Best Blogs Asia Directory

Chomsky’s Appeal: Speaking Scientifically to the Power of Truth

By DC Rapier for The Wild East Magazine

It is often said that Noam Chomsky, emeritus professor of MIT’s Institute of Linguistics and Philosophy, ‘speaks truth to power’, meaning he has the courage (or temerity, depending on one’s point of view) to challenge the powers-that-be with straight talk. He himself contends that the label, though succinct as a slogan, is neither appropriate nor accurate.

In an interview with David Tresilian in Paris for the Egyptian newspaper, Al-Ahram Chomsky stated,
”First of all, you don’t have to speak truth to power, because they know it already. And secondly, you… Read more…

Taiwan tries to untangle mangled (but fun) Chinglish

By Dan Bloom, The Wild East

Taiwan’s Commission for the Management of Language Use’s mission is to get rid of Chinglish, which irks fans of the island nation’s linguistic maladaptations

For English speakers with subpar Mandarin Chinese language skills, daily life in Taiwan offers a confounding array of choices. At banks, there are machines for “cash withdrawing” and “cash recycling.” The menus of local restaurants might present such delectables as “fried enema,” “monolithic tree mushroom stem squid” and a mysterious thirst-quencher known as “The Jew’s Ear Juice.”

Those who have had a bit too much monolithic tree mushroom stem squid… Read more…

The Wild East in 3D

By Phillip Charlier

Following a link from the comment section of One Taiwanese would Kiss all of Paris to One Inch Punch I was mesmerized by these 3D images made by taking each frame of a stereoview photograph and turning them into an animated gif.

These pieces show that great things can happen when we digitize artefacts. The original photographs were taken by T. Enami, known as ‘Japan’s Enigmatic Photographer of the Meiji and Taisho Eras‘.

You can see more in a larger size at this flicker stream.

Stereoscopy was invented as early as… Read more…