
~ Merry Christmas ~ Merry Christmas ~
Merry Christmas
~ Merry Christmas ~ Merry Christmas ~
December 06, 2009
December 05, 2009
Britney Spears - 3
Britney Spears 3 (c) (C) 2009 RCA/JIVE Label Group, a unit of Sony Music Entertainment
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