As people across the globe tremble in anticipation of next week’s supposed Mayan-predicted apocalypse, one Chinese villager says he may have just what humanity needs: tsunami-proof survival pods.
Camouflage-clad farmer and furniture maker Liu Qiyuan, 45, inspected his latest creation: A sphere several meters tall he calls “Noah’s Ark,” which is designed to withstand towering tsunamis and devastating earthquakes.
“The pod won’t have any problems even if there are 1,000m high waves ... it’s like a ping-pong ball, its skin may be thin, but it can withstand a lot of pressure,” he told reporters at his workshop in Qiantun, an hour from Beijing.
Photo: AFP
Liu’s seven completed or under construction pods are made using a fiberglass casing over a steel frame and have cost him 300,000 yuan (US$48,000) each, he said. The pods are equipped with oxygen tanks, food and water, as well as seat belts — essential for staying safe in storms, Liu said, strapping himself into position before his assistants shook the sphere vigorously from outside.
“The pods are designed to carry 14 people at a time, but it’s possible for 30 people to survive inside for at least two months,” he said.
Their insulation was such that “a person could live for four months in the pod at the North or South Pole without freezing, or even feeling slightly cold,” Liu added.
One of the spheres even boasts the domestic comforts of a table, bed and flowery wallpaper.
Liu said he came up with the design after watching the 2009 Hollywood disaster film 2012, which is inspired by the expiry on Dec. 21 of the Mayan Long Count, a more than 5,125-year-long calendar used by the ancient Central American civilization.
Apocalyptic predictions have provoked widespread fears among believers, including in China, where two rural counties sold out of candles this month after a panic that three days of darkness would begin on Dec. 21, Xinhua news agency reported.
A businessman in Zhejiang Province has received 21 orders for bright yellow doomsday survival pods for 5 million yuan each, the state-run China Daily reported.
A man from China’s northwestern province of Xinjiang told reporters that he has invested all his savings, approximately US$160,000, to build a survival ark, fearing that his home will be engulfed in a doomsday flood.
Chinese authorities have sought to reassure citizens, with Beijing’s police force publishing an online notice on Wednesday stating that “the so-called end of the world is a rumor” and advising citizens to use “scientific concepts.”
Liu first conceived of spherical houses to withstand earthquakes, but switched his focus to survival technology after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which claimed nearly one-quarter of a million lives.
Liu, who is married and has a daughter, said many were skeptical when he first outlined his plans and he has not sold any of the pods, and is worried about repaying loans he took to fund his workshop.
“I worked for many years without saving much money ... I invested most of my money in the pods, because it’s worth it, it’s about saving lives,” he said.
Keen to demonstrate the design’s strength, he used a step-ladder to clamber inside one pod before an assistant reversed a pick-up truck into it, inflicting only a minor scratch on its surface.
Peeking out of the hatch, he grinned triumphantly.
“No problem,” he said. “I didn’t feel a thing.”
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
Two former Chilean ministers are among four candidates competing this weekend for the presidential nomination of the left ahead of November elections dominated by rising levels of violent crime. More than 15 million voters are eligible to choose today between former minister of labor Jeannette Jara, former minister of the interior Carolina Toha and two members of parliament, Gonzalo Winter and Jaime Mulet, to represent the left against a resurgent right. The primary is open to members of the parties within Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s ruling left-wing coalition and other voters who are not affiliated with specific parties. A recent poll by the
TENSIONS HIGH: For more than half a year, students have organized protests around the country, while the Serbian presaident said they are part of a foreign plot About 140,000 protesters rallied in Belgrade, the largest turnout over the past few months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government to call early elections. The rally was one of the largest in more than half a year student-led actions, which began in November last year after the roof of a train station collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people — a tragedy widely blamed on entrenched corruption. On Saturday, a sea of protesters filled Belgrade’s largest square and poured into several surrounding streets. The independent protest monitor Archive of Public Gatherings estimated the
Irish-language rap group Kneecap on Saturday gave an impassioned performance for tens of thousands of fans at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the UK’s Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November last year. The rapper, who was charged under the anglicized version of his name, Liam O’Hanna, is on unconditional bail before a further court hearing in August. “Glastonbury,