Well, roasted, actually..
I was driving home from work one day (March 23, 2007 - yeah, I’m catching up..) from Fengshan City, just east of Kaohsiung on Jiouru Rd, a rather large 4 lane road in the middle of the city with NO farms anywhere nearby, so hearing chickens clucking was more than a bit odd and out of place. The fact that the intermittent sound of the chickens stayed ahead of me was also strange (I had originally assumed they were along the side of the road), until I realized that some farmer must be taking his chickens to market somewhere and I just hadn’t met up with the truck yet.
The biggest surprise came when I actually caught up to the chickens:
Roasted chicken, Taiwan style!
If you look very closely, you can see smoke coming from the chickens nearest the tailpipe, on the right (click the picture to view it full-size). I always knew they did something special to give Asian food that distinctive flavor..
I can’t exactly tell, but I think there are around 12 chickens hanging from the back of the scooter. Plus, the woman had a large laundry basket of chickens between her legs with five or six birds, and the basket on the front of the scooter had two or three more. I think it’s safe to say there are around 20 chickens on this scooter.. I’ve definitely witnessed some crazy things in traffic here, but this is definitely one of the most unique!
Typhoon Krosa spent the weekend beating up on Taiwan, paying special attention to the northern half, where I live. Sustained winds of 185km/h (115mph) caused extensive damage to trees and street signs, and torrential rains have spawned flooding and mudslides. Here’s a detailed report from the Taipei Times.
Krosa thankfully has now turned it’s attention to China.
Here are some pictures of the damage in Hsinchu (click the pictures or the captions for a larger version):
Overturned scooters
Downed phone cable, outside the front door to my church.
Krosa vs tree & car. Krosa = 2, Tree & Car = 0
Another view of the uprooted tree and car. This is less than 200 meters from my house.
Those of you who read this (there are at least one or two of you, right?), probably know that I like music and sound mixing (sound engineering).. Here are a few very funny links from a church sound engineering mailing list I’m on. If you’re interested, the website is http://www.churchsoundcheck.com/.
Everything you were taught about science & physics apparently becomes invalid the moment you step into a church. These are hysterical. Number 6 is the best, in my opinion.
Here’s a world record definitely NOT worth breaking! The deciBel is a ratio measurement for sound pressure change (change in volume). For you fellow nerds, Wikipedia has a more in-depth write-up, with formulas and everything! You’re happy now, aren’t you??
In layman’s terms, since the decibel (dB) scale is not straight, but logarithmic, an addition of 6dB (for example, increasing the volume from 80dB to 86dB) is roughly a doubling in perceived volume!! Generally speaking, most people consider ~80dB to be a comfortable listening volume during a concert. You would experience 100dB+ at a very loud rock concert. Unless you’re already deaf, sustained unprotected exposure to that kind of volume will cause hearing loss (hearing loss is irreversible!) and ringing in your ears, called tinnitus. The louder the sound, the less exposure time your ears can handle before you experience permanent damage.
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