Regulars

Letter from the Editor

From the Desk

Perspectives


Toppers

Top Ten Reasons to Love Taiwan
By Andrew Crosthwaite


Interview

Ultramarathon Man
By Matt Gibson


From the Road

Hellride to Heaven
By Teveli Gabor

Triumph
By David Alexander

Three Times on Two Wheels
By Chris Scott


Reflection
It's Something
By Kimberley Powell

The Homefront

Reaching the Peak
By Caroline Emmerson

Busted
By Anonymous

Conquering Fears
By Fabian Dearaujo


Gettin' It Done

How to Apply for a Permit to Climb Yushan
By Matt Gibson


Photofactual Essay
Protest
By Teveli Gabor and Cheng Kai-Chun

Contest

Triumph of Teaching
By Andrew Crosthwaite

A Small Teaching Victory
By Carey J. Broder

My Triumph
By Sam Sherry


Excerpt

To Squat or Not to Squat


Comic

Bonus Web Features

Gettin' It Done

How to Fish for Prawns (in Neihu)
By Dana Lee


Interview

Mark Lee: Foreign Affairs Officer
By David May


From the Desk

The fastest elevators in the world : Taipei 101's high speed lifts, which travel at 17m per second
9

The world's tallest building : Taipei 101 at 509m tall   18

The world's largest proposed building : Burj Dubai in Dubai, UAE, expected to be completed in 2008, will be 800m tall   18

Price of a new Triumph Rocket III motorcycle in Taiwan : NT$1,220,000   5

The size of the engine on this mad machine : 2294cc   5

The largest engine size for a motorcycle in Taiwan that can be legally driven without a special driver's license : 150cc

Rolling Stone magazine's opinion about Canadian 80's rock band Triumph according to one review : They were "mutant hoseheads"   1

The only homosexual comic book character with the ability to kill Superman : Triumph   2

His method : Draining all of the "solar energy" from Superman's cells   2

The reason Triumph's sexual orientation was never revealed in the comic : The writers "didn't have an appropriate storyline to deal sensitively with that issue"   2

The population of Triumph, Idaho, USA : approximately 350   6

The tourism slogan of Idaho, USA : "Great potatoes, tasty destinations"   6

Record recently attained by Claudio Paulo Pinto : best 'eye popper' in Brazil with a 7mm 'pop'. 7

Distance Pinto claims he can bulge his eyeballs out of their sockets : approximately 11.5mm   7

Current 'eyeball popping' world record : 11mm, held by Kim Goodman of Chicago, U.S.A.   7

The amount of money that Mark Giorgio chased over the edge of a bridge (he dropped it) in Palmetto, U.S.A. : $20   8

The distance he fell : 50ft into the Manatee River   8

Distance he swam to recover the bill : approximately 100 yards   8

His comment to the local newspaper about the incident : "I got my money back, hell yeah!"   8

World record for most kicks to one's own head in one minute : 42, held by Michael Lloyd of Midland, Texas, USA   9

World record for highest fall survived without a parachute : 10,160 meters, held by Vesna Vulovic 10

Name of a new energy drink manufactured by Redux Beverages : Cocaine

Amount of cocaine in the beverage : None

Amount of caffeine : 280 milligrams

Reaction of Dr. Charles O'Brien to the drink : "Just a bad idea and...a very bad name"

World Record for fastest time to drink one liter of beer : 1.3 seconds by Peter Dowdesell in Carlise, PA, USA   12

World Record for Farthest Spaghetti Nasal Ejection : 19cm held by Kevin Cole of Carlsbad, New Mexico, USA   13

Fastest text message ever : 160 character text in 43.24 seconds held by Kimberly Yeo of Singapore   14

The 160 character phrase used in most speed text messaging contests : "The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human." 14

Number of arithmetic world records broken by three Taiwanese siblings aged 8 to 13 years old in Kaohsiung in December, 2000 : 4   16

Length of time it took 13-year-old Wang Chia-lu to multiply two 8-digit figures correctly : 25.08 seconds   16

Length of time it took him to multiply two 13-digit figures correctly : 26.51 seconds   16

Length of time it took 12-year-old Wang Yi-hui to add two 100 single-digit numbers : 18.98 seconds   16

Length of time it took 8-year-old Wang Hui-yin to calculate the square root of a six-digit number : 10.48 seconds (more than 50 seconds faster than the previous record of 63.8 seconds)   16

 

Sources

1 Wikipedia -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_(band )

2 Wikipedia -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_%28comics%29

3 Goodcomics.com -- http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.co
m/2005/11/24/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-26

4 NY Times -- http://topics.nytimes.com/top
/reference/timestopics/people/s/
picabo
_street/index.html?s=oldest&

5 Triumph.co.uk -- http://www.triumphtaiwan.com
/06-bike/rocket-class.html

6 Open-site.org -- http://open-site.org/Regional/North_America/United_States/Idaho/

7 Yahoo! News -- http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/2006091
8/ap_on_fe_st/eye_popping_brazilian

8 AOL News -- http://news.aol.com/strange/story/_a/man-jumps-off-
bridge-after- 20-bill/n20060919235309990003

9 Wierdspot.com -- http://www.weirdspot.
com/index.php/weblog/C1/P8/

10 Wierdspot.com -- http://www.weirdspot.c
om/index.php/weblog/C1/P16/

11 AOL News -- http://articles.news.aol.com/business/_a
/the-ultimate-energy-drink-cocaine/20060919094109990001

12 Beerrecord.com -- http://www.beerrecord.com/

13 Guiness Book of World Records -- http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/content
_pages/record.asp?recordid=52781

14 - The Guardian Online http://www.guardian.co.uk/mobile
/article/0,2763,1249512,00.html

15 Guiness Book of World Records -- http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/content
_pages/record.asp?recordid=54654

16 Taiwan Government Information Office -- http://th.gio.gov.tw/show.cfm?news_id=1349

17 Newsfox.com-- http://www.newsfox.com/pte.mc?pte=041217019

18 About.com -- http://architecture.about.com/library/bltall.htm