An aboriginal dance performance (video) in Hualian, during my Taiwan visit in late April. The video quality is rather poor because I was recording using a digital camera and not a viewcam, but it should be pretty cool if you have not witnessed similar stuff before…
There are about a dozen aboriginal tribes recognised in Taiwan, not sure which particular tribal dance it was.
The Taiwanese aborigines’ culture actually shares similarities with the aborigines in South East Asia, including my homeland Malaysia. They are all considered as Austronesian people who shared the same ancestors some thousands of years ago.
In fact, the bamboo-stick-dance in the video can be seen in Philippines and Malaysia-Borneo as well. It’s a small world after all :)
Last Thursday (May 22) a record 86 mountaineers reached the 8,848m (29,029ft) summit of the world’s highest mountain. Among them is 47-year-old Appa Sherpa, who broke his own record for the most ascents after climbing the mountain for the 18th time. [BBC]
Bahadur Sherchan, a 76-year-old Nepalese man, has become the oldest person to conquer the mountain. He broke the record on Sunday (May 25) previously held by Japanese Katsusuke Yanagisawa, who climbed the mountain at age of 71 in May 2007.
The youngest Everest conqueror is Ming Kipa Sherpa who made it to the top in May 2003 when she was 15. Yes, a SHE. [Guardian]
Today (May 29) is the 55th anniversary of the first successful ascent to Everest summit. New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay were the first to reach the peak in 1953.
NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander has successfully landed on Mars on May 25 in an arctic region called Vastitas Borealis.
Below is an approximate-colour image taken shortly after landing by the spacecraft’s Surface Stereo Imager, which shows a polygonal pattern in the ground, similar in appearance to icy ground in the arctic regions of earth.
Image Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona
The mission aims to study the geologic history of water, the key to unlocking the story of past climate change; and to search for evidence of a habitable zone that may exist in the ice-soil boundary. Updates about the mission is available on NASA’s website.
A judge has provoked controversy in Australia by ruling that a 12-year-old girl could begin the first phase of a sex change.
The unnamed girl has begun hormone treatment to block puberty after a judge accepted an application from her mother for her to begin to reassign her gender.
A family court judgment said it was important to act quickly to prevent the onset of puberty as the girl dreaded the prospect of menstruation and developing breasts, and had threatened self-harm.
Cisingtan (literally ‘Seven Star Lake’ in Chinese) is a beautiful coastline near the city of Hualian in eastern Taiwan. It got its name from the seven swamps that were scattered like fallen stars throughout the wetland that once covered the area.
What remained these days is just a nice beach with a lovely sea view.
I am not sure if Sudan is too poor to offer their athletes a pair of running shoes, or that the lady preferred to run in bare feet instead… for me it’s an amazing yet saddening scene.
Hope to see Amna in the Beijing Olympic, I’ll be cheering for her.
Japanese TV presenter Ako Kawada committed suicide by inhaling a lethal amount of toxic carbon monoxide gas.
The 29-year-old freelance presenter’s body was found in a car belonging to her talent agency in Tokyo’s Minato-ku on Monday morning. Traces of burned charcoal were also found in the vehicle.
A suicide note addressed to the TV personality’s parents was found on the dashboard of the car, but she didn’t mention what had been worrying her enough to take her own life.
She had however posted a message on her blog recently saying how she felt mentally and physically fatigued. [Mainichi]
One of the saddest things in life is when people who wanted to live are not given the chances while people who have to opportunity to enjoy their life have decided to end theirs.
Condolences to her parents. Rest in peace Ako, regardless.
