Really amazing air show . Today is the last day.
The performances begin in the morning and end in the afternoon. Not one minute of rest throughout the day. It is truly a heaven for plane lovers.
Photo by me.
Location: Surfer Paradise, Queensland, Australia
Date: August 15, 2026
Really amazing air show . Today is the last day.
The performances begin in the morning and end in the afternoon. Not one minute of rest throughout the day. It is truly a heaven for plane lovers.
Photo by me.
The landscape on King Island is perfect. When the tide goes out, you can step onto the island. Not too many people on a working day.
The TTR challenge by Fang Bo while playing against Kanak really made me laugh. Some people calculated the height at which he tossed the ball; it was about 3 meters. And Fang Bo's expression was really funny 😂
Fang Bo's serve has an inward toss and was challenged by Kanak. So maybe his mentality during the competition needed to be adjusted. So he made the challenge, even though he knew Kanak's serve was 99.99% legal.
It is my first time studying at an Australian university. I just found that some lectures' pace moves faster than I expected. For example, there is one class where a professor teaches for 2 hours and covers about 100 pages of slides.
So it is very important to study by myself before attending the lecture. If I don't do that, it is impossible to keep up.
Also, taking notes directly on the slides file rather than in a blank notebook is important. This can increase efficiency significantly.
(English is not my native language. I wrote this deep-dive analysis in Chinese and translated it with Gemini, hope you guys enjoy the discussion! 😊)
In yesterday’s WTT (World Table Tennis) Yokohama Champions men’s and women’s singles finals, Japanese players Tomokazu Harimoto and Miwa Harimoto defeated South Korea’s Oh Junsung and China’s Chen Xingtong, respectively, to claim the titles.
During his run in this tournament, Tomokazu Harimoto also defeated Xiang Peng, one of Team China’s key players.
While the disappointing results can be partially attributed to the absence of Wang Chuqin and Lin Shidong, the two strongest players on the Chinese team, taking the titles would not have been easy even if they had played.
In the men’s singles final at the 2025 WTT Yokohama Champions, Tomokazu Harimoto defeated Wang Chuqin 4–2, ending an eight-match losing streak against him.
Meanwhile, Lin Shidong has repeatedly lost in past matches to several key foreign players competing in this tournament, including Tomokazu Harimoto, Dang Qiu, and Alexis Lebrun.
It is clear that at the 2026 WTT Champions Yokohama, Team China losing both the men’s and women’s singles titles and failing to place a single player in the men’s singles final is no longer an upset, but the inevitable outcome of the team’s declining competitiveness.
There is a strange phenomenon in WTT events. Sometimes the same foreign player, such as Tomokazu Harimoto, can suffer a crushing 0–4 defeat to Wang Chuqin in under half an hour, looking completely helpless. Yet at his home tournament in Yokohama, he can pull off a 4–2 victory.
Beyond psychological factors like playing on home turf, the root cause lies in the structure of WTT events. Due to the dense schedule and the high costs borne by players, including airfare and designated hotel accommodation, participating is expensive. Consequently, players do not give their all in Feeder or lower-tier events with fewer points and lower prize money, treating them mostly as opportunities to maintain match fitness.
However, when it comes to high-point Champions events, foreign associations almost always field their top players and enter the competition in peak condition. This makes these events the peak period for foreign players to explode with top performance.
Analyzing the 2026 WTT Yokohama Champions from a technical and tactical standpoint, it is easy to see that table tennis today increasingly emphasizes high-quality forehand and backhand rallies in open, mid-to-far-table play, rather than relying on spin to win as in the past. The match between Tomokazu Harimoto and Sora Matsushima, as well as the match between Miwa Harimoto and Chen Xingtong, demonstrated this perfectly.
In the past, Team China held an edge over foreign opponents in footwork adjustments during rallies, allowing Chinese players to secure the point most times a rally ensued. However, in this match between Miwa Harimoto and Chen Xingtong, Chen Xingtong unexpectedly failed to match Miwa Harimoto in backhand exchanges and lost points after Harimoto initiated line changes first during rallies. This indicates that Team China’s technological generational advantage no longer exists.
Regarding equipment, Chinese players still widely use tacky Hurricane rubbers on their forehands. While this rubber generates strong spin on incoming balls, its absolute power in mid-to-far-table rallies falls short compared to tensor rubbers.
For instance, after Fan Zhendong joined the Bundesliga, fans noticed he switched his forehand rubber to D09C. Although changing rubbers brought growing pains — taking time to adapt, pushes popping up high, loops frequently hitting the net, and even losing a few matches — once adapted, his forehand loop shot speeds became faster, allowing him to hold his ground against European players accustomed to wide-open, powerful play.
The issues within Team China’s training system cannot be ignored either. For a long time, Team China’s advantage was built on targeting smaller, niche, and less commercialized events, pouring resources into specialized training to achieve an overwhelming superiority over foreign athletes.
In table tennis, the most typical example is Team China maintaining a large number of non-mainstream players to specifically mimic the playing styles of foreign athletes, helping key players raise their win rates against foreign opponents.
However, table tennis is no longer the obscure sport it once was. Many countries have followed China’s lead by establishing state-coordinated support to invest more training resources into top athletes. As a result, the gap between both sides continues to narrow.
Furthermore, restricted by a standardized cultivation strategy, the playing styles of Team China’s players have become increasingly homogenized, especially among younger athletes. Almost all share similar service-and-attack routines, reverse backhand flicks, and forehand-backhand rally patterns, lacking the diverse and distinct playing styles seen among foreign athletes.
Consequently, once foreign players thoroughly study and defeat one key player, they can apply those lessons broadly, knowing how to tackle other Chinese players as well.
For Chinese players, the Chinese Table Tennis Super League should have served as a testing ground to face diverse foreign playing styles. However, the current league schedule is short and foreign players are banned from participating, denying young players the opportunity to accumulate valuable practical experience.
As Fan Zhendong was forced out of the world rankings and joined the Bundesliga, Team China lost a Grand Slam athlete within its ranks who served as a high-quality sparring partner, making it difficult to maintain its technical and tactical lead.
Conversely, Fan Zhendong’s arrival has provided European players in the Bundesliga with numerous high-level competitive opportunities. In competitive sports, techniques can only improve through continuous confrontation against stronger opponents.
As Chinese fans, we naturally hope to see Team China win every match. But as table tennis enthusiasts, we are even more delighted to see a diverse range of playing styles across the international table tennis scene, with every match filled with suspense.
Spotted at Brisbane Botanic Gardens. These guys don't just look intense, their call is unreal. First time hearing a cockatoo scream at full volume — nearly jumped out of my skin.
Photo taken by me
Spotted at Brisbane Botanic Gardens. These guys don't just look intense, their call is unreal. First time hearing a cockatoo scream at full volume — nearly jumped out of my skin.
Spotted at Brisbane Botanic Gardens. These guys don't just look intense, their call is unreal. First time hearing a cockatoo scream at full volume — nearly jumped out of my skin.
These Welcome Swallows often fly around the ferry dock. Generally speaking, they aren't afraid of people, but if you get too close, they will just suddenly fly away.
On the morning of July 25, SpaceX conducted the 13th test flight of Starship.
The biggest highlight this time was that the upper stage did not self-destruct after splashdown for the first time; instead of remaining "Starship," it truly became a "ship" floating on the ocean surface. Comparing the heat shield erosion across previous tests, the external damage has gradually lessened, demonstrating clear technical progress by SpaceX.
The test flight also carried 20 actual V3 Starlink payloads for the first time, rather than dummy satellites. However, because Starship only executed a suborbital flight during the test, the satellites' onboard propulsion was only sufficient for minor orbital adjustments and lacked the capability to reach orbit on their own, resulting in all satellites re-entering the atmosphere and self-destructing.
Super Heavy booster recovery remains a major bottleneck. During the first boostback burn at high altitude, all 33 engines ignited normally, but they shut down prematurely. During the second landing burn near sea level, several engines failed to ignite, causing the Super Heavy booster to slam hard onto the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.
Moving forward, SpaceX will need to keep improving the success rate of the first-stage rocket recovery. Only by doing so can they drive rocket launch costs down to the absolute minimum.
First time visiting Dreamworld! It's a huge park that combines traditional amusement rides with a native Australian zoo.
I spent most of my day exploring the animal areas—there’s just so much to see. No wonder they offer night passes; if you want to fully experience both the rides and the wildlife, you definitely need a full day from morning till evening.
lens: Tamron 50-300mm
First time visiting Dreamworld! It's a huge park that combines traditional amusement rides with a native Australian zoo.
I spent most of my day exploring the animal areas—there’s just so much to see. No wonder they offer night passes; if you want to fully experience both the rides and the wildlife, you definitely need a full day from morning till evening.
The best part of a sunrise isn't when the sun appears, but the blue hour right before.
Spotted a fun setup at one of the UQ orientation booths featuring a koala, an echidna, a python, and a small crocodile.
The Koala: Absolutely adorable. Their entire daily schedule consists of munching through eucalyptus leaves at lightning speed—reminiscent of Flash the Sloth from Zootopia—and then immediately passing out on a tree branch.
The Echidna: Along with the platypus, echidnas are the only two surviving monotremes on Earth. They are mammals that lay eggs and have a pouch. While their quills look like a hedgehog's, they actually aren't that sharp if you stroke them in the direction they grow.
The Crocodile & Python: Their skin was surprisingly smooth to the touch, probably because these two were still pretty young.
Being cold-blooded, they seemed super chill and barely moved when brought out into the sun from the shade, letting everyone pet them. But after baking in the sun for a few minutes, their energy levels started loading up.
As a warm-blooded mammal, I sometimes envy cold-blooded animals for being able to eat one meal and call it a month. But then again, they probably envy our ability to get up and move around whenever we want, regardless of the temperature.
It reminds me of how lions in Africa will sometimes steal a crocodile's prey right in front of its face early in the morning. The poor croc hasn't soaked up enough sunlight to charge its battery yet, so it just has to sit there helplessly and watch its breakfast walk away.
Spotted a fun setup at one of the UQ orientation booths featuring a koala, an echidna, a python, and a small crocodile.
The Koala: Absolutely adorable. Their entire daily schedule consists of munching through eucalyptus leaves at lightning speed—reminiscent of Flash the Sloth from Zootopia—and then immediately passing out on a tree branch.
The Echidna: Along with the platypus, echidnas are the only two surviving monotremes on Earth. They are mammals that lay eggs and have a pouch. While their quills look like a hedgehog's, they actually aren't that sharp if you stroke them in the direction they grow.
The Crocodile & Python: Their skin was surprisingly smooth to the touch, probably because these two were still pretty young.
Being cold-blooded, they seemed super chill and barely moved when brought out into the sun from the shade, letting everyone pet them. But after baking in the sun for a few minutes, their energy levels started loading up.
As a warm-blooded mammal, I sometimes envy cold-blooded animals for being able to eat one meal and call it a month. But then again, they probably envy our ability to get up and move around whenever we want, regardless of the temperature.
It reminds me of how lions in Africa will sometimes steal a crocodile's prey right in front of its face early in the morning. The poor croc hasn't soaked up enough sunlight to charge its battery yet, so it just has to sit there helplessly and watch its breakfast walk away.
Apparently, signs mean nothing to them. Guess they never learned how to read.
*This is my own original photo.
Apparently, signs mean nothing to them. Guess they never learned how to read.
