One More for Good Measure

After I posted, Nardpuncher told me this one takes the cake...

The 'How Not to Work' out Series

A while back I made a comment about strange stuff I have seen at the gym.

http://blog.islaformosa.com/2008/10/saw-funny-thing-at-gym-other-day.html

Just want to bring some attention to a friend of mine, Nardpuncher, who's been making some great videos about Taiwan with good commentary too. I present his series entitled 'How Not to Workout' which seems to be secretly captured while he was at his Taipei gym over several sessions.
















Nardpuncher's Channel

Air Asia Makes its Mark

AirAsia is Asia's discount airline. It's been making waves here in Taiwan with its cheap flights.

I was surprised to see this commercial on CNN featuring Air Asia.

It's bizarre in many aspects. Its narrated by a boy who talks about how his granny couldn't decide which meal to eat so she had both. Oh, and she says that the stewardesses are hot. Watch it to the end to see the nice ass shot which I'm sure will prompt travelers to take more delicious stewardess shots in flight.

This ad would never 'fly' in the West. Obviously, it made it past the CNN censors.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Emop-VGGQ-Y

Making the Armed Forces Attractive

This promo video makes the ROC armed forces look cool, presumably to attract the hordes of young gamers and Transformer lovers in Taiwan to go out and sign up. The reality is something else...
http://blog.islaformosa.com/2007/01/military-intelligence.html
http://blog.islaformosa.com/2006/12/taiwan-endgame.html


Watching this reminded me of the free computer game that is given away by the army in the US to attract recruits called America's Army.

Opening the Book on Landslides Again

I've written before about the anti-betelnut campaign in Taiwan that may be due to educated, 'civilized' city dwellers despising the chewing habit and making every excuse to attack betelnut trees and their betelnut chewers. You see, betelnut chewing is a part of Taiwan culture but it is considered low-class by some...

http://blog.islaformosa.com/2007/09/war-on-betel-nut-and-betel-palms.html

Betelnut trees being the root cause for disasters has come into doubt following the devastating summer typhoon of 2009.

"In the absence of any official declaration of the underlying causes, residents have filled the void with speculation.

Taiwan’s forestry bureau says native subtropical trees had covered most of the deadly mudslide areas of Kaohsiung County in southern Taiwan, doing more to hold mountain sides intact than to loosen them. Villagers had planted mainly bamboo, mangoes, peaches and taro on the lower hillsides. They had shunned betel nut plantations and high-mountain tea, which are common elsewhere on the island and are notorious for destablising soil for lack of deep roots, an agricultural official said.

Other disaster authorities point toward Taiwan’s fragile geology and ecosystem, including repeated earthquakes, typhoons and an early 2009 drought that have left hillsides at increased risk, allowing even huge deep-rooted trees to fall last month.

“Taiwan is an important case study in climate change,” said Chern Jenn-chuan, deputy minister of the cabinet’s Public Construction Commission. “We can say that natural disasters will be more and more severe. We can be sure of that.”

The villagers claim:

"Decades of forestry, farming and over-population have loosened mountain soil all over the island, leaving it prone to massive slides."

http://blogs.reuters.com/china/2009/09/17/aggressive-land-use-set-off-deadly-taiwan-mudslides/

So once again it seems that betelnut trees, often scapegoated in these disasters, are not the culprit this time. In fact, there are a wider range of factors which would fit nicely in Jared Diamond's Collapse theories.

On top of this it is interesting that high mountain tea is also mentioned due to lack of deep roots. Why isn't there an anti-high mountain tea growing campaign from intellectuals?

So it appears that farming and deforestation in general are more likely the cause of landslides. Why do people believe the anti-betelnut lobby so blindly?

Travel Fear

100_4071, originally uploaded by islaformosa2009.

This poster perfectly represents the typical Taiwanese family on their vacation, totally carefree and innocent while the masses of criminal types zero in on their kill.

Taiwanese travelers are most likely targeted due to their lack of street-wiseness.

This poster takes advantage of Taiwanese fears by advertising safety deposit boxes to prevent armed bandits from spoiling vacations.

Betelnut Girl Commentary

Found this really screwed up web page selling shoes and boots doing a bit on betelnut girls from an article that appeared in The Los Angeles Times.

http://www.highheeldiscount.com/womens-platform-shoes/betel-nut-girls-of-taiwan-wow

Thought it was interesting to get someone's comment about the phenomenon who has never been here. He seems to be getting his jollies from the article...

Google Street View Arrives in Taipei

BIG BIG NEWS! Google Street View is HERE in Taipei FINALLY!

View Larger Map


View Larger Map

Only for Taipei central area so far. Drag the little man over the map to see the extent of the coverage. Parts of Taipei county are in there too.

Read earlier Google Street View Post featuring pics of the Street View camera car:
http://blog.islaformosa.com/2009/03/google-street-view-confirmed-for-taipei.html

Digitimes

Forumosa chat

Ingenious Bending of the Law in Taiwan

This picture of a plain looking table in a night market may seem on the boring side but, in fact, it you are looking a little bit of Taiwan ingenuity when it comes to the law.

On this unattended table can be found DVDs of films like Terminator Salvation and all the very latest movies in the theaters. So you've figured out that this is a table full of pirated videos. The only thing is they are just sitting there unattended.

Taiwanese are smart and always find ways to get around laws. In this case, were the table attended, the police would have someone to arrest. No attendee therefore no arrest. The DVDs are just sitting there. However, customers can't just take them. They are expected to make a 'donation' in the box in the middle. And the box just stays there unattended. Or so it seems...

In fact, the table and the box are monitored by someone but in a crowded night market, it's hard to know just who. Most likely gangsters working in the area. So, if you choose to help yourself to a copy, don't forget to make your donation.

So, as you can see the secret attendants are protected and the customers help themselves to the DVDs, self-service style. It's an ingenious way to keep the law-breakers out of harms way. And, it seems, the customers seem not to be at fault as 'unwitting' buyers of such illegal movie copies.

Teaching Kids the Lowdown on Poop

Enjoy the stool world at the Taipei Zoo.

Fallout: NIN's 'Formally Abolished' Taipei Concert

I should explain. After the NIN concert was canceled I went to the website of the promoter. There were two way to refund: go there on the night of the performance to be or send in your ticket by mail and have the money wired to your account. Thinking the second method very scammy, I went in person. I'm glad I did and I have a fantastic story to go with it.

What greeted me was exactly as this post suggests, the back of a very hard to find pitch dark parking lot in the middle of a non-descript NanGang neighborhood with a table with an umbrella as in the picture (right out in the open with money in piles on the table).

As I was walking up to the table, though, a foreign guy said to me be careful because someone will tell me to F*** Off. Jesus man, I thought, don't drag me into your fight man. I just wanted my money back.

I went up and they (3 or 4 people + 2 security guards) checked my ticket with a flashlight and then gave me my money back. No problems. Phew!

Little did I know there was more to the story
http://forum.nin.com/bb/read.php?9,807431,page=5

Reading this all, though, I really feel that everyone is overacting a little. Both sides seem to have their points, however hreatening to sue people left and right really doesn't seem the right way to go though. We'll see what becomes of this all.