The Soul Calendar: Taiwan

Showing posts with label Taiwan. Show all posts

12 August 2009

3 Videos: Violent Typhoons Affect 9 Million People in Asia

From Denny: These typhoon stories in Asia began on August 9th and the ramifications are still playing out. Over 1 million people in China had to flee the first day. Hundreds are dead from China, Taiwan, Japan to the Philippines from these two violent typhoons. Over 9 million people have been displaced or affected by these violent storms to date.

As an American teenager living in Taiwan many years ago, I went to an American school on the island. I spent two summers on the southern part of the island country helping medical missionaries for free as my boarding school roommate was the child of medical missionaries.

The second summer was cut short as a typhoon was coming your way off the water and it sure was scary. If you have never seen a typhoon coming at you, well, hurricanes are tame. It looks just like a funnel tornado only it's still connected to the sky and the water, builds up tremendous speed and starts rushing toward the shore: you! It hits with the tremendous force of both wind and water, a double whammy. No wonder you see huge homes on concrete foundations just drop off into the water and sail away in this news footage.

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typhoon, Asia, Taiwan, Philippines, China, Weather Phenomena

28 May 2009

Physics: How Does That Martial Arts Bed of Nails Really Feel?

From Denny: OK, these guys got MY attention with this nail bed demo. When I lived in Taiwan during high school I often saw interesting demos like this one from local martial arts experts during public festivals.

Here Popular Science breaks it down as to the physics and what they think it's all about. While part of what the science guys say is true there really is a spriritual component as well. Anyway you look at it, whew! Talk about an extreme sport!

"The Breakdown looks at the physics of a remarkable feat

Is this a death-defying demonstration requiring a level of mastery only arrived at after years of intensive martial arts training, or is it a theatrical display based more on physics than on chi? In order to answer that question, just take a look at the second video. Those guys haven't spent years in the dojo as far as we know, but they do know a little bit about fundamental principles of physics." - Popular Science

Just click on the title link to take you to Popular Science's article or go here.