Category: Curiosities

Headlines

New light thrown on origins of Chinese culture as lost civilization emerges

One of the world’s great cities once flourished here at Jinsha village in China’s southwest, the 1000 B.C. equivalent of New York or Paris, and then inexplicably vanished, leaving no trace behind in the historical records.

Until recently, locals had no idea they were living on top of a great lost bronze-age civilization.

Myanmar Woman ‘suddenly grows penis’

Medical doctor Aye Sanda Khaing put it in layman’s terms in a local journal: “Her penis appeared at the site of her clitoris,” the doctor was quoted as saying.

Regardless of the official findings, local villagers and other curious Myanmar nationals are flocking to the Aung Myay Thar Yar pagoda, in this new satellite township 19km from Yangon, to see Than Sein for themselves and make donations to him or the temple.

Up to 400 gather at the pagoda each day, often in a courtyard under colorful umbrellas to ward off the sun’s rays, waiting for the chance to talk with and touch Than Sein.

Japanese researchers invent promising new HIV drug

The drug’s main feature is that it shuts out the AIDS virus at the point when it tries to intrude into a human cell.

Current AIDS medicines can lose their effectiveness in a few days when the virus changes and develops a resistance to those drugs. But AK602 is different because it reacts to human cells instead of attacking the virus, Mitsuya said.


Developers and purists erase Mecca’s history

Sami Angawi, an expert on the region’s Islamic architecture, said 1,400-year-old buildings from the early Islamic period risk being demolished to make way for high rise towers for Muslims flocking to perform the annual pilgrimage to Islam’s holiest city.

“We are witnessing now the last few moments of the history of Mecca,” Angawi told Reuters. “Its layers of history are being bulldozed for a parking lot,” he added.

Angawi estimated that over the past 50 years at least 300 historical buildings had been leveled in Mecca and Medina, another Muslim holy city containing the prophet’s tomb.

Wahhabism, Saudi Arabia’s dominant doctrine which promotes a strict narrow interpretation of Islam, was largely to blame, he said.

Racist Korean Commercial


When looking for an example of “krumping,” some kind of new dance style, I came across this interesting, if a little long, cell phone commercial from Korea (set in Australia apparently). While watching, try and notice:

1. The cool dancing — there’s a lag in the middle but when they dance it’s good.
2. The group of “black people” who try and shoplift merchandise from the supermarket where the heroine works and then later feebly chase and attack her for no reason (only to be heroicly rescued by the hero on a motorcycle — how daring!). Is black people stuffing duffel bags full of merchandise really a problem in Korean supermarkets in Australia? I was under the impression that there wasn’t even much of a black population there.
3. The random panel of white people she’s auditioning for at the beginning and the end of the video. I guess auditioning for the white people makes it that much more dramatic than if she were trying to get in a Korean music video or something.

I mean, I guess you can’t avoid the use of quick symbolism in a short, silent film such as this. But “blacks = thugs, whites = rich and powerful record executives” seems a little too convenient. (Thanks to Kancoma for the link)

‘Evil dragon’ snared via online game

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan police captured a heavily armed fugitive whom they had been tracking for more than a year Wednesday after he exposed his whereabouts by playing online computer games.

Taiwan evening newspapers said Chang Hsi-ming, wanted for murder, illegal possession of weapons and multiple kidnappings, was found via his Internet protocol address after police found out he often played games online.

The head of Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau personally led the siege against Chang’s hideout in central Taiwan, with more than 130 police and two armored vehicles as he was known to be armed with assault rifles and hand grenades.

Chang was shot in the chest and shoulder during a gun battle and taken to hospital.

Police had offered a T$10 million (US$312,500) reward for information leading to the capture of Chang, dubbed the “evil dragon” by local press.

Xinjiang Put Out Big Old Fire from Qing Times

Xinjiang Put Out Big Old Fire from Qing Times
An old big fire rampaged since the Qing times (1644-1911) on Mt. Xiaohuang, a coal-field in Xinjiang, has been lately completely put out, and up to now all the five major fire areas in the place have been stamped out.

Xinjiang is richly endowed with coal resources, but it has become in turn a place long plagued by most serious coal-field fires known to the world, with over 10m tons of coal being senselessly burnt away every year.

Under the direction of late Premier Zhou Enlai, a special fire-fighting center was set up in 1958. By now, altogether 17 big fires have been entirely eliminated in the region.

A horse is a horse of course of course

Japan may have a reputation for bizarre incidents of perversion, but they certainly have no monopoly on it.

I’m sure this has been reported all over the US political blogs that I have no interest whatsoever in following. I found the most amazing post on the blog News Hounds (slogan “We watch FOX so you don’t have to.”).

Last night, anti-abortion extremist Neal Horsley was a guest on The Alan Colmes Show, a FOX News radio program. The topic was an interesting one – whether or not an internet service provider should allow Horsley to post the names of abortion doctors on his website. Horsley does that as a way of targeting them and one doctor has been killed. In the course of the interview, however, Colmes asked Horsley about his background, including a statement that he had admitted to engaging in homosexual and bestiality sex.

At first, Horsley laughed and said, “Just because it’s printed in the media, people jump to believe it.”

“Is it true?” Colmes asked.

“Hey, Alan, if you want to accuse me of having sex when I was a fool, I did everything that crossed my mind that looked like I…”

AC: “You had sex with animals?”

NH: “Absolutely. I was a fool. When you grow up on a farm in Georgia, your first girlfriend is a mule.”

AC: “I’m not so sure that that is so.”

NH: “You didn’t grow up on a farm in Georgia, did you?”

AC: “Are you suggesting that everybody who grows up on a farm in Georgia has a mule as a girlfriend?”

NH: It has historically been the case. You people are so far removed from the reality… Welcome to domestic life on the farm…”

Colmes said he thought there were a lot of people in the audience who grew up on farms, are living on farms now, raising kids on farms and “and I don’t think they are dating Elsie right now. You know what I’m saying?”

Horsley said, “You experiment with anything that moves when you are growing up sexually. You’re naive. You know better than that… If it’s warm and it’s damp and it vibrates you might in fact have sex with it.”

At first I wasn’t even convinced that this was a real interview- it was just too absurd, but then I heard it for myself. Thanks to Matt for extracting this audio clip from the bowels of the Fox News website.

Clicking on the link may not work, so select “save link as” or “save target as” depending on your browser.
Horsley the horse lover.

I don’t want my bandwidth allowance for the month being sucked up, so if any heavily trafficked sites want to spread this clip, please mirror it yourself instead of downloading it from this tiny blog.

The Tokyo premiere of Steven Spielberg’s film War of the Worlds has been cancelled due to security fears.

The BBC reports:

Film distributor UIP decided to shelve the gala screening on 13 June amid concerns about protecting the picture’s stars, including Tom Cruise.

There were also worries about pirate copies of the film being made from illegal recordings at the event.

Some 7,000 Japanese fans who won seats at the premiere are likely to be offered alternative prizes.

I have trouble imaging how security could be such a problem in Japan that they cann’t guarantee Tom Cruise’s safety. Who would want to hurt him? Unless there is of course some kind of secret war brewing between the Scientologists and Japan’s Alpeh cult (formerly known as Aum Shinrikyo).

What does this say about us and our readers?

I just noticed that in the “recent comment” section our two most popular posts, with 12 comments each, deal with Sino-Japanese pedophilia and mechanical pencils. I also noticed that neither was authored by me.

Hmm…

Perhpas my next post should be on the economics of mechanical pencil weilding East Asian sexual deviants.

The best advertisement for learning martial arts ever

This short video (about 10 seconds) on a Russian news website is just amazing. I can’t read a word of Russian, but according to Babelfish,

To robber they broke neck (VIDEO) not always the attempts to select in those surrounding things conclude with the success of robbers. The camera of internal observation, established in one of the elevators of Tokyo office, fixed the unique case, when they gave worthy rebuff to criminal. With the broken neck it was delivered into the hospital, and girl after the dacha of indications in the police station was with the peace tempered vosvoyasi.

Vosvoyasi indeed. I couldn’t have put it better myself.

Incidentally, the Japanese word next to the time code in the corner of the screen is Kodansha, the name of a famous Japanese publishing company. I suppose it was filmed from a security camera in the office of their building.

Thanks for the link goes to Redlunatic.

Japan’s Self Defense Force on a PR Offensive

セイギノオマケ3
Some scenarios for the latest shooting game from Konami:

  • Terrorists have holed up in a building and threaten to detonate a nuclear weapon, and the only ones who can stop them are you and your fellow soldiers. Kill the terrorists, save the hostages and don’t hit civilians!
  • There’s a boat carrying drugs into the country. Stop the mafiosos and protect the citizenry from the corruption of narcotics!

    • Sounds like a pretty normal first level for an American SWAT simulation, right? Well, this game was not made for an American audience. “Heroes of Justice” is a simulation of Japan’s Self Defense Forces and is reminiscent of the similar “America’s Army“, a game funded by the US Army’s recruitment program.

    Despite its constitutional ban on the use of force to resolve conflict, Japan maintains the Self Defense Forces as a de facto military. Recent developments have accelerated Japan’s progression toward an official military and stronger defense policy.

    The SDF celebrated its 50th anniversary last year in quiet ceremonies that did not make the news in America but included appearances by PM Koizumi and calls for “a rethinking of Japan’s defense capabilities.”


    It is in such a spirit of revived military development that Toho is remaking the film “Warring States vs. SDF 1549” (Sengoku Jieitai 1549). If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if Oda Nobunaga fought the Japanese Self Defense Forces, here is your answer. Go to the site to watch a trailer that features modern soldiers being killed with arrows.

    These two releases are only the beginning of the SDF’s public relations assault. As Japan debates constitutional revision, its more conservative elements are effectively using pop culture as a promotional tool. Many Japanese, in fact, know little of the SDF or its role domestically and internationally. Placing it in the context of popular games and movies should lessen public opposition to making the SDF a legalized, regular army. Even the juxtaposition of the Warring States Period with the modern SDF will make the transition easier by drawing parallels to what Japanese people learn in school with a modern army. I’ll let you know when a subtitled torrent opens up.