A woman was attacked by a polar bear at Berlin Zoo on Saturday after jumping into the enclosure area; she was rescued and survived with a few (probably really huge) bite marks. Video below, view at your own discretion…
It’s unsure why she jumped (certainly not accidental); it’s beyond stupidity. She’s lucky though, that the bears have lost some predator instinct after years in enclosure.
Rafflesia is the world’s largest flower, found naturally in South East Asia. There are 27 species of Rafflesia; the largest is Rafflesia arnoldii, which could grow over 100cm in diameter and 10kg in weigh [wiki]
Rafflesia is infamous for its rotten-meat like smell; but I’ve seen the flower twice on different occasions and never smelled anything that resembled the fact.
Sharing a few Rafflesia photos from Poring in Kinabalu National Park during my Sabah trip in March 2009; the bloomed Rafflesia I saw was about 60-70cm in diameter…
Delegates from a Japanese association has made their 24th annual visit (on Mar 31) to the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall for their tree planting project as an apologetic gesture for the Nanking Massacre.
The Chinese claims that 300,000 civilians and unarmed soldiers were brutally killed by the Imperial Japanese Army during the confrontation in 1937.
The association started planting trees around the memorial in 1986; and over 1000 delegates (including some ex-soldiers) have visited the place since then, with some 60,000 trees being planted in the area [image from NJ1937 (Cn)]
Besides being apologetic, the association also hopes to spread their anti-war message and to teach younger Japanese generations about the part of war history that are often neglected (sometime twisted) in Japanese text book.
Nanking Massacre will always be a pain for the Chinese; I am not suggesting that they should forget or forgive the Japanese for what they did, it’s out of my business. I hope that the Chinese could be reminded though, that there are at least some Japanese people that are working to amend the damages from their past.
After a sensational performance in February’s 4CC, Korean figure skater Kim Yuna has set another new record in the ISU World Figure Skating Championships over the weekend at Los Angeles and won the competition by a huge margin.
Kim broke her own record in the women’s short program with 76.12 points in the short program (video), and took the gold medal with a total of a record 207.71 points… the first woman to surpass 200 since the new scoring system was adapted in 2005.
The 2nd Falconry Festival was held on March 21st at a village in Akqi County, Xinjiang, China. Hundred of falcon tamers, mainly Kyrgyz people, performed various demonstrations during the event.
Falconry (hunting with eagles/falcons) has a long history in the region; Kyrgyz nomads have been hunting with golden eagles for thousand of years. The eagles are known as Berkut in local language, and the activity is called Berkutchi.
Japanese and Korean netizens are on war of words following allegations that Japanese figure skaters had repeatedly impeded Korean figure skater Kim Yuna’s warm ups before competitions.
The debate started on March 14th following a SBS (Korean Tv) report which indicated that Kim was obstructed by Japanese skaters during 4CC in February. English subbed video of the SBS news below…
To be frank the interview was ambiguous… we can’t be sure if Kim was implicating anything; and it was SBS that directly linked the Japanese skaters into the saga.
Regardless, damage has already been done; Japanese media has picked up on the news and retaliated on the matter… followed by battle of words between netizens.
Kim and Japan’s Mao Asada are hot favourites to win the gold at Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics; the duo are set to compete for the 2009 ISU World Figure Skating Championships in Los Angeles next week.
Hina Matsuri (雛祭り – doll festival), or Girls’ Day is a traditional Japanese festival held on March 3rd annually to celebrate the girls’ healthy growth.
A beautiful video by Myles (a British traveller) on Tokyo Metropolis, with a blend of traditional Japanese lifestyle and modern pop culture. Awesome choice of soundtrack, “I am Not Zen” by Liverpool band Ambulance…
