There is a TV show here in Japan dedicated to answering just that question.  Well sort of…

The show “世界で誰も見たことない対決ショー　ほこxたて” (“The Showdowns that no one in the world has ever seen before Show! Spear x Shield”) is based on a Japanese word 矛盾 which literally means “spear” and “shield”, but together means contradiction.  There is a proverbial example of the law of non-contradiction (see the title) in Japanese about a spear that can penetrate anything meeting a shield that can’t be penetrated.

But this TV show takes things purported to be un-somethingable and sees if they really are.  Last night was an unbreakable chain for securing expensive motor-bikes vs a cut anything industrial set of pneumatic shears (attached to a massive digger).  Of course the unbreakable chain snapped like a twig.  But to it’s credit it was it’s second appearance having survived a pile driver, “cut-anything saw” and even mining explosives in a previous show.

Other competitors have been a man who can move so slowly and un-human-like that a motion sensor system that can detect any human movement can’t detect him.  It did.  His nose twitched, and you can see it at the bottom of this post.  Another was a type of metal so hard no drill can drill a hole in it against a drill that can drill a hole in anything, a second outing for the metal block.  It remained hole-free and the drill company had a bit of a repair bill for a rather expensive, burned out drill.

Last week was an international outing with Blendtec of willitblend.com fame being pitted against an “unblendable” dried fish fillet (鰹節).  The blender had one minute to blend the fish to powder, but didn’t make it, so that is one you won’t see on their website!

As if it couldn’t get any better they have a panel of comedians and entertainers who vote each week on who they think will win, then in true Japanese TV style you can watch their faces for reaction while you watch the rest of the show, just in case you can’t tell which bits are funny or interesting by yourself.  Then there are the pundits, two “experts” who make calls based on their scientific backgrounds.  One of these is a professor who’s scientific understanding has lead him to get every one wrong so far this series (that’s 7 in a row as of yesterday’s show).

The whole thing makes for a great bit of TV and for an interesting cultural experience, which you too can enjoy with this clip!  The slow moving guy is actually pretty incredible!

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