Radio Taiwan International Chatroom

This is a resource link for anyone looking for English news sources in Taiwan. Radio Taiwan International has resources that are often only found in Chinese, and this blog has links to listening to RTI's Chatroom program, as well as major happenings around Taiwan.

For example, be sure to check out the RTI Chatroom Art Taipei 2008 post for information on the exhibit at the Taipei World Trade Center this weekend.

Thanks to the crew over at RTI for their efforts on this useful resource!

Taoist Dance

I have lots of photographs from Taoist dance performances from the troupe at the temple (松山慈惠堂) we attend regularly. The group of women perform all over Taiwan (and internationally), and so we often have karaoke bus rides down South with stops at large vegetarian mess halls and host temples on the weekends.

There should be a real post to do it justice, but here's a shot from a recent performance.

Hover Tool

I'm testing out a tool (stolen from an incoming Kaohsiung Fulbright English teacher's blog) that allows you to hover over certain text for a more in depth explanation. This is useful for Chinese characters or editorial comments without footnotes.

Let's try it: 試試看


So the above should read: 試試看, and then you hover over it to see "give it a try it".

Does it work?

Brilliant! All the computer whizzes out there will never know the joys of the computer un-savvy discovering primitive tools like "hover". I suppose I'm a far cry ahead of the must be daft about the average American's lifestyle Republican nominee, only just now starting to read staff-provided emails.

“We’re not asking for a president to answer his own e-mail,” said Paul Saffo, a Silicon Valley futurist who teaches at Stanford. “We’re asking for a president who understands the context of what e-mail means.”

The “user experience,” Mr. Saffo said, brings with it an implicit understanding of how the country lives, and where it might be heading. As Mr. McCain would lack this, he would also be deficient in this broader appreciation for how technology affects lives.

And this is the defense:

“You don’t actually have to use a computer to understand how it shapes the country,” said Mark Soohoo, a McCain aide for online matters, at a conference on politics and technology. “You actually do,” interrupted Tracy Russo, a former blogger for John Edwards.