Jaroslav Flegr is no kook. And yet, for years, he suspected his mind had been taken over by parasites that had invaded his brain. So the prolific biologist took his science-fiction hunch into the lab. What he’s now discovering will startle you. Could tiny organisms carried by house cats be creeping into our brains, causing everything from car wrecks to schizophrenia?
For decades, Robert Gray has been trying to duplicate the most surprising and still-unexplained observation in the history of the search for extraterrestrial life.
Wednesday, my boss calls me into his office. He pours me a glass of tea and tells me to play pachinko for him. He’s a pachinko junkie, my boss. He buys all the magazines, gets the daily updates on his mobile phones, surfs the net for the insider tips and hackers’ hints.
“I’ve been studying the form of this one machine for a month,” he says. “It hasn’t paid out in all that time and tomorrow it’s ripe. It’s ready to drop. I’m sad to say that tomorrow I have to go to Kyushu on business. You’ll be playing it for me.”
Celebrated on the 15th day of the first month in the lunar calendar, the Lantern Festival, also known as Shang Yuan Festival, is regarded as one of the most important and romantic festivals in Taiwan.
During the festival decorative lanterns depicting birds, beasts and historical figures are carried by children and adorn temples as well as being released into the sky.
This year being Year of the Dragon in the Chinese calendar, a massive 60-foot paper dragon was displayed in Taipei's Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall and the City Hall Square, attracting thousands of visitors.