Because we're generous, let's file this under "poor planning." Three days ago, a 46-year-old man in Anhui province, surnamed Han, decided to climb a 30-meter-high electricity pylon to steal eggs out of a bird's nest. More than halfway up, it seems he lost his nerve, and like a cat stuck in a tree, required the assistance of rescue workers. The electricity flow to the tower had to be shut off, and an air cushion set up underneath the man. Can you think of anything he could have said to save face once he got down? Brownie points to anyone who comes up with something passable. You can't use "fugue state" -- Walter White's already used that one. Read more »
By Jim Fields New arrivals to Beijing often revel in the sheer chaos of the city. Cars, bikes, and motorized tricycles compete for inches of pavement (sometimes resulting in ungodly traffic jams). Children drop trou and relieve themselves among dining patrons at restaurants. And, of course, as any foreigner in China will tell you, there are no open container... Read more »Read more »
There really isn't any info about this video except the timestamp in the dashboard cam (September 1, around noon), and the car that flips over appears to be a Honda. The 56.com video (embedded after the jump, and in higher quality than the YouTube embed) delights in that fact. "Tailgating Japanese car causes rollover accident," reads the title. If that was a Chinese-manufactured car, say a BYD, it totally wouldn't have flipped, or exploded. Read more »
Jeremy Lin was in Taiwan on Saturday for the debut of his first TV commercial, a low-budget production (hey, gotta start somewhere) in which he delivers this line:
“No one expected me to be a starter, take game winning shots, or even play in this league. Well, I’m not here to live up to anyone’s expectations, I’m here to live up to mine.” Read more »
If you're aiming to fake an injury by jumping in front of a car, make sure the target vehicle doesn't employ a dashboard cam. In Kaohsiung, Taiwan on Friday, a pedestrian flung himself -- in slow motion -- onto the hood of a car, then rolled off and laid on the ground waiting for someone to hand him a bag of gold. The car owner stood over him and, unamused, said, "Don't you know I'm a cop?" We don't know whether he actually was one or not, but the driver then appears to point at his dashboard camera, which has recorded all this for posterity and the Internet. Ah, the Internet. Thank goodness for it. And this. And dashboard cams. Read more »
Three foreigners walked into a cell phone store in Anyang, Henan province around 5 pm on August 29, described by one store employee in the video as having "really high noses" and "yellow eyes" (not a translation mistake -- we have no idea what she means). Apparently one of them took out loose bills and asked to exchange for a one-hundred-yuan note. He insisted -- with gestures and such, because he either didn't know or pretended not to know Chinese -- the cashier give him a bill that had "two S'es" on it. He kept writing the letter S. Read more »
Two exhibitions opened in Beijing this weekend, both small yet worthier of a visit than many of the major ones held at, for example, the National Museum of China (unless you have a pressing interest in Louis Vuitton luggage).
Saturday saw the launch of “Art, Design, Culture: The History of Penguin by Design,” first exhibited at London’s V&A. It recounts the history of the paperback (or Penguin’s at least), which was conceived by Allen Lane in the 1930s as a way to popularize books and learning. Read more »
In the predawn hours of March 18, a black Ferrari 458 Spider carrying three passengers crashed into a metal guardrail under Baofusi Bridge on Fourth Ring Road. The driver, a male in his 20s, died at the scene. Two other passengers somehow survived. The driver was identified only by his surname — Jia. It’s a... Read more »Read more »
