Climate change threatens Africa
Climate change in Africa gave rise to modern humans. Now experts fear that global warming linked to carbon emissions will have its worst impact on
humanity's cradle. "Africa is the most vulnerable continent to climate change," said Jennifer Morgan, director of the Global Climate Change Programme at conservation group World Wildlife Fund.
Bird flu found in Japanese chicken
A type of bird flu virus has been detected at a chicken farm in eastern Japan where hundreds of fowl died earlier this year, a Japanese Farm Ministry spokesman said on Sunday. The virus that was detected was a "weak" form of bird flu, the spokesman said. Kyodo news agency said the strain identified was H5N2, which is less virulent to the H5N1 strain found in
previous avian flu outbreaks in Japan.
Rwanda names baby gorillas
Rwanda held a traditional naming ceremony for some of its rare mountain gorillas on Saturday in an effort to attract tourism and help to preserve one of the world's most endangered species. Only about 700 mountain gorillas are left in the world. About half live in the lush volcanic mountains straddling the borders of Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda -- an area riddled by war.
Machines mimic life in Chicago
Meet the robot lobster and the android that not only smiles, frowns and blinks but also recognizes people and talks back. They're two of the spookier entries at Wired magazine's annual NextFest, the high-tech carnival at a Chicago convention hall this weekend showcasing futuristic, sometimes uncannily lifelike technology.
NASA proceeds with shuttle plans
NASA is proceeding with plans to launch Discovery in July on the first shuttle mission since the Columbia accident after examining the risk that falling ice could damage the spacecraft, agency officials said on Friday. "I believe our concerns are put to bed and we're ready to go fly," said John Muratore, manager of the space-shuttle engineering and integration office.
Scientists search for probe
US and Russian scientists were looking at launch data on Cosmos 1, the world's first solar-powered spacecraft, keeping up hopes that they might find the missing probe. A submarine-fired Russian rocket that was supposed to lift Cosmos 1 into orbit is believed to have malfunctioned after blastoff, but the fate of the space probe itself was unknown.
South Korean stem-cell researcher honored
The South Korean government named cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-suk as the nation's ``top scientist,'' an honor that will grant him as much as 3 billion won (US$3 million) in annual funding for five years. Last month, Hwang and his colleagues at Seoul National University created the first embryonic stem cells that genetically match injured or sick patients -- a major step in the quest to grow replacement tissues to treat diseases. A year ago, Hwang's team created the world's first cloned human embryos.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby